Sometimes things just work out!……..beauty, eh?

Begonia and the girls swept off the AC jet in Vancouver on a delayed flight and they just made the Coast Mountain Air connection by minutes. Last ones on. They arrived at the CR airport on time, I bundled them in to the car and we headed to the ferry. The Queen was cramming the last few cars on the stern end when we pulled into the empty lot and zoomed across to immediately board. We were the the third-from last to get on. Turned off the engine at the same time (it seemed) as the ferry left. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Typical arrival, boats, rocks, kelp, slipping and sliding. And dogs. And then a great meal.

But it turns out that these people had learned to sleep well on planes! Egads! They just weren’t tired. I was exhausted and could hardly wait to retire but we chatted and chatted and then they went on their computers for another hour or so (doing schoolwork, no less!). Lights out at 1:00 AM. I leaned over and whispered to Sal, “Maybe you should take them on the longest hike tomorrow and throw in the mountain climb as well.”

The kids are pretty funny. I swear I weigh as much as all three of them combined. When we met at the airport, there were two ‘obviously’ Chinese backpacks on the luggage rack and so I picked them up. I switched the two to one hand so that I could grab the next one coming. The girls were shrieking, “Ooooooohhhhh so heavy! Cannot lift! Ooohhhhh”. I was sure they were kidding. But when we got to the end-of-the-road where I keep the boat for our passage to the island, I had to transfer the packs to their backs because I was carrying other things (cooler, box of worms, bag of building supplies, etc). As I placed each pack of about 25 pounds on each girl’s back, they visibly sagged and staggered. They struggled along the relatively flat path for the 100 or so feet and collapsed in a heap in the boat (after I helped them step in).

Twenty five pounds is probably close to 1/3 their weight and, lacking any musculature whatsoever, must make it difficult. Sheesh. The kids are lovely. Smart, fun and eager to learn. But lumberjacks they are not!