Finally... some g-d pictures!

Wonderful trip home. Absolutely spiffy. Colin and I spent two weeks on Vancouver Island to celebrate our Canadian return. We saw family and friends (although, for some reason, we didn't take any pictures of them - sorry) and went to Parksville and Cathedral Grove and took the Mill Bay Ferry as many times as possible.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip such a success! I feel totally rejuvenated and ready to start my new job tomorrow. More on that later... As with every new position I've had over the past few years, I'm sure I'll start with a bang. I've already crashed my new bike into the lovely flower beds under the University of Western Ontario sign... But that's a story for another day.

Colin and I walked along the beach at Parksville at low tide during a two-day jaunt up-island. The beach runs along the eastern side of the island and looks across the Straight of Georgia to the coast of mainland British Columbia. The water warms up over the shallow stretch of the beach during high tide (making for the warmest swimming around) and then retreats for miles and miles during low tide. It seems like you could walk all the way to Vancouver!
At first I thought these were mussels, but they were actually live sand dollars (I think). They looked just like the fossils you find on the beach with the flower shape on their shells. Except these ones were like flat starfish with all the little tentacles. They were everywhere along the beach.
Our neighbours at the Tigh-Na-Mara Resort in Parksville. We had a little log cabin nestled in the woods, all very rustic. One of our day-trips was to Cathedral Grove which is a protected old-growth forest of Douglas Fir, Red Cedar and Hemlock (mostly). Like I said... Big. And, speaking of big, I've been working the great blond afro these days. Thank you Peter Burke for inspiring me to go large.Back in the southern part of the island in Cowichan Bay, Colin and I took the Mill Bay Ferry across to Brentwood Bay every chance we could. I love looking at all the sail boats traveling up the coast. This one (a staggering 150 feet) was from the Grand Cayman. We passed the owners walking up to the Brentwood Bay Lodge. They looked like drug barons from an episode of Hawaii Five-O.

And... cause I promised months ago to include a shot of a clean-shaven Colin, here ya go. This is as close as we get these days.

I think this was taken twenty minutes post-shave.