Well it’s been nearly two weeks now since I got back from my trip out west. I’ve been meaning to post about it, but it feels like I haven’t had a chance to just sit down and relax since I got back. I’m there now though, sitting back with a beer, getting ready to type out a regular ‘Kevin Story’. Warning…this is gonna be a long one!
It all started on Friday, July 30th around 2 in the afternoon. Our (Dave and me) flight wasn’t until 4:35 or so, but I like to get to the airport early, just in case. As it turned out, 2 hours early wasn’t really necessary, but like I said, I’d rather be safe than sorry. Bonnie was nice enough to come and pick us up at work and drive us to the airport. I got to sit in the back of the car with Maya who wasn’t too impressed with being forced to sit so close to me. :)
The flights there (we stopped in Calgary for about 40 mintues) were pretty uneventful. I had never flown WestJet before so all the little jokes they do were all new to me so I found them actually quite entertaining. While we were stopped in Calgary, I took the opportunity to visit the ‘flight deck’ of the Boeing 727(700 series) that we were flying in. I chatted with the first officer for a while, asking him how he became a commercial airline pilot and stuff. I didn’t get to spend as much time up there as I would have liked because they were changing flight crews.
We arrived in Vancouver somewhere around 8 o’clock if I remember correctly. Boris had arranged for his friend Joey to pick us up at the airport and drive us to the ferry terminal so we wouldn’t miss the last boat to Bowen. For some reason, Dave thought that Joey’s name was actually Jason, so that’s what I called him when we met him. I think I only called him that maybe 3 times on the way to the boat, but when I found out that his name was actually Joey…I was pretty embarassed. It didn’t matter though, he said he didn’t even notice. He dropped us off at the ferry terminal, after giving us a bit of a tour of Vancouver on the way, with a couple of Stellas for the ride over to Bowen. Nice way to start the vacation!
We arrived on Bowen, which was WAY more mountainous that I ever expected it to be, sometime around 10 I think. We hiked up the hill to the Bowen Island Pub where we met up with everybody. And by everybody, I mean Steve, Jody, Matt, Alix, Troy, Tanya, Boris, Kate, Rob, Anna and Shayne. My apologies to anyone else who may have been there that I missed. Dave and I got a couple of pizza’s and got in on some of the drinking that was going on. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, while we were waiting for the ferry to arrive, we called up Boris and he told us about our new nickname for the trip…The HagSmith!
After a few beers, we piled into the Alix and Matt’s rental car and headed for the Hollybarry Cottage which we had rented for three nights. I was very pleased when we got there! Dave and I had a room with bunk beds! The bottom bunk was a double size and the top was a single. Luckily I was taller than Dave and had to take the bottom bunk so I could sleep diagonal. :) The cottage also included a sauna which was outside, off the deck, but not too far. We fired that baby up as soon as we got back. It didn’t take long to institute a ‘towels only’ rule for the sauna. :) After a few more beers and some time in the sauna, it was time for bed. I had been up for something like 20 hours so it didn’t take long before I was asleep. Although I think Dave may have set a world record for falling asleep the fastest!
Saturday we got up up and headed down to check out our ocean access. It was quite the road we had to walk down to get there, and that can be seen from this sign. Turned out we had a dock at our disposal, complete with a diving board! I think I proved, without a doubt, that I’m not much of a diver.
After the swimming, we met up with everyone at the wedding site. It was an old church with a hall next door. In beind there was a large field which is where the reception was going to be. We set up tents, tables and chairs. We got out dishes and things and got stuff ready for the next day.
After the setup, we were invited to Seven Hills Bed & Breakfast (owen by Boris’ parents) for some lunch. We got to try all kinds of crazy things there, like spreadable meat! Great stuff! Then it was off to a beach for some swimming. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I managed to let Boris talk me into swimming out to this old ‘pirate ship’ and back. Steve was with us too, but I think Steve is in probably the best shape of his life right now so the swim was nothing to him. To me…it was unbelievably tiring. By the time I got back to shore, I could barely walk I was so tired. That didn’t stop me from trying to do some log rolling with the boys though. :)
After that we headed over to a park (can’t remember the name of it) where the BBQ was to take place. One the way we stopped to meet up with some of Kate’s relatives. We also got a chance to pick some more blackberries…you can find blackberries everywhere on Bowen! It was fantastic!
The BBQ was great. I filled up on burgers and dogs and dessert before I realized that Joey (or was it Mike?) had brought some salmon. Apparently it was really good. After eating, we got a game of pick-up Ultimate going. We made the mistake of playing barefoot…on a not so nice field. Nobody got hurt or anything, but our feet were pretty sore afterwards. It was good fun, but Jody kept burning us all for points!
Back to the cottage (with Foo and Agnes in tow this time) for some more sauna time. I think we turned in early on Saturday night because we wanted to be fresh for the wedding the next day.
Well it turns out this is A LOT longer than I was expecting it would be at this point. I’m only through 2 days (really only one full day and a day of travelling) and this is already super long. I think I’ll end this post here and pick up from this point in another post tomorrow…