Blair's Blog

This is the third year for our family to go to Thetis Island to one of Capernwray Harbour’s Holiday Bible Camps. This year we totally changed our mode of transportation and flew to Vancouver using Aeroplan points. We then rented a SUV (using Aeroplan points again), hopped on the ferry to Duke Point, drove to Chemanius, caught up with Opa and Oma and caught our second ferry but this time to Thetis Island. So what in the past has taken us three days, a couple nights in hotel, many kms in the confined space of a minivan, took only 10 hours. The kids still got to ride on the ferry and I was in a much better mental state.

Ok, so the Big One was not the trip out here. So, what was it? Capernwray has many activities but one that Alyssa looks forward to the most is to go Ocean fishing. The fishing trips are done on a lottery system because there are only 8 spots and with over 100 guests the chances are pretty slim to get your name picked. Well in typical Langendoen (my maiden name) fashion for the past 3 years we have managed to get our names picked to go fishing. The first year, Alyssa and I went, the second year, Dave and Mark went and this year, Alyssa and I got to go again.

At 6:00am this morning Alyssa and I assembled all the necessary fishing gear – snacks, fashionable hat, camera (charged and with lots of memory), lucky fishing dress and last but not least we sent our chai wallah (Dave) to go and get us coffee and hot chocolate.
We were ready!! After a 20 minute ride in the fishing boat it was time to drop our lines. This being Alyssa’s second time she demonstrated the pro that she was and first caught a rock cod (which waved at us with spiky fins), then a greenling, then a sea cucumber, and then to finish the trip off Alyssa caught the Big One! A Ling Cod that was easily over 5 lbs. Still not quite big enough to keep but pretty impressive all the same.

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So we are on our way to the West Coast – except we were tired of that old RV and had to get something bigger. So we got an Airbus 319. Well, Air Canada is letting us have the use of it for an hour or so.
Actually, with all the Lancaster visit business, we just got too pressed for time to be able to drive comfortably, so we are flying to Vancouver and renting a car. We’ll be at Thetis this afternoon.

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This past weekend was the 3rd annual Cousin’s Birthday Bash for all the cousins on Brenda’s side of the family. We’ve been at Cow Lake Recreational Area each of the last two years at the day use area on the beach. It was nice but also a bit of a chore to keep track of all the little ones so near to the water and organizing all the food and presents was a logistical challenge. This year we decided to try something a little different.

Ronny and Carla are adjacent to a church camp property and have a good relationship with the camp board. It turned out that the camp was not in use this weekend, so Ronny booked it for the family to use for this year’s birthday bash. We also increased the duration of the event and started on Friday evening and went right through to Saturday evening. We started with a pizza supper in the camp dining hall to kick things off. Accommodations were all at Ronny and Carla’s place – Barry stayed in Ronny and Carla’s guest cabin (Breana, who is expecting in the fall, stayed at home with Noela). We drove up in the RV and used the parking pad and hookup next to the guest cabin.

Friday evening after dinner, Ronny set up a screen and projector and we all watched a movie in the camp dining hall. Some of the older boys decided to sleep at the camp in one of the cabins. Once the younger ones were settled the adults all gathered around the campfire and chatted til after midnight. Morning came soon enough with the kids eager to start the day – each family had breakfast on their own and a free morning for the kids to just run about.

After having tacos for the noon meal, we gathered all the kids for the gift exchange. Instead of drawing names as in past years, we did the gift exchange “Yankee” style – each present fit the theme “Summer Fun”. The rest of the afternoon the kids played with their gifts – at least the ones they could retrieve from their uncles! We played some wide games until the injuries put a stop to the fooling around – no serious damage, but I did bang up some ribs and Steven twisted his foot.

Dinner was burgers and smokies , then we just let the kids all run about until dark.  As the adults were tidying up in the evening, we commented on how great it was to see the kids forming and reforming little groups of 2 to 5 as they got an idea for a game or project. We also noticed that we had a mountain of extra food. So we decided, on the spot, to extend the party for one more day.

Sunday we slept in a bit, then had breakfast by family again. Later in the morning we watched a slide show of Brenda’s trip to England and had a family church service. There were more than enough leftovers for everyone to have a good lunch. After cleaning up the camp kitchen and dining hall, we headed for the beach at Crimson Lake with all the kids and spend a couple of hours just enjoying the sun and the water. We stayed at the beach til after 6:00pm.

By the time we got back to the RV, loaded up and headed home it was getting late. We pulled in about 10:30, did a lightning unload and all fell into our beds. It was a great summer weekend!

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Well, we’ve gone and done it. After kicking the idea around for a couple of years, we’ve bought ourselves an RV. Despite not really being the camping types, it’s increasingly expensive to go the hotel route when we travel. Hotels also mean constant unpacking and repacking, not to mention that most, if not all, meals are in restaurants. The idea of an RV where we can each have our things packed away and where we’ve some freedom to just pull over and make sandwiches does have a certain appeal.

So, at the end of May, we noticed our neighbours down the street had a “for sale” sign in the RV that they’ve owned for years, so we went and had a look. Their RV was in great condition, low mileage and the price was good. So we decided to go for it!

We’ve had two trips in it so far, the first was an overnight to Brenda’s brother’s place near Caroline, just to see how it drives. The second was on the Canada Day weekend – this time we were out two nights and made sure to test all the systems – water, heat, fridge, plumbing. We still haven’t stayed at a real campground, we kind of jammed out and “camped” in Brenda’s parents driveway up in Rocky Mountain House. We’re starting to get the hang of it and hope to manage a weekend at a real campground to make sure we know how to operate everything. We need to get the skillset fully functional this month since we are planning to head for the west coast in the RV later this summer.

We’ll do a similar trip to what we did last year to Vancouver Island, but this time we’ll take a little more time and will be able to spend a little more time visiting friends along the way. We’re looking forward to it!

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