Category Archives: Fam Jams

CHRISTMAS!

Posted on December 28, 2012 | 8 Comments

Welp, it’s been four days since Christmas and I have emerged from my food coma and I am ready to talk about it.

I have to just take a minute and say how much I love Christmas on Facebook. I love everyone’s photos of their family and friends all merry in their Santa hats and reindeer antlers and ugly sweaters and general holiday attire. Looking at them just makes me feel happy. So if you are my Facebook friend and you have been posting photos and they are in my news feed, well I am creeping them.

abd-154

I am a creeper just like that cat.

My family always does the Christmas thing on Christmas Eve, so on Monday I headed to my dad and stepmom Mona’s for our fam jam. Also in attendance was my stepbrother Rusty, his girlfriend Leslie, and my stepmom’s mother Velta (who is hilarious and has a really heavy Latvian accent and pretty much everything she says makes me laugh hard).

Sadly my Nana couldn’t make it. She is doing well, but big outings like this are sometimes a bit too much for her. It is okay though, my Dad and I went to see her on Saturday for a little Christmas celebration beforehand.

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She is always so happy! She just kills me with her cuteness.

Anyway, my parents pets were all festive for the occasion…

tweedy

Tweedy is sporting the lion haircut like a rock star.

mojo

I can never get a picture of Mojo (the dog) actually looking at the camera because all he cares about is food (maybe he reminds you of someone…) so he is always just looking at where the food is. It’s all he is after, all the time. Perhaps I should dangle bacon in front of my face next time. That will probably get his attention.

It needs to be said that there are few things in life I love more than a beautifully set Christmas dinner table.

set-table

But I can think of one thing, and that is the CHRISTMAS DINNER!

christmas-dinner

Ahh I wait all year for this. Deliciousness from left: stuffing, mashed potatoes (obviously with a gravy volcano, because that is the proper way to do mashed potatoes), veggies, squash, cabbage roll (a tradition!), ham, and turkey. Yes, yes and yes.

My family always does the present thing after dinner, and then dessert after presents. So I have time to digest for a bit before tackling this:

dessert

That cake was so amazingly delicious. It was a strawberry cake, and typically I do not like fruity cake (vanilla with buttercream icing all the way), but that cake was seriously good. I may have to rethink my future cake choices.

And of course there were presents!

tree

I got a pretty good haul this year. Probably my favourite was a little trinket I can attach to my purse that is actually a sneaky alarm when pulled. My dad and Mona worry about me walking around at night in the city (not that I just wander around aimlessly at night, but you know). So just in case someone tries to attack me, instead of punching them in the face I can just pull on my handy little siren. It was a very thoughtful gift.

I also got these sweet straw glasses from Mona:

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And you better BELIEVE those are coming to Jamaica with me and I will be using them (note: the scarf was a gift, and the headband was a bow from one of the presents, I didn’t show up to Christmas wearing that thing…but I liked it).

My Dad and I got our customary photo in front of the tree…

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And overall it was just a great Christmas with the fam.

Christmas day I headed over to my friend Sherrie’s to watch Christmas movies in our pajamas while drinking wine. It was PERFECT, and we decided that this may need to be a new tradition.

She made me the best margarita also. And margaritas + Love Actually = Love.

love-actually

Amazing. And we had tacos for Christmas dinner. No complaints about that.

On Boxing Day my very oldest friend Emily invited me to her parents for dinner with her sister Sara, stepbrother Dave, and boyfriend Corey. I LOVE their family dinners (they also had me for Easter dinner this year), so I headed to our hometown of Blackstock, which is so small that I can’t even google the population (and I didn’t even live in Blackstock growing up, I lived outside of Blackstock). It’s the boonies, that is what you need to know.

Em’s mom made us all vesper martinis, which apparently are also known as the James Bond martinis.

emily-lindsey

Very fancy. And VERY strong. I’m pretty sure they just wanted to get me drunk…

Before dinner we all hung out and enjoyed appetizers…

appys

And then it was time for Christmas dinner round 2! We started with parsnip soup that Emilio’s mom made.

parsnip-soup

I was skeptical about the idea of parsnip soup, I cannot lie, but it was so good! I couldn’t get enough of it. And then more of the usual Christmas dinner fare…

dinner-1

Again, so good. I wish I could eat Christmas dinner every day. Thank you so much Emily and fam for having me!

The dessert spread was pretty impressive also…

desserts

Those peanut butter marshmallow squares remind me of kindergarten! My mom used to make them for me when we had snack days. Of course this wouldn’t be allowed now, silly peanut allergies… Also, Emily is cakepop maker extraordinaire, and her sister Sara MADE those chocolate peanut butter cups herself. I was dying. So delicious.

And then we all watched this:

xmas-vacay-2

What is this?! I had NO idea there was a sequel to Christmas Vacation, or I would have been all over watching that a lot earlier. Anyway, it was horrible. Don’t watch it. I’ll tell you what happens. Nothing. Nothing that you ever need to see.

We all agreed that it was probably the worst movie we had ever seen. But it was pretty fun to make fun of it at least.

It was decided that I was going to sleep over, as we had a snowstorm and the roads were bad, and I had also had some drinks. I hadn’t planned on this, so I had no pajamas. But Emily’s mom came to the rescue with a beautiful satin teddy bear nightgown.

jim-jams

Em was all, “Hey, you wanna wear this?!”

And I was like “YES!”

linds-jammies

And actually that nightgown was super comfy. I may have to buy one for my leisuring.

And that was my Christmas. Good times with family and friends, and I hope all of yours were as well!

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Posted in Dinner, Fam Jams, Holidays, Winter

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Fam Lunch (alternate title: why doesn’t Lindsey get a diaper?)

Posted on November 19, 2012 | 14 Comments

I had a half day at work on Friday (I had 1.67 days of vacation to use up before the end of the year, so Friday was .67), so just before lunch I hit the road to my aunt Nancy’s house for a little lunch date with my family. (Side note: I drove to work for the first time since I started working there and it took me six minutes. Much better than the hour to hour and a half commute I used to do).

Anyway, my cousins Chrissy and Allie were visiting from BC with their husbands Aran and Keith (respectively) and their beautiful little babies, and I haven’t seen them all since Allie and Keith’s wedding in BC in June so I was pretty excited. We also had our amazing Nana with us for the day.

That picture is terrible. I didn’t have my camera with me, and my iPhone was slacking on the picture-taking, but that is basically just a lower-quality version of this picture from the spring:

Only one less dog and one more baby. Chrissy and Aran’s son Evan is missing from both though, he is tricky little minx to lock down for a photo. But I did get him earlier…

I’m surprised they were okay with me holding Evan upside down, considering my track record of dropping children on their faces… Evan sure liked it though. He made me do it over and over and over.

Anyway, we had a really great lunch full of Ukrainian food in honour of our Ukrainian Nana.

Who is the cutest Nana in all the land. We say that she is going to live forever because she is fueled by love.

We started with borscht (beet soup) that my aunt made herself, and it was soo delicious.

Seriously, it was amazing. I am sometimes not the biggest fan of borscht, it really depends how it is made. My Nana used to make really excellent borscht also, so I guess it runs in the family. My aunt said it is really easy to make actually, so I think I may have to try it out sometime. Pretty much my entire family is obsessed with sour cream also, so we all topped our soup with that.

And our main dish was pierogies! Or my family has always called them something different that I don’t know how to spell and I can’t even Google it, but when I was little I interpreted its pronunciation as “pettah hair”.

Whatever you call them, they are the best. Definitely one of my favourite foods. My Nana used to make the best ones ever! I miss them so much. And of course each pierogi on my plate must be topped with sour cream. It is very important. I can NOT eat pierogies without sour cream. And fried bacon and onions. Yes yes.

We also had kielbasa, which I LOVE, and cookies for dessert.

After lunch (and man, I was stuffed), Allie and my uncle Brian had some work to do outside, so the rest of us headed into the family room to sit around and digest. Chrissy and I snuggled up with our Nanny on the couch and had a little catch-up session.

Nana snuggles are the greatest. My Nana has smelled the same for as long as I can remember, and being near her makes me feel all warm and comforted.

Anyway, we were just talking, and all of a sudden my Nana brought out a little gift bag and said she had presents for us!

I know all about Nana’s presents, let me tell you. She is all about the ‘care packages’. She always likes to get us useful gifts. I have mentioned this before, but it’s worth bringing up again. When she lived on her own, she loved to get me anything that was on sale at the grocery store, so cookies, oranges, cheese (wrapped in wax paper, tin foil and then plastic wrap), and bread were all big items that frequented the care packages. Also half-used bottles of Windex and paper towel. And stamps. The care packages have always been very random (but very useful), for as long as I can remember.

And they are more random now that she is in a home and can’t really get out and shop for herself. My care packages from her now consist mainly of socks won at Bingo, cookies saved from meals (in Ziploc bags), other random gifts she has somehow acquired (like little stuffed animals, or figurines), and stamps (still stamps!).

Here was her care package for me around Easter:

And another one from a year ago or so:

So I know how random her “gifts” can be. But I was not prepared for what came next.

When my Nana was not doing well in the summer, she was pretty much bedridden, and couldn’t get to the bathroom on her own during the night. So she wore diapers for a bit. Hey, it happens. We will all be there someday (let’s not think about it). So I guess when she was getting better, she switched from diapers to these diaper-like pads. They were basically like REALLY thick maxi pads. So she pulled two of them out of the bag, turned to Chrissy, handed her one, and said “These are for your PANTIES,” (really loudly because her hearing is not the greatest).  And then she turned to me, handed me the other, and repeated “THESE ARE FOR YOUR PANTIES.” And went on to explain why we might need them. Feminine time, you know (sorry to all you men reading this).

They were not unlike this:

And Chrissy’s husband was sitting across from us watching the whole thing.

We were dying. Chrissy, my aunt Nancy and I could not contain our laughter. I tried, really I did, but I was crying. I was doubled over with tears streaming down my face. My Nana has been known to say funny things sometimes… One time after Easter dinner as we were leaving (and this was years ago), she asked us “Do you want a beer for the road?!” Um, Nana. That is illegal.

But this trumped everything she has probably ever done. And she was so serious about it. She really was just trying to be helpful, and it warmed my heart and made me laugh ridiculously hard all at the same time.

As we attempted to contain ourselves, my Nana looked at me and said “Oh, Lindsey! I thought you were Allie! Sorry, this isn’t for you,” and she took the pad out of my hands and tucked it back into her bag. And then she handed me MY gift.

Frickin’ cookies saved from meals!!!! No pad for me, suckers! This of course made us all laugh even harder.

So then my cousin asked, “Why doesn’t Lindsey get a pad?”

And my Nana said “Well Lindsey lives on her own you know…”

Yes, yes I do. A girl has to eat! If living on my own gets me cookies instead of a diaper, well, I am down with that. She also gave me $20. Who is the favourite?! :)

And then Allie came inside, and my Nanny regifted her the pad, and we all laughed all over again. She is 98, so of course she is allowed to have moments like this. But man it was funny.

It was a great day with my family. I loved seeing them!

And I know our Nana had a great time too. She kept saying how happy she was to be there. She is amazing. Sometimes I look at her and I just feel like my heart might burst. She makes me so happy.

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Posted in Fam Jams, Lunch

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My Strong-Willed Nana

Posted on October 12, 2012 | 20 Comments

I saw my beautiful little 98-year-old Nana this past weekend, and I just wanted to give you guys an update on her, since the last time I posted about her she was not doing very well.

(My Nanny and I last year)

She had a pretty bad fall back in June, and she had quite a big decline after that happened. She seemed out of it, and she wasn’t really talking, and she wasn’t moving from her bed. Her voice was even different. She sounded hoarse and defeated, and not at all like her usual positive and chipper self. We were all concerned that she may not make it… She had always been so strong and so with it that it was really strange to see her like that. We were preparing ourselves for the worst. It was not a good time.

She was bed-ridden and confined to a wheelchair for the summer. She has always been extremely mobile and independent, but she could no longer walk on her own. Her nurses were afraid she may not ever walk without assistance again. She wasn’t going to all the games the nurses put on in her home (and she always does), and she wasn’t going downstairs to the dining room for meals (also always does that).

So my family and I wanted to lift her spirits. We wrote her letters telling her how great she is and how much we love her, and sent her pictures of us all together, like this one:

She LIVES for pictures of us, so seeing all of her grandchildren together made her so happy. I will never forget the look on her face as she was going through the photos we had printed for her. I also showed her the video I took of my cousin’s wedding, which she loooooved.

And then things started to turn around. My Nana decided she was going to walk again. When I saw her on the weekend she said to me “And I said to myself ‘What kind of life is this? I am not going to stay in bed, I am going to walk!’”

She took physiotherapy, put all of her effort into that, and now she is fine. She is walking on her own. She is going around to all the games in her home again (Mystery Word is her favourite), and she is going downstairs to the dining room for meals.

She is back to normal! She is back to being a mobile ball of positivity.

(My Nana and I last weekend)

She is the most stubborn and strong-willed person I know. She willed herself to get out of bed and walk again, and she is. That was that. As she said to me last weekend, “Where there is a will there is a way!”

True that, Nana.

I think my Nana is a prime example of positive thinking, and if you set your mind to something, you can do it. She takes each and every day at a time, and she really recognizes she has so much to live for. She doesn’t love being in a nursing home, and I know she misses the independence her apartment allowed her. But she knows it is the best place for her, so makes the best of it. She makes friends, and she participates in all the activities.

She lives for the the love of her family, and pictures of her grandchildren. She saves every card that anyone has ever gotten her, and she frequently reads through them if she needs a little positivity in her day. It is the little things that make her so happy, and I think your happiness is directly related to the quality and longevity of your life.

So I just wanted to say, I am so proud of my Nanners!

I think she has set such a great example of positive attitude for her family, and I hope to one day be exactly like her.

Have a great weekend!

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Posted in Fam Jams, Random Musings

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Letter for Nana

Posted on August 9, 2012 | 18 Comments

So unfortunately my beautifully sassy little Nana hasn’t been feeling very well lately.

This makes me sad. She had a fall a little while ago, and some other issues (she is 98 and has been extremely healthy up until this point, so it’s bound to happen), and I think her spirits are just down in general.

Being the amazingly positive woman she is, she tries to protect me because she doesn’t want me to worry about her. So even though I can tell she is not herself she will just say “Oh, it was just a little fall. I just missed my step! It is fine,” or her favourite line “I’ll just keep carrying on.” And she won’t let on to me how she is really feeling.

She is sneaky, but she knows that I know something is up. She has pretty much just been staying in bed for the past little while, and this is reallllllly unlike her. She is always up, all day long. Usually she refuses to go out of her room in her pajamas or robe, so she gets up early, gets dressed, does her makeup and hair, and then goes down to the dining room in her home for coffee.

She is always telling me how busy she is, because she is doing all these activities all day long. The nurses in her home run them, and they are graded on attendance and participation. My nana knows this, and she loves the nurses and does not want them to get bad marks in participation, so therefore she must go to everything. Thinking about this makes me laugh, and also gives me a huge love burst for her. I love that she goes to the activities because she wants the nurses to feel good about what they are doing.

Anyway, she has always done this. But recently she has been staying in her pajamas all day long, not going to any activities, and not usually even going downstairs to the dining room for meals. It’s so unlike her, and we, her family, are worried.

Recently I received an amazing email from my cousin Allie that she wanted my aunt to read to our Nana when she visited her next to lift her spirits.

(my brother and cousins Chrissy and Allie on Allie’s wedding day recently)

The email made me tear up. It was so beautiful. I am always raving on about how awesome and positive my Nana is, but I want to post Allie’s email here because she said so many great things and I just want you guys to hear all the things we love about her from someone other than me.

So here is Allie’s email, and please note I have not changed any of Allie’s original words.

Dear Nanny!

I was out on a walk today with Nora and our dog Bella and I was thinking of all the wonderful times that we have had together. What really shapes you as an amazing grandma… and let me tell you Nans, there are so many memories. I thought that I would write them down and share them with you. Of course, I am not the writer in the family (Lindsey Linds!) but I thought I would put down a few thoughts.

Where to begin… my oldest memories are back at Horsham. Early days with you and Papa ~ Papa sitting on the chair in the corner, smoking and smiling. I remember your amazing vegetable garden, your grape vines, the huge willow tree and eating the uncooked, bitter rhubarb in the back yard. I remember climbing the big maple tree where the branches were shaped like seats and swinging on the swing set in the backyard and fun trips to the park. I remember lots and lots about the food ~ fresh squeezed orange juice, canned pickles, peaches and jams, homemade pancakes with corn syrup, banana splits with the best fixings, soda floats, perogies, cabbage rolls, Easter dinner with dyed Ukrainian eggs. Easter egg hunts in the house and many hours of the Young and Restless (which is still on!!)

I remember forts made at the dinning room table, going to sleep with you on the pull-out coach and never feeling you leave, your aloe vera plants and African Violets with snails in the soil.

And you Nanny, you have always been so positive and strong in life. Never one to complain, always one to soothe and to make things better. You are a very forgiving person, one who never holds a grudge. You are so full of love and honestly Nanners, we have all learned a lot from you.


It is hard to believe you are 98 now! We are all still hoping for 100 though!
I know you have not been feeling the best lately Nanny. Please know that you are being prayed for everyday, numerous times! As you know, the Lord has a plan for all of us. Yours, of course was to be an incredible wife, mother and grandmother (plus, plus, plus)

There are just no words to describe from any of us, how much you mean to us, how you have shaped our lives, how you have supported us through thick and thin, how you have always been the strong rock – Just how much we love you Nanny!

May the Lord bless you and keep you always!
 
I am So glad that Lindsey could share with you the wedding. We certainly missed you out here!!
 
Talk to you very soon!
 
All my love,
 
Allie

We love our Nana! xoxo

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Uncle Donkey’s House

Posted on July 19, 2012 | 13 Comments

I have a favourite uncle. His name is uncle Donny.

Fine, he is my only blood-related uncle, but still. Even if I had a thousand uncles, uncle Donny would still probably be my favourite.

I was very close with him when I was just a little kitty, and I event went camping once with just him when I was about six (I also wet my sleeping bag…on purpose…but that is a story for another time). I remember he made friends with the people who were camping across from us and we sat at their campfire one evening, and I told everyone a ghost story I made up on the spot about this family of chipmunks who lived in a haunted tree. I raved on and on about the chipmunks for probably an hour, and I’m sure my story made absolutely no sense and had no ending. And although I suspect uncle Donny was probably embarrassed to know me while I was ranting on about the stupid chipmunks, he never interrupted me.

He has always had a really cheesy hilarious sense of humour that makes me laugh really hard. He will talk and joke with just about everyone. And I do mean everyone. Even recently when I saw him in BC, we were buying ice cream and he started joking around with the vendor. My aunt Barb complains that when they go somewhere and he runs in “quickly” while she waits in the car, he takes a million years, because he just talks to everyone!

When I was younger, he was really the only grown-up who would actually hang out and play with us kids.

Don’t mind my attractive glasses. I am pretty sure uncle Donny is about to get attacked by about five little girls in this picture.

I used to call him uncle Donkey (I actually still sometimes call him this), and I convinced all my friends to call him this as well. My childhood friend Amanda still refers to him as uncle Donkey whenever she asks about him.

He also had mad beard-growing skills.

Right?! That beard alone makes him the coolest person on the planet, I’m pretty sure.

He truly is just the nicest guy.

Look how happy he is, even with my grandpa (or D-Dad as I used to call him) about to ash his cigarette on his birthday cake. And this is a really old pic, by the way. No one smokes inside anymore.

So I think I’ve probably convinced you all by now that my uncle Donny is seriously cool, and I haven’t even gotten to the coolest part yet.

His house. One thing that I will always remember loving about uncle Donny is his house. He always had the most interesting things kicking around. He was really into art, and also music, so when I was growing up his apartment was littered with random bongo drums, harmonicas, guitars (he even built his own guitars!), and even an organ. He played them all, and is exceptionally skilled at the piano.

He backpacked New Zealand (also supremely cool) when I was younger, and he brought back a ton of amazing things from his journey that I remember being obsessed with. Like one of those…I don’t even know what to call it…sand picture frame things. Like a picture frame with sand in it. I’m probably not making any sense (not unlike the chipmunk ghost story). Here’s a pic of the closest thing I could google.

I don’t know, I remember being captivated by it.

He also was the first person in my family to own a computer, and he had that old school Wheel of Fortune game on it, which I would play for hours and hours.

(source)

Remember that?

AND he kept my favourite cereal over there.

Don’t even tell me you don’t remember the Cabbage Patch Kids cereal. That stuff was dynamite. I can specifically remember eating it at his kitchen table.

Anyway, this post does have a point. My uncle Donny now lives in Salmon Arm near my mom and Eric, so I was lucky enough to get to see him on my recent trip…

And I stayed over at his gorgeous house in the mountains.

Where I was reminded of all the little things I love about Uncle Donny’s house.

The random things I love to look at and explore…

Like that giant sailboat that he has had since I was a kid.

And his music!

My dad plays the keyboards also, and would be seriously impressed with my uncle’s sweet setup here.

When I was falling asleep I could hear him playing the piano from my room, and I just got this familiar feeling of comfy and warm.

And of course he has bongo drums.

His collection of records, tapes, and CD’s is crazy.

He has always been super into music, especially local Canadian bands, and gave me the Spirit of the West tape when I was in Grade 4. The single Home For A Rest wasn’t released until at least five years later, and I remember absolutely dying when I heard that song for the first time on the radio, because I already knew it! I had grown up listening to it! Nevermind that I was 10 singing about being drunk for a month… It’s a fun song.

And do you know what the best thing about my uncle Donny’s house is? You can stay there! My uncle and his wife Barb run a bed and breakfast out of their house in Salmon Arm, called the Tamarack Villa Bed & Breakfast, and if you are ever in the Shuswap area in BC, I highly suggest hitting it up. Their guest rooms are gorgeous, and they have an amazing view from their back wraparound porch.

They are also on about 25 acres of land, and a lot of it is forest, so my uncle has made trails for hiking and cross country skiing all through it. I went on a little hike with my uncle and his awesome poodle Einstein when I first got there.

He is cute.

Here is the website if you want to check it out.

I’m so excited that people from all over the world (they really have had people stay there from all over the world) can enjoy my uncle Donny’s house, just like I always have!

So go hit up my fun uncle Donkey, and tell him his favourite niece sent you!

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Posted in Fam Jams, Random Musings, Travel

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Island Adventuring

Posted on July 4, 2012 | 17 Comments

We had the day to kill on Saturday, as the wedding didn’t start until later, so Eric and I decided to rent bikes and explore Quadra Island.

I had grossly underestimated the size of the island. I kind of had the image in my head before we arrived of it just being the resort and a marina, with maybe some forest. But there was a small town (like four stores), and people live there (it has a population of nearly 2,500 according to Wikipedia). Even though we were biking for two hours we didn’t quite get to explore the entire thing. It was really hilly also. MAN it was hilly.

You can see Eric huffing and puffing up the hill in the background. I had to abandon my bike a few times to walk.

I’m eating like an absolute champ around here so it was nice to squeeze in something active.

We also did some general exploring around the resort, and Eric found a friend.

Eric the Eagle!

I am not sure how Eric the Eagle and Eric the Man both had nametags… Such a coincidence.

Sunday morning (Canada Day!) we woke up basically just in time to make it to brunch, and rolled ourselves out of bed and into the lodge for some food.

I saw this along the way:

And it made me laugh, because that man kind of looks like Richard Dreyfuss, and that is absolutely the shirt he let Bill Murray borrow in What About Bob.

(source)

I saw some of our family and friends in the restaurant, so we did the ol’ “how are you feeling this morning?” thing, and regaled each other with tales of what time we eventually went to sleep after the wedding. And then I loaded up my plate with buffet goodness…

And then Eric and I waddled back to our room for a nap.

We awoke about an hour later feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. We took the water shuttle from our resort to Painter’s Lodge to see what kind of activities were going on for Canada Day.

We do actually say ‘eh’ a lot in Canada. That is one thing that is not just a stereotype. It’s when you ask a question and you want someone’s feedback, like “Wow, that’s a beautiful sunset, eh?” I don’t think there is any other word that works as well as ‘eh’ does in this context, so I fully embrace saying it. How else would I end my questions, eh?

Anyway, we immediately saw this when we docked at Painter’s Lodge.

That’s a big salmon, eh?! Campbell River is known as the salmon capital of the world (self-proclaimed, I am pretty sure), and Painter’s Lodge resort is famous for its fishing. They have these stations set up right on the dock so they can clean the fish immediately. And if you are staying there and catch a fish, the resort staff will clean it, cook it, smoke it, or freeze it for you so you can either eat it there or take it home.

We also saw a ton of seals. The salmon guts go right back into the water so the seals pretty much stalk the dock for food. I didn’t get a decent picture of them, but they were cute. They reminded me of my cat Winnie.

After Eric made another new friend…

We picked up our car and headed to downtown Campbell River to check out the Canada Day festivities.

We found a parade!

And it reminded me of the parades that used to happen in my hometown, with random vehicles decorated, and tractors.

We also came across a market on the water with tons of vendor booths selling various jewelry, pottery, and other knick-knacks. And they had a few authentic European food stations set up, so I made a beeline for the pierogies as soon as I saw them.

They weren’t quite as good as our Ukrainian Nana’s homemade pierogies, but they were still delicious. And that coleslaw was actually pretty good also, and I usually am not a fan of that stuff.

We perused the market for a bit, before continuing down the water to the historical pier.

There were a lot of boats. Boats everywhere!

So many clouds also. It was overcast and chilly. But we still wanted ice cream, so we got some from a little shop on the pier and sat down to take in the view.

And then we headed back to our car and continued along the highway for about 20 minutes to Saratoga Beach.

It was pretty, but man it was cold. I really wanted to swim in the ocean, but it was just too cold. I’m not usually afraid of cold water swimming, but I was already freezing in my jacket. I couldn’t do it. Ah, one day I will swim there.

But we had a good time walking along the beach enjoying the view and looking for crabs and shells.

When we finally got back to our resort, Eric met up with our Dad for an intense game of chess.

Please note the denim on denim. If my dad isn’t wearing a tropical shirt, he is wearing denim.

I watched them for a bit before heading to our room to leisure around. I thought maybe since the chess was life-sized it would make it more exciting to watch. I was wrong.

Later that evening, Eric and I again took the water shuttle into town to meet up with Chrissy, Allie, my aunt, and their friends for dinner at Quay West, a restaurant located right on the ocean with a beautiful patio.

We were also there to see the fireworks display, which were set to go off on the wharf right beside us.

Our reservations were on the patio (for optimal fireworks viewing), and beautiful though the patio was, it was FREEZING. We are Canadian though (eh?!) so we sucked it up. Well, after some of the boys ran home to grab a ton of sweaters to pile on us… Then I sucked it up.

I started with the seafood chowder, mainly to warm me up, but also because I wanted to try the local seafood.

This picture is not doing the chowder justice at all. It was really good, and had tons of seafood in it.

For my main I obviously had to get salmon, since I was in the salmon capital of the world.

It came topped with crab, shrimp, and cheese, alongside corn on the cob and rice. And the salmon was honestly amazing. I was not disappointed.

And I would have gotten dessert, but Eric and I had to book it back to the resort. The fireworks started to go off around 10:20, which was bad timing for us, as we had to take the water shuttle back to our resort and the last boat was at 11. We were only able to stay for a few fireworks before we had to head back. But hey, if this was the only thing to go wrong during our island vacation, I will take it. It was great to see everyone at dinner, and I will take that over the fireworks any day.

And that was our last day at April Point.

(View of the resort from our water shuttle)

I will miss this view from our cabin patio, even with the clouds.

And I will miss these people.

But at least I took a million pictures. I had a great time! And my vacation in the west isn’t over just yet!

The next day we packed up and left for Salmon Arm (where my mom and Eric live, in the BC interior) at 5:30 am, but that is a story for another post.

Hope you guys are all having a good week! And Happy Fourth of July to all my American chums, eh?!

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Posted in Brunch, Dinner, Fam Jams, Restaurant, Summer, Travel

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