Two weeks on the Island! Michelle needed to wrap up her rural rotation in Chemainus, so we loaded up the car, and off we went to Vancouver Island (initially to the Dedication, a la the previous post). I was especially happy to be heading over, since we were going to be staying at my grandparents’ place near Cedar, which is just south of Nanaimo, and about half an hour from Chemainus. My grandparents have been in this house since before I was born, and our family has a lot of memories there, but it’s become too much work for them to maintain, so it’s just gone up on the market. We were so happy to be able to soak up the atmosphere, hang out with my grandparents and take some pics so we could show Belle one day where her daddy had spent a lot of time poking through tidal pools, swimming in the salt-water pool and fishing off the dock.
Most of the days consisted of Michelle taking off for work early in the morning, and I’d hang out with my grandparents, go for walks in the woods or along the beach, and generally relax. On days where Michelle was on call, I’d come to Chemainus for lunch and hang out there until Michelle was finished at 10:30. Our friends Marilyn and Wayne graciously provided us with a place to hang out whenever Michelle wasn’t in the clinic or ER, and we had a great time hanging out in Chemainus as well.
And then there was Easter weekend. We woke up to a stormy morning, but nothing seemed unmanageable. Michelle left for work, and I started making preparations for us to head down at lunch, since it was a call day. Then the power went out. Since we were imminently going to need to heat a bottle, Grandpa went out to get another propane bottle for the camp stove, only to find that downed trees were blocking the road. Luckily there was some residual hot water, so that was fine for the short term. A little later a giant cedar branch crashed down on the carport, right next to the room that Belle and I were napping in. It was a startling way to wake up. I missed our lunch meeting, but was able to make it out for dinner after the neighbours cleared the road. By the end of Michelle’s shift, we were wondering where we’d go next. Grandma and Grandpa had gone to stay the night at my Aunt and Uncle’s place, but we needed somewhere we could take the dog. Since we didn’t know how long the outage would last, I headed back to Cedar and packed up all our stuff in the dark, then turned around and picked up Michelle in Chemainus, and we all headed down to Victoria for heat and hot water! We spent two nights in Victoria with my parents (my grandparents ended up joining us for the second night), before we all headed back up on Sunday. The power was shaky, turning on and off throughout our Easter dinner, but it was a great time, and an Easter we won’t forget.
The rest of the week continued as normal and on Wednesday we took my grandparents out for sushi as a thankyou for being such great hosts. They’d mentioned that they’d love to try it, but hadn’t had the opportunity, so we were more than happy to oblige. They were total adventurers, and loved everything we put in front of them. On Friday, I packed our stuff up, went for one last walk to Boat Harbour and down to the water, and we headed to the ferry. My grandparents saw us off with a feast of shrimp and bacon-wrapped scallops and a glass of wine, and all in all, it was a great ending to a fantastic couple weeks. If it sells before we’re back, we’ll miss it a lot, but we said our goodbyes to it and are really excited about Grandma and Grandpa’s potential new home on the lake, where they can say goodbye to cooking and cleaning and yardwork and just enjoy a well-earned rest.