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Published: August 15th 2007
Right before the hike at Skookumchuk
From left to right:
Nancy (not facing the camera), Russ (Carol's husband), and Tony
Wow, is it raining ever hard... I hope our electricity stays intact! It just came on again after having been out since Friday night (after a storm.)
Anyway, the electricity thing put my BC blog on hold. Here goes (p.s. all last names will be just one letter... if anyone in the family has a question about what the name is, just email me):
Sunday, 7/28, John, Mom, and I rented a car in Seattle and drove up to Egmont, on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. That night, we met Wendy (my third cousin, 18 yrs. hold), and her parents (Randy L. and Jackie), and we also met Katie A., of course! The lady at the front desk of the lodge showed us to our rooms. I shared a room with three other girls -- Wendy, Claire (another third cousin - she is 17 -- her parents are Ray and Suzanne B.), and 9-year-old Hana! Hana is one of three kids (she has two brothers) -- their mom is Atsuko, and their dad is John L.
John (my brother) stayed in a room with three other boys -- Colin (Claire's brother), Kona and Kai (Hana's two brothers.)
Mom stayed with a woman named Judy (Katie A's sister.) It was nice that we were put with people around our age... and not just grouped in immediate families, because it helped us get to know everyone better. Couples stayed together, but other than that, we were mixed pretty well with people we had yet to get to know.
Monday, a bunch of us went down a hiking trail called Skookumchuk (I hope I spelled that right) and ended up at a strait, where there were lots of purple starfish (and a few pink ones), sea urchines, lots of cool-looking seaweed, and some hermit crabs. It was really beautiful... and it was fun holding the starfish. The rocks were completely covered with mussels. It was definitely cool.
That night, about ten or fifteen of us went on the sunset cruise, which was a boat ride (as you might guess) in the evening. We went through the Skookumchuk Rapids, and saw these crazy but great kayakers going through those rapids. It is a very popular destination for serious kayakers.
Tuesday, Katie A. and Tony (her husband -- and a professional tour guide, by the way!) were nice enough
to have EVERYONE at their house! First, a bunch of us hung out at a beach. Randy, Wendy, Colin, Hana and I swam out to a tiny island where there were lots of starfish. Hana and I coined it "Mussel Island" since it was completely covered in mussels. We had lunch at Katie and Tony's house, and were given a family quiz. 😊 Needless to say, us S.'s learned a lot that we didn't know. Their house is very fun -- you'll see in the pictures what I mean. That afternoon, after lunch, we went to a beach (where Hana, Kai, Colin and I swam out to a tall island and picked mulberries on it) and then had a really great potluck dinner. Katie's band played (I joined in after I felt less shy) and some people danced. It was a really fun evening. It helped us get to know everyone in the group, since we were all together at the same time.
Wednesday, my mom, John, and I went on a boat ride again with about ten others. It was called the Princess Louisa cruise... it was amazingly beautiful. We stopped at Chatterbox Falls, which was named after
more of the forest
I liked all of the ferns. the Native American women who hung out by the waterfall chatting a lot. 😊 While we were at that waterfall, John and I got to hang out with Paul and Cara B. (the newlyweds -- both very nice!) -- Paul is our third cousin.
I'll write about the second part of the week tomorrow.
****Edit*********
It is now 1:04 AM on Wednesday morning, and I finally have all the pictures organized and captioned... sorry it took so long!
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Mrs. Happy
non-member comment
from andrea
Wow! everything looks so beautiful!! I wish I could have been there. I'm glad you had a good time!