Too useless

I have been back almost  month and still have not updated this with the last part of my trip.  I intend to, and to fix the pictures in earlier posts.  But effort.

And I am not sure I remember things enough to do them justice now.

Human fail

I got home and after a month of pushing my body too hard it just went splat.
I have basically spent the last week in bed.

Once I have recovered enough to feel vaguely lucid, I will try to catch this thing up with the last bit of my trip and maybe post some more pictures.

Last day of Campbell River.

Yesterday was a bit damp and I was quite sickly to I did a large amount of nothing. Fortunately a bunch of people visited. My cousin Allen and his hoard of unruly children. Dad’s cousin Lynn and her husband. Ex-wife if Dad’s cousin Gina, an elder of the local First Nations. In discussing her before she arrived I was the only one to correctly remember that she was Cape Mudge band, even though I had never met her and don’t really know what bands are or Cape Mudge is.
But mostly I just hung out with Grandma and avoided letting her give me anything. Norm gave me a clock though.

So looking forward to being home.
I miss my stuff and my friends and my solitude.
And I ran out of patience for Dad and Ev a long time ago.

But I am now packed.  And my luggage is inside a larger luggage to hold dad and Ev’s excess.

I just want to be home and not have to talk to either of them for a while.
Possibly a long while.

Monday on the countdown to home

I am well past impatient to be home.

Today we went to the bison farm near Courtenay so Evelyn could see farmed bison and buy some bison for dinner.  I failed to visit my one internet pen pal from Courtenay in the process, because effort and not wanting to stretch out the road tripping. Wasn’t having a great day and was having to silently repeat the “Evelyn means well” mantra over and over.
Other than that, and a supermarket run, it was just a day of chilling in grandma’s house while dad tried to finish some of the projects that he had started around her house.

My cousin James and his partner (my more distant cousin) and their daughter came for dinner. It was nice to see that Jimmy has matured to almost be a person, much more so than I would have ever guessed that he had in him.

Then tonight my grandmother has been trying to make me pick something of hers to take to remember her by.  I find it a bit ghoulish, but Evelyn is all caught up in the magic of stuff that his great grandparents had touched or owned. Almost as if stuff was the people.
We are very different people, which always surprises me after how much Evelyn seems to reflect all my most annoying qualities back at me.
I think I will escape without taking a trinket of hers.

It is annoying that I will not get more time with grandma.  But otherwise this is not going so well for me.  I am not suited to so much time around people.

Cortes II

After a second luxurious night of actual bed and space, and my gift for spotting the world’s least stealthy squirrel (who still managed to avoid Evelyn’s gaze), Sunday started with an amazing breakfast thanks to Ann.

She had made breakfast for us and three other guests. It was quite the social start to a Sunday.   After much eating and chatting we packed up and left just after noon so as to get back for the mid afternoon ferry off of the rock.  After another quick catch up with the Burnside hoard of a Robertson’s, we were back to Campbell River. 

Cortes

We ferried to Cortes. Two ferries and a bit of a drive between them - not a public transport friendly route, but dad drove a rental car especially.
On reaching Whaletown we stopped quickly at Burnsude and I saw my cousin Sean briefly. He looks far too good for his age and I hold it against him.   Otherwise only Susan was there.  She does not like me much.  She doesn’t like many people much.
Then we headed down to Sutil Point. Evelyn has claim the role of navigator, possibly to justify continuing to bratishly demand the front passenger seat at all times. But forgot the map, and the instructions, and is terrible at keeping track. Dad is little better. And in the back I could barely hear anything they were saying, and they both ignored anything that I said. So the trip was a touch infuriating.
We got to dad cousin Ann’s house for dinner and a pleasant night of talking in front of her fire while Evelyn befriended the sickly 19 year old cat, Cat.
That night we got beds. Actual beds. And in seperate rooms. It was amazing.

In the morning, after an overly generous breakfast, we went for walk through the Hollyhock hippie resort down to Sunny Brae Farm to visit and so Ann could buy fresh eggs for Sunday breakfast.
It was a very nice walk to the farm, and pleasant conversation there with a member of one of the islands other old families, the ones who have the town named after them.

Then in the afternoon we went back to Burnside and I met my cousin Allen, the last of my first cousins I needed to meet to complete the set.  Collection completed. Achievement awarded...... or something.   A pleasant afternoon was had as Allen and David installed a repaired floating pier. Susan even faked liking us all.

Then back to Sutil Point for a delicious dinner prepare for us by Shortie (my second cousin Ellan (my family has too many, and too many variations of, Alans)).  Chicken enchiladas.  It was very good.  Then we sat down for a pleasant evening of chatting about our lives.

Below are photos from the day.

Last Friday in Canada

Dad finally got a rental car, making doing things much much easier.

We went across town and picked up cousin Zack (well, the son of a second cousin of mine) who guided us through Beaver Lodge Forest Lands in Campbell River. 

We got back to the house and Johnny was back from Cortes Island, making it the perfect time to head off to Cortes ourselves 

The following are a random selection of Beaver Lodge Lands pictures.