Tofino, day 2

Tofino is great. This morning, on the beach, Morgane was enamored with little olive snails that she found just under the sand. She must have dug up and relocated about a hundred to her snail resort. She also touched some seaweed and played chicken with the waves.

In the afternoon, I walked around town and discovered a lovely bookstore with lots of great picks and good kids toys too. The weather was pretty good and we had a view of many snow-capped mountains. Tonight we had a nice dinner and a locally-baked cake for dessert. Tomorrow I want to check out the market (every Saturday), and then we are going to celebrate the solstice or aboriginal day with celebrations at Pacific Rim National Park. So, we'll get to see some first nations dancing and other stuff, and all this on the longest of all the beaches (I think!). After that, I still want to take surfing lessons and take the water taxi to go walk with the great trees on Meares Island.

Tofino!

We're here in Tofino - hurray! It doesn't get any more west coast than this. I am looking out our window and I see the beach. It's 8:30pm and totally light out. Tomorrow I want to see the local surfers, and maybe even try! We are staying in these funny little cottages that look like bee hives or mailboxes. Super location. Tomorrow we'll move into town.

It looks like it might be low tide in the morning. If it is, we'll have to go looking for interesting shells. The seaweed that I saw washed up is very diverse and I'd like to take a picture of this ocean salad. Then, on Saturday, a First Nations' celebration.

Quick Update from Nanaimo

Yes, we brought a lot of stuff and we had to find a creative way to carry it out of the airport!

Time is still flying by. We just spent four days on Gabriola staying with our friends and observing them working hard to their organic bakery. We spent a lot of time eating wonderful scones, fabulous pizza, and of course, bread! We also spent a great day at the beach - so far we've seen orcas off the ferry and at the beach we saw seals and many starfish, even babies. Also jellyfish and Morgane's second least favourite animal: crabs. Her least favourite is sharks. She saw a bear when walking with her grandpa down their street in North Vancouver, but that didn't seem to bother her. Good thing she wasn't with me! I would've climbed a tree because I've been skittish since being chased by a bear, years ago.

Today we came to Nanaimo and went to the farmer's market where the Slow-Rise Bakery (our friends) were selling their bread. They had a line-up practically the entire time and sold hundreds of loaves and scones. At the end, they had only two loaves left.

Tonight we have a family room at a hostel right in Nanaimo, great for walking around. Morgane bounced up and down when she saw her bunk bed. She's learning a lot on this trip. She seems to have learned how to do a British accent while playing with our friends' kids.

Bonus: at the market today, I ran into the coordinator of my program at UBC and his wife and two kids. Turns out he makes bread, too, and they know friends who know our bakery friends. Our bakery friends are doing a good job of luring us back to the island - they have a housesitting job lined up for us, but we haven't decided on our plans yet. We just want to kick back and have a big sleep tonight.

Day 4

Already! Rain, rain and more rain today. I don't even want to go to the beach. We went to UBC where I found some nice books. Then we took Morgane to drop-in gym where she played on the trampoline (me, too :)) and the bars, etc. Then we got some lunch at Capers (and my chocolate cake!). Now Ghis is going to play squash while Morgane and I take it easy here.

Day 3

We woke up and Ghis came over to meet us at my parents' house. We went to the wave pool which Morgane adored! She spent most of the time trying to surf. Before that, we went to MEC and had a super lunch with real cider to drink and the best key lime pie. After that, we went to the library (the new one) in Lynn Valley and took home a pile of kids' books and DVDs. Then we had a great dinner of halibut that my stepdad, Glen, made us. After watching Charlie and Lola, we headed back to Lawrence and Wendy's to sleep. My mother fell in love with Ghis' iphone and now Ghis has promised to help her shop for and set up a new computer.

First Day in Vancouver

On our first day in Vancouver, Morgane woke up and quickly became friends with Lawrence's kids. They liked the gifts we brought them, especially the little iguanas with sticky tongues that pick up toy flies. Morgane and I got dropped off at the seabus and we took it over to Lonsdale Quay to meet my friend, Claire, who lives in London, but was here visiting her parents. When I got to the place where we were supposed to meet, she wasn't there yet, but my best friend from highschool, Jennifer, was there! We all got to spend a few minutes together, like when we were fifteen.

Then Claire and I and our three kids took the bus to Capilano mall where we ate and let the kids play at Go Bananas. Morgane was pretty tired, so the outing didn't last too long. The two of us decided to take the bus up to Grandma's. After a short stop at the mall (and the toy store), we took a taxi for the last stretch. In the cab, Morgane commented that she wanted to go to India. The taxi driver asked, "What did she just say?" because he was from India. He said it would be too hot right now.

Grandma was happy to see us. We hung out and slept over while Ghis played tennis and had a nice dinner at Lawrence and Wendy's. Their hospitality is amazing!

The move is complete. The trip begins.

Okay, okay, I'm writing. I'm writing. Everything happens so fast when we're on the road. We seem to have less time to collect ourselves. Hopefully, that will change.

Monday, we moved the last stuff out of our house and into storage, handed over the keys to our house and caught a plane from Montreal to Vancouver where we will spend around six weeks. We had a good flight despite the fact that a storm came up while we were waiting in line on the runway. The rain poured down and the winds shook the plane while lightning flashed in the sky. But it cleared up quickly and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Except for the huge, noisy man who kept trying to pick fights with everyone. The hockey playoffs were on - the finals - so the staff kept the TVs on for as long as possible while the plane was landing. We didn't get to see the final goal though.

Lawrence came to pick us up at the airport, and luckily he had his truck which was big enough to carry all of our luggage. We lost a few things while getting on the plane though - a bottle of wine and two bottles of organic maple syrup. We had forgotten that you can't bring liquids on a plane anymore. In fact, we had also brought Morgane's scissors (which they let us keep) and Ghis's knife (which he went back to check-in). My mom and stepdad also came to the airport