Canada Day and an Island Day Trip

This past weekend was great. Really wonderful.



Friday was Canada Day! I sure do love a good holiday day off – and a chance to wear Red and White to celebrate my country. As I mentioned yesterday, I spent much of Canada Day prepping food for Prakash’s stag. BUT I managed to also have a good sleep in, and a chance to eat breakfast with my sweet husband. AND I got to rest for a bit before Kathleen came over. As soon as we were done the food prep I headed out in my red and white (no blue!) to join our church’s Canada Day BBQ. When I got there they were playing games in the park; I arrived just in time to join in on waterballoon volleyball. Excellent. Then we wandered over to my aunt and uncle’s house for a BBQ. There were mini hot dogs, mini burgers and mini chicken burgers. There were tons of people to talk to and I managed to stay in their back yard chatting, eating and relaxing from about 5:30 until 11! At that point I needed to head home to finish cleaning the house for Paul so it would be ready for the stag.


Saturday morning I woke up bright and early (6:20am!!) to get ready to meet my parents (at 6:45am, yech) and head to the Island for the day. We caught the 8:30am ferry. Mom did crosswords, I read people magazine and Dad slept in the car. We had lunch with my Grandma in Port Alberni, and Jenna and her boys were able to join us. We are the Pine Café, which despite it’s greasiness and complete unhealthiness, is one of my favorite restaurants. I love choice! And buffet!


My parents and I went back to my grandma’s to take naps (we’d been up so early!!) before I headed out to visit Amy and Tami. Love seeing friends! Then we headed out to the lake to go to the Fall’s house. It was Mr. Fall’s retirement party – and the reason for our day trip. Mr and Mrs Falls both taught me and have been good family friends since before I was born. They also host the best parties. Specifically, the best teacher parties. I have always loved their parties. Every New Years Day they host one and I loved going growing up. Interestingly, they have a son my age (and in my classes at school) and he would invite friends to the party as well…but he was popular so his friends were popular. I was NOT popular. So I’d go to these parties and downstairs were a bunch of my classmates. I definitely never felt I could go join them – terrifying to face popular people uninvited! And my school was one with a MAJOR class division. There were populars and unpopular and there was a huge divide between those two. SO I would always stay upstairs with my parents, and their friends (including many teachers). Especially as I got older, I loved the chance to talk to my favorite teachers. There were 4 in particular (well 3 teachers and one teachers wife) that I just LOVED talking to at these parties and every year we would have great chats. I was so hoping they would be at this party and they were!!! I was so excited, and happily they were just as excited to see me. Hopefully Paul and I will be able to get together with them the next time we’re in each others respective towns and in the mean time it was great to connect. They all said I hadn’t changed at all – well this year is my 10 year reunion, so I’m surprised to hear that in 10 years I appear fairly similar as I feel I sure have changed!


Mr and Mrs Falls have a great house for throwing parties, but there is also something in how they host that makes it feel welcoming and lovely. It’s a trick I would LOVE to learn. When I own a home, I’d love for it to have a similar feel. It is probably partially due to the fact that they have a great home; an open wooden a frame, overlooking Sproat Lake with dock and hot tub...that’s a pretty good start to any party. But they have a system of food and drink that works well. They both always appear to be enjoying the party (not seeming to worry about making sure everything is perfect) which allows guests to really enjoy. That is a huge skill!


It was a great weekend. I loved spending the day with my parents, I loved seeing old friends and I always love a good trip to the Island. I sure do miss that place. Vancouver may be where my friends and family are. It’s where jobs are. It’s where my community is. BUT if I could take all of that with me, I’d leave Vancouver in a split second for the Island. I miss lakes and rivers. I miss swimming without a billion other people on the beach next to me. I miss only driving 5 minutes to Costco and Wal-Mart, rather than an hour. I miss small towns and good restaurants that don’t cost an arm and a leg. I miss going grocery shopping and knowing half the customers there.


Anyways, it’s time to get back to work – I have a crazy full office to pack up for a lawyer here. This weekend is full with Kathleen’s stagette and seeing friends on Saturday in Langley. Pictures of the party to come!