Best laid plans
It was such a lovely holiday Monday, we thought why not drive off and explore the phenomenon of micro-climates. Ok, it didn’t quite go down that way, it was more like, ‘hey let’s find this cool new beach we heard about near Bowser.”
So we’re motoring up the island highway past Parksville, then Qualicum Beach, the sun is blazing, the kids are singing along to ‘Come On Eileen,’ when up ahead we see dark ominous clouds. That’s way past Bowser, no worries we said. We pull off the highway and head up the Seaside route and those dark clouds seem a little closer. By the time we pull up to the beach, it’s hailing!
Now, as we huddled on the beach, the magnificent mountain scenery somewhere in front of us behind a mass of grey cloud, we looked to the left – sunshine – and we looked to the right – sunshine – and we looked at each other and ran back to the car.
Fortunately, this is Vancouver Island and if one fun trip doesn’t pan out, you’ve got another waiting for you just down the road. Ours turned out to be Qualicum Beach. First a stop at the Shady Rest with a beautiful window seat on the ocean (pretty much every table has a great view and lots of light anyway, but it’s always nice to be right at the window) and delicious fish and chips.
Then it was out on the beach for more than an hour of dodging geoduck sprays, spelling practice in the sand (my husband says that having fun is no excuse not to be learning every second… yea, he’s a barrel of laughs), and skating on the flat sand. You’d be surprised how many skating moves the girls got in.
Boy did the generation gap show out there on the sunny, but windy April beach. I in my kerchief and pa in his cap… or at least three layers of clothing, while the kids were running around in just their bathing suits. I vaguely remember that metabolism. Meanwhile George is trying to conduct a lesson on the effect of the sun’s rays on epidermal layers. That’s right Grace, put that dead crab on his shoulder.
As for that beach near Bowser, we’ll report back when we’ve seen it in the sunshine.
