There is nothing like an extended period of time away from something to make you really appreciate that thing, place or person. I am speaking of this place we call home - Canada.
Our first month was spent on beautiful Vancouver Island. Simply stunning landscapes, lush greenery, mountains, ocean it has it all (except the warm ocean water). Our month was spent visiting with friends and looking at places on the island that we might like to move back to when we return with Kasasa. At the beginning of August, I went to Winnipeg to see my dad while Ian stayed in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island. His time was spent volunteering at the local Maritime Centre helping to fix things and build a new fence/railing.
I spent the first 5 days in Winnipeg visiting with my dad and siblings, playing darts, shopping, watching the summer olympics and just enjoying spending time with dad & Kathy.
On the 7th of August, my best friend Maureen picked me up on her return trip from Ontario and the two of us started out on a 6 day trip driving from Winnipeg to Vancouver. We spent the first 2 days driving through the Prairies. Since Maureen has done this trip every summer for 16 years, she knows almost every road and so we did a lot of driving on roads that were not considered highways and even some gravel roads. It's a nice way to travel as there is very little traffic and you see more than on the freeways. We passed field after field of wheat, hay, oats and other things we didn't recognize. It sounds dull but the prairies have a beauty of their own and I enjoyed it immensely. We meandered our way west camping along the way. Our planned place to cross into British Columbia was through Rocky Mountain House into Lake Louise, but we heard the weather reports from there and things were looking stormy and cold - only 3 celcius in Lake Louise. Brrrrrr too cold for this now warm blooded girl to go camping in. So we headed south through Medicine Hat, Alberta down through Lethbridge and made our crossing on the Crows Nest Pass.
We made a stop at a hotsprings that you drive 20 kilometers on a logging road to get to. There were quite a few people there despite the road. After a good soak, we continued our drive with Naramata in the Okanagan Valley as our destination. An old friend that we went to Junior High School with - James Hibbert - lives there and we wanted to spend some time with him. He is a potter and makes his living solely by selling his wares from his studio. He is surrounded by Vineyards and the view down to the lake is beautiful.
After spending 2 days we decided to move on and complete our journey by making our final drive into Vancouver. It was a beautiful drive until we got to the last 100 kilometers when the traffic became bumper to bumper almost the entire way into the city. We timed it all wrong by coming in on a Sunday afternoon when everyone else who left the city for the weekend was also returning. What a long drive that was. But by dinner time we were in Richmond and reunited with Ian who had supper ready for us.
The summer is flying by, and now we are talking about our return trip to Mexico. Ian and I plan on driving back after first making a trip into the interior of BC to visit with friends. We will be leaving the Vancouver area around the 8th or 9th of September and hope to be back at the boat by the end of the month.