Vancouver Island 2022

Hi it’s Madeline and Claire!!!  (and a teensy tiny microscopic bit of help from everyone else but not really)   To start off the day, we woke up bright and early, packed our things, ate breakfast and drove to Cox Bay Beach.  We met the surf company there and proceeded to wrestle, shimmy, struggle, squeeze and squish into our skintight wetsuits.  Before catching the gnarly waves we had a detailed lesson on the beach focusing on the four P’s of surfing; Pick your wave, Position yourself, Paddle, and Pop up (and Celeste’s secret fifth P, peeing prohibited.)  Then we got in the water and tried our hand at surfing! The guides helped us with the first couple waves and then we were free to experiment more independently, while they offered occasional advice. Crystal was a natural and popped up on her first try! Everyone loved surfing and rocked the totally tubular ripple-y waters. After about an hour and half in the water and some very successful surfs, we peeled oursel...

Hi everyone this is Celeste with todays post. First we got up at 7 am (some of us didn’t get up till 7:20) for an 8 am departure. Breakfast was a schmorgasbord of leftovers (and new this morning - cereal and milk option). I believe I ate enough tiny apricots to feed a small village.  Our first stop was a kayaking tour. It was a bit early in the morning so Kiera told the instructors that she was "from Keira" rather than Edmonton. We all had a little laugh; the instructor’s names were Jess and Lauren.  I was not nervous about tipping over in the boat (I say definitely not lying through my teeth). The kayaking itself was lovely; we had amazing views during low tide and saw much wildlife such as starfish, anemones, fried egg jellyfish, and bald eagles. Madeline was the first to spot a crab in the seaweed; Claire was envious, as she really wanted to see the crab as well but did eventually spot one herself. We had some trouble starting the trip with steering the boat and such but C...