purple room vents: IT DIDN'T RAIN..AT LEAST NOT REALLY!!!

Wow!!! What a trip! Any trip to Bamfield over that fifty mile crazy road makes you feel like you had to work for it. Monte and I both commented several times that it was a good thing we were in his van and not Tank. We would have had sideways whip lash within the first ten miles. That road is a demon!

The campsite was amazing. We all crowded into one campsite, which was just big enough for the three vehicles, tent trailer and two tents. And we were surrounded by giant beautiful trees and right past those trees, not very far, was that magnificent sandy beach and the ocean. The waves lullabied us to sleep every night. Plus there was a massive, extremely bright full moon moving from one side of the bay to the other all night long. The bay is two kilometres wide. Utterly beautiful and healing and to think that this was basically our back yard for twenty plus years!

We were up insanely early on Monday morning and off fishing. Jen, April, Monte, Myles and I met Drew, the fishing guide at six am. We went out the inlet and around the corner and as he was dropping the first lines into the water BAM we got a double header!!! But...we did catch a fair amount of salmon but they were either shakers (too little) or they shook off as soon as they saw the boat. Barbless hooks you know. Ridiculous. (shovel list). Anyway Monte managed to land a five pounder, which we devoured that night for supper. Jen and her family went out the next morning and had much better luck.

Just before heading back in, Drew found the most beautiful spot between two little islands and we spread Billy Boys ashes. Humungously emotional. I know five years has gone by but this just seemed so final and we were all five of us really affected at seeing him float away. There are just so many memories and stories. Bamfield will forever be our Bill/Dad/Spod spot. We are so fortunate to have this place just for that.

When we weren't fishing or touring around our old stomping grounds, we were lazing out on the acres and acres of beautiful sand soaking up the sun and the intrepid ones swam and swam. Holy Moly it was magical.

I would like to say a word about Jen's kids. They were totally delightful! Riley, 17 years, was polite, gorgeous and totally interesting. We had some quality visiting and he was funny! Bri, 13 years old, Jen's David's daughter, was quiet and gorgeous and a wonderful addition. And Brody
a crazy, funny, incredibly smart, mouthy (in a good way), did I say funny? twelve year old was the total life of the party!!! Holy crap!!!! I would bring him home with me any day!!! He could be a handful for sure but totally worth it!!!

Dave, Jen's squeeze, is from Nova Scotia. And he is definitely a keeper! I super liked the guy. For the last evening I arranged to buy ten giant crabs from the natives on the reserve there where we were camping. We had a great big feed of corn on the cob as well.

Dave had brought his lobster cooking huge pot which we put over the fire and first we cooked the corn then we cooked the crab and then we melted butter then we all dug in and holy cow!!!!!! delicious!!! But Dave, who is an expert lobster eater, enjoyed and ate and ate and enjoyed that crab like I have never seen before. OMG!! It was the highlight of the whole weekend, watching him just get lost in the deliciousness of the crab and eating it like a total pro!!!

I am going to now go and try to load my pics onto here and post some. Wish me luck! TTYL