pachena b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bae

next morning everyone else was up by the time i contorted myself out of the car.  i shuffled over, had a seat on the picnic bench and stuffed a chocolate zucchini muffin with peanut butter on it in my mouth.  a crackling fire was already on the go.  

the truth is sarah and kyle had bonbons hidden in the car and huxley especially kept making subtle trips to visit the car.  i too relished the bonbons.  i didn't know about bonbons before this trip but now they will always have a place in my heart but especially in my mouth.

sarah and i walked all the way to the end to see what camping spot would have been ours if there hadn't been a mix up about the dates.  we originally had a spot on the beach side.  we saw it and it looked pretty awesome.  then we walked to just before the west coast trail started and said "we've walked the west coast trail" when we came back.

me sarah kyle and adriel played unstable unicorns but the game was interrupted when kyle and the boys did a trip to scour all the leaving people's campsites and take the wood they left.  we were wood hoarders and wood scavengers.  

then sarah won the game.

this giant hideous bug flew down from the trees.  we murdered it.  we were all yelling at adriel to get it with his hoodie that he was whipping at it and then he stomped on it and i felt instantly bad.  we murdered it and we didn't even know what it was.  a few minutes later we saw another one but it didn't come too near us...i wonder why.  it had red wings.

beach time....huxley probably has bonbons in his mouth in this pic.

douglas wants you to enjoy his kino body.  he'll show you how to do v-backs.

adriel and i had a lot of fun in the waves.  we kept trying to catch a wave.  then we were diving under them too.  it was cold water, but it didn't feel as icy as sydney spit.  it felt so amazing to be alive and be there in that beautiful spot with the frothy playful waves and the hard sand and the air full of light and breeziness and the ancient trees looking down on us...  that is a moment to live for.   we made our way bit by bit towards the river.  or near the mouth of the river and we climbed out on the other side and looked at tidal pools.  suddenly douglas and sloan were with us.  we explored the shore, and found shells and 2 legged starfish and looked in the caves.  we told adriel and sloan the night before that if they kept fighting they were sleeping in the caves.  douglas picked up logs and threw them like he was a cave man.  we walked down to swim in the river but the tide was out so it was shallow and it smelled like rotten eggs.  

suddenly a misty fog rolled in and i told douglas i needed an epic pic of him in the mist with a surf board.  but it never happened.  it would have been rad.  we went back to the sea lion log where sarah and tatiana were. this is some of the pattern on the sea lion log.

we went back for lunch and had smokies.  i accidentally lost one to the fire.  after lunch i went back to the beach to warm up and lay in the sand for a while.

this is my shadow coming back, at the start of the trail. i was standing on the log that crosses the path.

i thought i might be burning so i went back and had a lie down in my car. sarah stuck her nose in to say they were going for a hike but my feet were quite sore so i decided to stay behind.  however they returned in about 10-15 minutes to report that they found out about this awesome beach called brady's beach which you get to from bamfield so we all decided to go there.  we piled in the van and drove to bamfield which was not far.  kyle parked at the pub and douglas went in to ask 'his people' about how to get to brady's beach.  the word on the street is that you had to take a water taxi and then a 25 minute lazy walk to the beach.  so then kyle parked and we made our way down to the docks and a lady radioed the water taxi that we wanted to be picked up.  

and we waited.  adriel really wanted to jump off the docks.  but he did not.  when the water taxi lady came she only took cash so sarah and kyle went back to the pub to get some cashola.   and she left and we waited some more.  

the actual boat ride was pretty short.  the lady left us with some instructions which clearly stated to go up the driveway and turn LEFT.  well  the drive way was quite steep and i huffed and puffed.  and when we got to the top there was a sign that said brady's beach was RIGHT.  we didn't know what to believe so we stopped a guy passing in a golf cart/ atv and he said to go the the right.  he also insinuated by hand signs that our water taxi lady was on the drink.

meanwhile sarah had begun to sing 'brady did you know' about the beach to the tune of 'mary did you know'.  i think she came up with many a fine verse.  

the walk was not lazy.  there were many steep hills and the dirt road seemed to be all sharp rocks which was excruciating for my sore feet.  i definitely brought up the rear.  as usual it was sloan who stayed behind with me.   we played the animal game.  there were a lot of amazing houses with gorgeous views.

signs like this taunted us.  we kept thinking we were almost there and yet we were not.  sure a few times my feet were so sore and i was so tired i felt like crying.  but we inched on.

after decending a long steep curved bend in the road we finally made it.  it was a pretty cool beach.  we walked down a bit but came back because this was the best beach.  brady's beach faces the broken islands.  me and sloan and adriel and douglas went swimming.  we played the game where you dive where you are, grab something and then on the count of three open your hand and then vote on who had the best rock.  on shore they played bocce ball with the beach bocce left on the beach.

the walk back was not as bad.  and we stopped earlier at a closer dock, which begs the question, why didn't she drop us off at a closer dock??

this is the view from the pier.  it was a gorgeous day.  perfect day.

that night we had kyle's beloved tinfoil dinners.  kyle chopped things and sarah and i loaded up the tinfoils.  as we would fold the tinfoil around the meat and veggies we would squeeze each other's hands and look excessively lovingly at each other while sometimes sweetly sighing and squeezing our eyes mostly shut and wavering in the air like so.  you could say we had some cabin fever.

i went to snap some yams and connect to the wifi and when i got back some of the tinfoil dinners were already done.  we ate them with chipotle mayo and somewhere on pender and somewhere in williams lake, at that exact moment 2 fubs felt all was right with the world.  douglas may have eaten a raw piece of meat.  who is to say?  s'mores happened again.  what also happened was a game of concentration.  you know, 'concentration, concentration now begins.  names of...'  except i had cabin fever so i was doing wild snaps above my wild and fluffy ocean hair as the fire light illuminated me.  huxley really was into that game.  he wanted a turn and when it was his turn he said "names of....hairs."  and we just went with it. anything hair related was allowed.  we also played the animal game but no one lost.  so we quit.  i was so thirsty but sarah and kyle brought a lot of frozen bottles that stayed frozen.  so i tore the bottle open with my savage teeth and peeled it back like a banana and had marvelous time crunching the ice core.

it should be noted that the handicapped bathroom was the best. it had it's own sink in it.  so while sarah peed i could brush my teeth. pretty fantastic amiright??  but it also had a vent and you could hear directly into the mens like the first day when i heard whistling and asked sarah if that was her but it was sloan.

we went to bed.