Spring Break on Vancouver Island!

We got back yesterday from a wonderful trip up to Vancouver Island! We left on Saturday, April 2nd, so were gone a week. We left Saturday morning around 10:30 and drove up to the border crossing. We were planning to cross at Peach Arch, but since the testing requirement ended just the day before our trip, it turns out the border crossings were very busy on Saturday:-/. The truck crossing showed a bit less busy so we crossed there, only had to wait about 10-15 minutes with our Nexus passes. We got to the ferry with plenty of time to spare for lunch at the terminal. We had a really nice ferry and scored a great spot to sit for the 1.5 hour journey. We got to James and Sarah's around 4:15pm - it was so great to see them again! We had a great time catching up with them over dinner, and went back to the hotel around 8:30 so the boys could do some swimming before bed (Lynsey stayed at the Doerksens). Our room was small but nice enough, I actually slept really well which is unusual for the first night in a hotel!

The next morning we headed back to the Doerksens for breakfast. They had a few things going on, so late morning we went back to the hotel to do some swimming (James joined us with the kids). We had lunch at Tim Hortons and hung around the hotel for the early part of the afternoon for some down time. I started my quest to find Cadbury Mini Eggs - what is up with Costco only stocking Eggies! What are these imposters anyway! Thankfully I found them at Superstore, and for a great price:-D. We met James and Sarah at the bowling alley and did some bowling with them which was fun. After bowling, we headed back to their place for some dinner and the Oilers game (we won, woohoo!). Another fun day with the Doerksens!

Monday we checked out of the hotel and headed back to James and Sarah's for breakfast. Sarah kept the kids home from school for the morning and James delayed going into work, so we got to spend a little more time with them before heading out to Parksville. We had lunch at A&W on our way out, and got to Parksville mid-afternoon. Our room was ready so we got in right away, and what an amazing room it was! It was a huge one bedroom suite with an amazing ocean view, and attached to our room was a sizable two queen hotel room - just for the kids. It was beyond perfect for our family. Mark and Frances got there shortly after we did, and they had a regular room as well just beside the kids room, so we hung out in our suite. We had dinner at Boston Pizza, checked out the pool, and settled in for an early night. 

Tuesday we had a leisurely start to the day, except both Brian and I decided to go for a run on the boardwalk (not together since he is so much faster than me!). It was nice to get a bit of exercise to combat all the eating! Brian took the boys swimming in the morning before lunch, which we had in the suite. We went mini golfing in the afternoon which was a lot of fun, it was a really nice course. The weather was a bit finicky at the start but the threat of rain went away almost right away. Adam just followed a safe distance behind us, and it worked out really well that we were literally the only people on the course. We could take our time and Adam could settle at whichever hole he felt like. We got the kids some ice cream and headed back to the room. Brian and I took a walk to check out low tide, there weren't that many interesting things to see but it was a nice walk. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was pretty good, and had a movie night with Lynsey in the evening. A lovely, relaxing day!

Wednesday was Frances' birthday, so we started the day with some celebratory mimosas with breakfast! More swimming for the boys followed, and a leisurely afternoon. We were going to check out this glass blowing place, but it turned out to just be a gift shop with nothing really to see, so at the last minute we decided to visit this dairy farm. It was actually a fun little excursion! Everyone enjoyed seeing the baby cows, and we got some really delicious cheese to take home. A winning change of plans! We ordered pizza for the kids for dinner, and the four of us adults went to a nice restaurant across the street from the hotel. It was a delicious meal, and we got a free dessert because it was Frances' birthday:-D. When we got back to the room, Frances, Lynsey and I left to go for a late night drink at Tim Horton's, just for fun! It turned out Tim Hortons closed at 9, so we ended up going to McDonalds. It was a fun outing for just the girls! 

Thursday we took it easy in the morning and checked out of the room around 11:30. We stopped at a barbeque place in Nanaimo for lunch, it was delicious! We stopped at the Malahat Skywalk on the way back to Victoria - it was such a fun stop! The weather was gorgeous, and the views from the top of the skywalk were breathtaking! The kids had fun with the slide, Adam went exactly twice - as is his custom with waterslides as well. Always twice. He had fun sprinkling rocks on the ground after, he refused to go all the way to the top of the skywalk with us so unfortunately all 7 of us couldn't be at the top at once. We did get a group photo at the bottom which was still a nice view. 

We got to Victoria around 5 and got checked into the hotel. It was a nice enough hotel, the two bedroom suite wasn't anywhere near as spacious as what we had in Parksville (we were so spoiled!) but it was still nice to have the two bedrooms and living area. The ensuite bathroom only had a tub which was odd, but thankfully the second bathroom had a shower (apparently some of the suites don't even have that!). We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner which was nice, good pasta for a very reasonable price. It was windy and cold so we just walked straight back to the room after, it was time for bed shortly after anyway. 

Friday was our only full day in Victoria, and we decided to head over to Miniature World after breakfast. It was a really neat stop, better than I expected! Nathan had been begging for a Slurpee the whole trip, so we stopped at 7-11 on the way back to the room and got the kids Slurpees. The pool in our hotel was closed for cleaning, but we had access to the pool at the Fairmont Empress, so Brian and I took the boys there afterwards while Lynsey went to Starbucks with Mark and Frances. It was a pretty nice pool, definitely a higher end hotel than we were staying at! We relaxed in the room and walked down to Milestones by the water for dinner. Our last dinner out! Nathan wanted to go for a ride in the water taxi, so while everyone else went back to the room after dinner, Nathan and I got a mini harbor tour from a very friendly water taxi driver for about 20 minutes:-). We watched another movie when we got back to the room before calling it a night, The Adam Project. We all really enjoyed it!

Saturday morning, it was time to pack up and head back home! Everything went off without a hitch, we got checked out and made it back to the ferry terminal with lots of time to have some lunch. We stopped at a Superstore close to the border for some farmer sausage of course, and the border crossing was super easy. We got the boys ID Now Covid tests at the Walgreens in Bellingham, I had a mild cold right before our trip and everyone else got it while we were gone. I was 95% sure it wasn't Covid, but I knew that the boys would need a test to be able to go back to school since they had symptoms (got the results now and they are negative, phew!). We made it home around 6pm. A long day of traveling, but everyone pitched it with unpacking and it was done pretty quickly.

Such a fun trip! Not a ton of activity, a lot of relaxing, but it was just right for us. Today was a catch up day, laundry etc. Did not go to church because of Adam's coughing, already a lot better today thankfully. Tomorrow real life begins again! School, work, the gym (gonna be a rough one!). Hopefully we can get back into the swing of things without too much trouble!