trek to long beach
we drove dad's green station wagon to long beach. it was just karey and i. we invited lots of people, but none of them came. before we left town we stopped at save-on to buy some food. i got one banana, one nectarine, some sun screen and a bag of zesty cheese doritos. i lost karey when she went to find some yoghurt. that's when i was looking for the sun screen in the pharmacy section. i found the sunscreen right by the blood pressure machine, so of course i took mine. i had to. it was something like 127 and 75 and my heart rate was 83, just so you know. then i saw this other machine that tells you your body fat percentage and how many pounds of your body is fat, so i had to do that one too. i knew karey would roll her eyes and sure enough she did when i finally found her after two full sweeps of the store. she claimed that she had also done two full sweeps of the store. hard to believe karey, hard to believe. when i put my stuff on the conveyer belt karey pointed out that i had no drink, so i had to run back and get a water from the chip section. i past mr. kraushar on the way. he still looks the same.
dad's green station wagon had no cd player. only a tape deck and unfortunately i foolishly left all my tapes at home. so we listened to the radio until we went out of range. the drive to port alberni wasn't bad. it got pretty windy as you neared port alberni, but you feel that this is nothing after you experience the roads after port alberni. my favourite curves were the ones with the posted speed warning of 30 km, one lane, absolutely no shoulder and always a car coming at you from the other direction. redsie didn't like those ones either. we met redsie on a lonely stretch of highway when all other cars had abandoned us. suddenly i look in the rearview mirror and there's redsie. faithful redsie who stayed with us (didn't even try to pass on the pass parts) until the ucluelet-tofino T. redsie brought us some comfort on the road, and some mirth.
we decided to go to actual long beach and not wickaninnish this time. at the top of a hill there was a clearing of trees and i caught a glimpse of the paradise beach called long beach. long beach takes your breath away. i hadn't been there since that time in the winter with leif and barb, three or four years ago. the last summer visit was after my mission when i had a broken elbow. we passed a sign that said the waves were extreme. yippee i thought.
long beach was thick with surfers. just while i was waiting for karey outside the changerooms, all i could see were people clad or half clad in wet suits with surf boards coming and going. down the path to the beach i could see the blue sun lit waters crashing on the beach. i was so happy just to be there. karey was feeling chilled so we lay in the sun to warm up. i made her put sun screen on (she was upset because my sunscreen was spf 30 and she likes spf 4) but she didn't do her back, or ask me to do it. i did crosswords, but i wasn't that into it. karey read her book and snoozed. i was feeling impatient and laying around in the sun not doing anything isn't my favourite. i watched the surfers for a while too. the water was dotted black with their wet suits. it reminded me of sharks so i unthinkingly told karey some shark stories lisa had just told us at work. it didn't help her be ready for the beach faster. but finally she was ready and we walked down to the water. we didn't really see anyone like us in regular swim suits in the water. the reason for this may have been the iciness of the water. i told karey what steve had said about watching out for 'rogue waves' carrying us out to sea and we joked about it. seconds after stepping into the water that just skimmed the hard sand our ankles were totally numb. we forged on, not feeling our feet but having faith that they were still there. the waves didn't give us a chance to go in slowly and we shrieked and gasped as they hit our tender body parts.
so we were riding the waves and having fun, but we did regret not stopping and buying boogie boards. we knew we would regret it but we still didn't stop, so whatever. there were so many surfers in the water it was hard to find a spot where we weren't in jeopardy of being hit by oncoming surfers. it especially worried karey beause when a huge wave was cresting in front of you, you couldn't see what may be coming over it and at you. one time there was a huge wave and it looked like this surfer dude was heading straight for my head. i screamed and dove under the wave. we ended up getting a little too deep, and had to fight the current and the waves to get back to a level where we had more control.
after a while we went back to our blanket and ate chips and cinnamon buns. then we fell asleep because you are basically exhausted from the crash of the waves against you and the fighting of the currents and so on. well i kind went in and out of sleep because of the frenchies. the frenchies were a large group of surfers stationed near us, who kept up a constant barrage of french speaking. sometimes i enjoyed listening to them and trying to pick out words and other times i just wished they could be quiet for just a second.
i think it was an hour or so later that we were ready to go back in for our last hurrah. i pointed out an area with fewer surfers that was a little farther away, but worth the trip if you know what i mean. when the water hit our feet a part of us wanted to turn back to the warm silky sand. but we forged on. and we froliced in the waves to our heart's content. annoyingly some surfers joined us, but we tryed to ignore them. we tried different methods of wave surfing and some ways of wave body slamming. i like throwing myself backwards and over. when we were weak and spent we knew it was time to go, so we did. we gathered our stuff walked past the gabbing frenchies and changed into our clothes and then went back for some pictures.
karey drove on the way back. we looked for redsie, and there were some look a likes but no real redsies. it was so hard for me not to fall asleep, so we played name that tune and had some good times doing that. it seemed to take forever to get to port alberni, but we finally made it and then it wasn't long until we arrived at little qualicum falls where karey's dad was camping with his girls roxy and sarah and sarah's friend. they wanted us to stop by pretty badly and so we favoured them with our presence.
roxy had candles on the table which karey found quite amusing, but the geeky young park ranger found them dangerous so i blew them out. the fact that she couldn't have candles burning really bugged roxy and later she rebelled and relit them. roxy had appies of chips, antipasto, grapes and bread and oil and balsamic vinegar for us and made yummy spaghetti and corn on the cob. after supper we went to a swimming hole with girls and swam again (it was a joy climbing once more into my wet bathing suit let me tell you.) it was a nice little swimming hole, but not the lovely pool that we swam in last summer. i wanted to show that one to karey but it wasnt' meant to be i guess. the girls loved swimming with karey. after that we changed again and played cards with the girls and roxy made us bananas with melted chocolate. she was really proud of them but was hiding it a little bit. karey and i and her dad gobbled most of it up. after that we soon hit the road again and drove right by our usual ice cream stop (whisky creek) with our tummies full of bananas and chocolate.
sarah, adreil, bethany, amay, auntie heather and uncle dennis were all here to greet us when we got back. and that was our long beach day. long beach leaves you feeling lucky to live in a place like this and in just a general awe and a feeling of being a small particle in this wide universe.
dad's green station wagon had no cd player. only a tape deck and unfortunately i foolishly left all my tapes at home. so we listened to the radio until we went out of range. the drive to port alberni wasn't bad. it got pretty windy as you neared port alberni, but you feel that this is nothing after you experience the roads after port alberni. my favourite curves were the ones with the posted speed warning of 30 km, one lane, absolutely no shoulder and always a car coming at you from the other direction. redsie didn't like those ones either. we met redsie on a lonely stretch of highway when all other cars had abandoned us. suddenly i look in the rearview mirror and there's redsie. faithful redsie who stayed with us (didn't even try to pass on the pass parts) until the ucluelet-tofino T. redsie brought us some comfort on the road, and some mirth.
we decided to go to actual long beach and not wickaninnish this time. at the top of a hill there was a clearing of trees and i caught a glimpse of the paradise beach called long beach. long beach takes your breath away. i hadn't been there since that time in the winter with leif and barb, three or four years ago. the last summer visit was after my mission when i had a broken elbow. we passed a sign that said the waves were extreme. yippee i thought.
long beach was thick with surfers. just while i was waiting for karey outside the changerooms, all i could see were people clad or half clad in wet suits with surf boards coming and going. down the path to the beach i could see the blue sun lit waters crashing on the beach. i was so happy just to be there. karey was feeling chilled so we lay in the sun to warm up. i made her put sun screen on (she was upset because my sunscreen was spf 30 and she likes spf 4) but she didn't do her back, or ask me to do it. i did crosswords, but i wasn't that into it. karey read her book and snoozed. i was feeling impatient and laying around in the sun not doing anything isn't my favourite. i watched the surfers for a while too. the water was dotted black with their wet suits. it reminded me of sharks so i unthinkingly told karey some shark stories lisa had just told us at work. it didn't help her be ready for the beach faster. but finally she was ready and we walked down to the water. we didn't really see anyone like us in regular swim suits in the water. the reason for this may have been the iciness of the water. i told karey what steve had said about watching out for 'rogue waves' carrying us out to sea and we joked about it. seconds after stepping into the water that just skimmed the hard sand our ankles were totally numb. we forged on, not feeling our feet but having faith that they were still there. the waves didn't give us a chance to go in slowly and we shrieked and gasped as they hit our tender body parts.
so we were riding the waves and having fun, but we did regret not stopping and buying boogie boards. we knew we would regret it but we still didn't stop, so whatever. there were so many surfers in the water it was hard to find a spot where we weren't in jeopardy of being hit by oncoming surfers. it especially worried karey beause when a huge wave was cresting in front of you, you couldn't see what may be coming over it and at you. one time there was a huge wave and it looked like this surfer dude was heading straight for my head. i screamed and dove under the wave. we ended up getting a little too deep, and had to fight the current and the waves to get back to a level where we had more control.
after a while we went back to our blanket and ate chips and cinnamon buns. then we fell asleep because you are basically exhausted from the crash of the waves against you and the fighting of the currents and so on. well i kind went in and out of sleep because of the frenchies. the frenchies were a large group of surfers stationed near us, who kept up a constant barrage of french speaking. sometimes i enjoyed listening to them and trying to pick out words and other times i just wished they could be quiet for just a second.
i think it was an hour or so later that we were ready to go back in for our last hurrah. i pointed out an area with fewer surfers that was a little farther away, but worth the trip if you know what i mean. when the water hit our feet a part of us wanted to turn back to the warm silky sand. but we forged on. and we froliced in the waves to our heart's content. annoyingly some surfers joined us, but we tryed to ignore them. we tried different methods of wave surfing and some ways of wave body slamming. i like throwing myself backwards and over. when we were weak and spent we knew it was time to go, so we did. we gathered our stuff walked past the gabbing frenchies and changed into our clothes and then went back for some pictures.
karey drove on the way back. we looked for redsie, and there were some look a likes but no real redsies. it was so hard for me not to fall asleep, so we played name that tune and had some good times doing that. it seemed to take forever to get to port alberni, but we finally made it and then it wasn't long until we arrived at little qualicum falls where karey's dad was camping with his girls roxy and sarah and sarah's friend. they wanted us to stop by pretty badly and so we favoured them with our presence.
roxy had candles on the table which karey found quite amusing, but the geeky young park ranger found them dangerous so i blew them out. the fact that she couldn't have candles burning really bugged roxy and later she rebelled and relit them. roxy had appies of chips, antipasto, grapes and bread and oil and balsamic vinegar for us and made yummy spaghetti and corn on the cob. after supper we went to a swimming hole with girls and swam again (it was a joy climbing once more into my wet bathing suit let me tell you.) it was a nice little swimming hole, but not the lovely pool that we swam in last summer. i wanted to show that one to karey but it wasnt' meant to be i guess. the girls loved swimming with karey. after that we changed again and played cards with the girls and roxy made us bananas with melted chocolate. she was really proud of them but was hiding it a little bit. karey and i and her dad gobbled most of it up. after that we soon hit the road again and drove right by our usual ice cream stop (whisky creek) with our tummies full of bananas and chocolate.
sarah, adreil, bethany, amay, auntie heather and uncle dennis were all here to greet us when we got back. and that was our long beach day. long beach leaves you feeling lucky to live in a place like this and in just a general awe and a feeling of being a small particle in this wide universe.
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