Back to PoCo
So, after spending a delightful weekend with Konrad and Izabela we headed back across on the ferry to Campbell River. There was a sobering sight to be had when a tow truck pulled up next to us with this wreck on the back ...
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| Leaving Quadra Island in style ... not! |
All the school kids who got on the ferry to go to school in Campbell River had a pretty good look at it as they were getting off.
We'd stayed on in Konrad and Iza's place when they left on Sunday for the long drive back to Calgary. So the first thing we did when we got off the ferry on Monday morning was pop into the Java Shack for breakfast. It's strategically located right next to the ferry terminal and has fantastic coffee and heaps of great stuff for breakfast.
As we drove down island the weather started to worsen. We were on our way to Nanaimo to catch the ferry to the mainland to spend a final couple of days with Diane and Murray before flying home. On the way we stopped to see Mom and take her out to lunch. We'd talked about going to the Old House Restaurant - an institution in the Comox Valley. (I actually worked there for a few months while I was recovering from a back operation way back in 1977.) As it turned out the Old House closed its doors about a year ago and has been replaced with "Locals Restaurant at the Old House".
This is what the place looks like ...
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| Locals Restaurant at the Old House |
Apparently, The Old House had gotten a bit tired but as they say, there's nothing like a breath of fresh air. Locals makes a point of sourcing and featuring much of its ingredients from nearby producers on Vancouver Island, hence the name. We hadn't checked out any reviews but were pleased with our choice: it turns out that Locals is rated number one of all restaurants in the Comox Valley. If you're up that way, I highly recommend a visit.
Di took a photo of me with Mom. She was looking a bit serious so I told her I'd tickle her if she didn't smile, which made her laugh ...
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| There's a bit of life in the old girl yet, eh Mom! |
While we were on Quadra it had been fine during the day but raining quite a lot at night. Now the rain had set in properly and it was quite wet travelling all the way down island through Comox and on to Nanaimo. It didn't let up when we got on the ferry either. We have all these wonderful photos from ferry crossing in the sunshine during summer so Di thought she should venture out on deck to take some photos to show how dirty the weather was. This is what it looked like from through the window before she ventured outside ...
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| You can go out Di, I'm happy in here! |
... and outdoors it was like this, with the lack of clarity in the photo down to rain lashing and pretty low light levels ...
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| It was a pretty dirty day for a ferry ride ... |
And the weather got progressively worse the closer we got to Vancouver. When we landed in Horseshoe Bay darkness had fallen along with the Pacific Ocean falling on the city of Vancouver. Later that night I had a peek at the forecast for the area and this is what it showed on the agenda for western Canada for the next couple of days ...
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| Good for the skiers, I guess ... |
We were scheduled to leave at midday Wednesday so it looked like we weren't going to escape without a bit of regular west coast winter (which effectively starts early in November) weather. Not to worry. It's (mostly) only water.
In fact, it took a little while for the rain to turn to snow in the lower mainland. Just after arrived home in Hobart I got an email from Murray to let me know that it was snowing at their house. I quickly jumped on the internet and looked up a webcam for Grouse Mountain, which is a little ski hill just behind Vancouver. To my delight, the webcam showed bright, sunny conditions all around with a good covering of snow and skaters zipping about on the frozen pond at the chalet. Here's a screenshot I took (the skaters aren't moving of course!) ...
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| Grouse Mountain Chalet |
A Short, Selective and Haphazard Foray into the Annals of the Bruce Family
The main purpose of this trip was to visit with my baby sister, who isn't well, so it was fitting for us to finish our trip where we started. On return to Diane and Murray's place in Port Coquitlam we were delighted to see that my sister Chris was there. She'd spent the day with Diane and stayed on to see us and have dinner. I had to take this photo of her and Diane with my Dianne ...
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| Three gorgeous chicks ... or should that be ... hens, perhaps? |
And I got Di to take a photo of me with Murray ...
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| Brothers in arms |
We spent our last full day in Canada with Diane and that night had a farewell dinner. My sister Susie and her husband Earl ...
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| Susie - my middle sister - and her husband Earl |
came over to say hello and break bread with us before we left for home. Another real treat was to see my favourite aunt and uncle, who'd come to spend a few days in Vancouver. Florence and Eddie ...
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| Auntie Flo and Uncle Eddie ~ you champions! |
...live in Kelowna, and Dianne and I have had many visits with them over the thirty years we've been travelling back to Canada. If you're betting that's a twinkle in Flo's eyes you are spot on the money. And if Eddie didn't have his eyes shut you'd see a twinkle there too! A more good-natured couple of people you'll never find.
And that pretty much wraps up our quick trip to the west coast of Canada. However, being back in my old environment, and catching up with family got me thinking about bygone days. Recently when was poking through some old photos I found this one of Eddie and Flo with my Mom and Dad. It's from about forty-five years ago (Dad still has most of his hair and even Eddie has got a healthy crop on his dome) and was taken in the first house Mom and Dad built in Comox. I think they are on their way out to a dance at the Legion (for those of you who can be bothered reading these ramblings that link is a hidden gem, especially if you are of a certain generation) ...
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| Going out for a soiree? |
Going way, way back in the archives I found this photo of my big brother Bob, my middle sister Susie and me ...
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| What's going on, Dad? |
... and here's a grainy old photo from a couple years later of the whole Bruce brood ...
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| All dressed up with nowhere to go |
I won't need to tell you how old the next photo is because you can see for yourself. The challenge for you though is to download the photo, find your correspondent and then send it to me for checking ...
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| Where am I?!? |
Much later, after I'd spent some time skiting around at Uni I decided that it was time to do something different and went hiking with my mate Asker Naesgaard. One of the trips we did was the famous West Coast Trail. Here's a photo of the two of us with a couple of lasses that we met while camping at the (now world famous) Tsusiat Falls ...
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| Having a laugh or two |
If you're looking at the big picture, you will have noticed all the driftwood in the background. It's almost all due to the logging industry along the coast. More about that in the next post.
Time passes, we get older. Eleven years ago, Dianne and I made a special trip back to Canada. It was my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. A pretty good effort considering they had 5 kids in a 6 year stretch starting less than a couple of years after they were married. Here's a photo of the Bruce clan assembled for the special occasion ...
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| Jack and Edna's 50th wedding anniversary |
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| Diane and Murray, August 2012 |
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| On the bridge with Lucas |
That's one of my all time favourite moments with Diane
so it's probably a good time to stop rambling. See you later ...
