The excitement of the holiday began early. It started months ago for me but for everyone else in the house it started when the alarm went off at 4:30am. With everything packed the day before all that remained was to load the car and off we went on our summer holiday! It could be argued that this was our second holiday of the summer, after San Diego, but we won’t count that as i had to work. It’s also worth noting that the second/third summer holiday is also planned for just a few weeks time.
We drove up the I5 enjoying typical holiday weather – pouring rain – but my app had said the weather would be good this week so I kept believing. Although only 5 in the morning we munched away on breakfast bars, diet coke, Pringles, bananas and iced coffees! The further north we got the better the weather, which was a relief. We’d packed the boys in car entertainment system but as it was so early they’d been told they couldn’t watch it on this stretch of the journey which meant we were once again subjected to the Harry in car entertainment system, which basically consists of noise. Lots of it. Non-stop and completely irrelevant to anything that is gong on or requested. He’s like this every time he gets in a car. I’m not sure what happens to him but every time, without fail, noise and nonsense erupts.
Apart from telling Harry to be quiet, it was a pretty uneventful journey and we arrived at the Anacortes ferry terminal at about 6:45am. The road that leads to the terminal has some lovely houses along it which would make for the ideal place for us to live. I could sit on the deck staring out at the San Juans and Tracy could sit watching the ferries all day long. Perfect.
We parked the car and went for a short walk to stretch our legs. Since treading on a giant slug down the side of the garage a couple of weeks ago, it’s fair to say that Toby is somewhat traumatised by the sight of slugs. As we watched ferries arrive down by the dock he saw lots of big fat horrible slugs. A this point he lost the ability to put one foot in front of the other and just asked to be picked up! What a big brave boy!
At just before 8am our ferry started to board. With a few shouts from the bossy ferry parking assistant we were in place and off. With hot chocolates in hand we sat watching the islands go by until we turned to go pick up some more travellers at Friday Harbor. Toby clearly has happy memories of San Juan island because he wants to go back there, and fortunately for him it won’t be long until we do, when Aunty A comes for her next visit.
The best thing about the ferry trip across, apart from some distant eagle and seal sightings was the fact that one of the cars we picked up at Friday Harbor had a New Hampshire licence plate. Nothing very exciting about that you may think but actually this was the last state licence plate they needed to see to compete their board that they got for Christmas. It took us just over 8 months but we got there in the end.
Just after 11am the ferry docked at Sidney. We drove off, got our passports stamped and set off towards Parksville with a planned detour for lunch at Merrivale Cidery. The GPS didn’t want to cooperate to begin with but eventually it ended its funny turn and took us to lunch. I had been following Merrivale Cidery on twitter for a few months and read lots of tweets about the lovely food they were making and serving so I thought we ought to find out. It was somewhat off the beaten track but it clearly has a good reputation as there were lots of people there. The Cidery was in a beautiful setting and we had some lovely food overlooking the orchard. With food, cider and fresh apple juice consumed we were soon on our way again.
The drive up to Parksville had lots of views, lakes and swooping eagles. It was just a couple of hours up from Sidney but by the time we reached our hotel (the Beach Club Resort) we had all had enough of being in the car. After checking into our beach front room and unpacking enough to get us through one night, we got into our swimming gear and went to the pool and hot tub for a bit of exercise and a refresh. After a swim it was back to the room for a relax in the sunshine and some playing on the PS Vitas before heading a couple of miles down the road to play a round of crazy golf.
There were two courses to choose from, Lagoon or Mountain, and the boys went for lagoon. The Lagoon course has, obviously, water running all around it and with his very first shot Toby managed to hit his ball straight into the water. We feared the worst at this point, as we had to go and ask for another ball, but fortunately he got better and we didn’t lose any more. Golf turned out to be three competing boys trying hard to win while Tracy went quietly about her business of sinking every putt. There was clearly only going to be one winner but that didn’t stop competitive boys enjoying each others mistakes! Toby turned out to be the king of the hole in one but on the last hole Harry and I both managed a hole in one and that meant we got a voucher each for another round of golf. So off Harry and Toby went round the mountain course. Without the calming influence of their parents playing they went to pieces and were atrocious – particularly Toby who did the first 18 holes in 72 shots and the second 18 in one hundred and something!
With golf complete we went back to the hotel, parked the car and set off in search of a late evening snack. We found one restaurant that had good reviews online but when we walked in they seemed a little unsure as to whether they had any food left – minor detail for a restaurant! I think they were newly opened but I feel like having food could be the key to their success. As it turned out they had most things apart from vegetables! To be fair they didn’t appear overly offended when we declined to stay and in fact they were nice enough to recommend a fish a chip restaurant just over the road which we went to and it turned out to be very good. In fact it was so good that Toby said it was the best fish and chips he’s ever had (he can’t remember any English fish and chips) and Tracy said it was the best she’s had since leaving the UK.
We left the restaurant just before 9pm ad walked down to the beach because I wanted to take pictures of the sunset. And what a sunset it was too. I don’t remember a more stunning sunset – the sky was beautiful and the water was dead calm. After lots of pictures we went for a short stroll along the boardwalk until we reached what turned out to be the Parksville sand sculpture competition but more about that tomorrow.
And with that a long, eventful day was over. All that was left was to crash into bed and call fast asleep!
All the pictures are here!