Escape from Reality

As you know we worked pretty much all day every day this summer, moving out of one house, into a new one and doing a major renovation on the second. We are now at the highly unmotivating stage of picky details. There is a lot of trim caulking to do, the kayak has to find a home on the ceiling of the garage, our Mexican sink hasn’t got a proper tile base yet, the chandelier isn’t hung, we need a shorter car, we haven’t organized furniture for the TV room, and on and on. But we are liking the place and it seems to fit us quite well. All through the hard work we promised ourselves a reward escape, assuming it might be to the Okanagan since we love to go there. Jim came across a most amazing place on the Sunshine Coast and since we’ve never been over there that became the destination. We’ve just come back and I have to say it was spectacular. We stayed in a tenthouse suite

at Rockwater Secret Cove, written up in all kinds of exotic travel mags, and wicked expensive except we were within a window of deals. One day we drove around the Sechelt Peninsula, had lunch at Molly’s Reach of Beachcomber fame,

and checked out the sights. Did you know that Beachcombers was the longest running Canadian series 19 years!), and had a huge and loyal following of fans even overtaking Saturday Night Hockey at one point? Another day we took a 5hour boat trip up Jervis Inlet to 

Princess Louisa Inlet and Chatterbox Falls, a 70 mile round trip. The boat was fast! The weather was crazy. It poured rain the night we arrived and then got warm, up to 26C one day. The day on the boat it was hot near the coast but as we went up the inlets the temperature went down about 10 degrees and we were travelling so fast we created quite a wind chill. I've posted an album on Facebook.

On the way home we stayed over in Vancouver for an IKEA fix and dinner with good friends Bob & Kimberly. It was 28C in Vancouver and half of the population was at IKEA. No, I do not exaggerate.

Yesterday morning with wind and rain in the forecast we hopped out of bed and caught the 9:00am ferry. Today it is freezing out and the wind is howling. Yikes! Summer has come to a screeching and abrupt halt. 

I recently finished reading a small book of essays: Chasing the Shore, by David Weale. I was reluctant to read it because David and I used to disagree on virtually everything and I've spent a lot of years thinking that I didn't like him much, not that my opinion counts for anything. Jim had read the book and said I should, which he hardly ever says, so I did. The outcome is that I have completely revised my opinion of the author. The essays are short and homely but so well crafted they would make you weep for the beauty of the words.