Liquid Sunshine

Last weekend we went over to the Sunshine Coast for a few days. It was the maiden voyage of our vanagon (still unnamed -- Nik vetoed "Sheila" but hasn't come up with anything better yet) and my mom's first time on the Coast. It was also Elliot's first ferry ride. (At least as far as he's concerned. He's actually been on the ferry before, but he was such a small baby that it probably doesn't really count.) He managed to sleep through most of the trip there, and was a tad disgruntled to find himself on a "scary ferry" when he woke up.

We stayed in Roberts Creek, on the recommendation of my friend Tara, who lived there for ten years and gave us a long list of things to see and do. ("And if it's raining," she suggested, "just think of it as liquid sunshine.") The weather, in fact, was less than sunny. Though there was a nice orange glow in the sky waaaaay off to the south.


We stayed at a great b&b called Artists In Residence, run by two glassblowers named Dyan and David. Yes, glassblowers. Yes, their house was filled with priceless glass objects. And yes, they knew ahead of time that we were bringing a toddler along. Bless 'em. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures there -- probably because I was too busy hurling myself between Elliot and the hand-blown glass art objects to pick up the camera. Plus my camera battery died on the ferry ride over and I didn't manage to get it charged until Sunday morning. But hey.


Roberts Creek is pretty small -- heck, the whole Sunshine Coast is pretty small -- so even hamstrung as we were by Elliot's dictatorial nap schedule, we managed to see quite a bit. We tooled up the coast to the beach at Davis Bay (at least, we were led to believe that at low tide there is a beach where we were walking), with the waves pounding the shore a foot or two from the sidewalk. We lunched in Sechelt at one of the many Wheatberry cafes (serving yummy food and staffed by some friendly young women with serious THC-induced short-term memory loss). We scanned the available real estate listings (cheaper than Vancouver, but not cheap).


We went to the beach at Roberts Creek, where Elliot enjoyed the mandala and we walked down the pier in the bracing winter air.

Nik and Grandma taught Elliot how to throw a rock. Or at least how to say "one, two, three -- let go!" The throwing wasn't so successful.

We took a nice hike in Cliff Gilker Park. Virginia had to feel the water (yes, it was very cold). There were huge trees and a beautiful creek (Roberts Creek? I guess) running through it with several waterfalls ranging from charming to impressive.

Elliot decided to scrap the nap schedule and fell asleep in the backpack. So we walked another 45 minutes, much to Nik's delight.


Then it was back on the ferry for a nice ride home. (But only after whacking my head, hard, against the side of the van as I tried somewhat ungracefully to get Elliot into his car seat. Ow.)


As peaceful and lovely as it is on the Sunshine (haha) Coast, it was nice to be back in the hustle-bustle of Vancouver again. I really am a city girl at heart.