Leaving Pacific Rim

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La vida in retirement-ville

July 4, we arose an at obscenely early hour to bid farewell to Pacific Rim National Park - went to Long Beach and watched it rain for 15 minutes, basically, as the tide began to come back in, then took off for Parksville.

Leaving early enabled us to avoid heavy traffic during the snakey bits of Highway 4, always a clever tactic. We arrived in Coombs in time to enjoy second breakfast (as Frodo would say) at Goats on the Roof - delicious chorizo quiche for Kath and teriyaki pork chops for Roberta. Then we went to hang out at the Parksville Beach (where the tide was way out) for an hour or so (Roberta walked the beach, Kath napped) before heading for Maureen and Marcel’s place.

And what a place it is. We want one just like it. Three bedroom plus den, 2000 sq. ft bungalow, just a minute or so west of the main highway, beautiful garden, lots of storage, tidy neighborhood - even quails in the back yard for heaven’s sake!

Maureen and Marcel made a lovely dinner, grilled steak, prawns in garlic butter, homemade potato salad, three bean salad, and pasta and roast red pepper salad, followed by strawberry rhubarb pie and ice cream (burp!). Then shower and sleep in a real bed - what luxury.

Today we’ve had a lazy day, did a bit of grocery shopping to get ready for our ferry trip up to Prince Rupert, where we expect food to be more expensive (though we’re prepared to be pleasantly surprised about this…), washed some clothes, thoroughly caught up with our email.

Kath passed a pleasant 90 minutes having coffee with an old Nortel friend, Liz C. in Parksville, reminiscing about all our old colleagues. Liz and partner are still enjoying retirement in this community, and since we keep hearing about how nice it is to live here, we wonder how well it might suit us. People say it’s easy to meet people here, because so many people retire here and they sort of support each other.

Another wonderful dinner is planned for this evening, including fresh fish and leftover yummy salads from last night - probably all the better for another 24 hours marinating in the fridge.

Tomorrow morning we’ll get an early start for Port Hardy, hoping to stop in a few interesting spots along the way. We’ll keep you posted on what we discover on this next leg of our journey.

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Photos

Marcel & Maureen
In their new house