Summer vacations change as you get older.
When you're a kid, you look forward to those magical two months of July and August where the world is your oyster and it's eight or nine weeks between the beginning of another school year.
When you're a young adult, you look forward to the summer as a whole so that you can pick select days to go and hang out on the beach, go to the lake, go on a day trip somewhere, and just relax.
When you're a full-grown adult, you look forward to summer, once again as a whole, because you've come to despise any semblance of winter and you'll be happy with any modicum of summertime and all the heat it brings with it.
That last one may be a bit of an exaggeration, but there's obvious truth in it, as well.
For me, summer holidays these days mean two things - time off from the office and a big stack of books to finally tear into. I'm not really a traveling guy, at least not to anywhere fancy. I'm single (horrifically single), so that's a big part of it, but I'm also a very simple man by nature; as long as I'm looking at some decent extended time off, I can entertain myself and stay happy pretty easily.
It wasn't always that way, though. Once upon a time, I went places. Take the following, for instance. What you're about to read is a recount of the vacation that I went on with my late mom in the summer of 2012, when we ventured out to British Columbia to go to my cousin's incredible getaway on Sidney Island.
I hadn't read this in a very long time, so I was taken on a trip down memory lane when I came across this the other day. Hope you enjoy...
Thursday, August 2: Landing in Victoria at 8:30 local time (like as if the flight was only 20 minutes), I grab our luggage and we meet up with Murray and Linda, who’ll return to the airport the next day to pick us up as Ma and I are spending the day and night in Victoria. I get the key to our car rental and this thing is a beauty – a 2013 Ford Escape with all the options. Like something Bruce Wayne would drive if he wanted to appear normal.
Cruising around, we get to The Butchart Gardens, a worldly known attraction that sees over a million visitors per year. Unique flowers, lots of pretty colors, tons to see, you get the deal. I knew Ma had always wanted to see it, so I made it a part of our itinerary.
Friday, August 3 – Monday, August 6: These four days are the obvious ‘meat’ of the vacation, as Murray boats us out to Sidney Island on Friday, which is a cool trip by itself. Over the next few days, the island is a fantastic getaway from anything even related to back home. No internet, no cell service, and very limited TV options. Murray and Linda’s home is immense; something like 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and it’s built sorta like two living spaces in one home. My bedroom at the top of the stairs has an incredible panoramic view of the backyard.
And that backyard. Amazing. It ends with a cliff-like drop leading to the ocean, with chairs located just before the drop. Incredible view, and I find myself in this spot more than a few times over the next few days.
The rest of our time there is spent checking out the rest of the island, including a fellow homeowner’s stupidly extravagant home – all 11,600 feet of it (the guy wasn’t home, and we just checked out the exterior), as well as visiting and just enjoying the peace and quiet. Yes, I would’ve loved to go fishing, but Murray didn’t have his gear on the boat.
The most kick-ass consolation prize comes on Monday morning, when we all board Murray’s yacht for a daylong cruise. The thing is a work of pure art; with a decent haul of groceries, I’d gladly live on it for a month.
We cruise to Maple Bay and dock for lunch before coming back in the late afternoon. By that point, Ma and I are headed back into Victoria with Murray and Vic, who are meeting up with someone the next morning to go on a fishing expedition of their own. I would’ve killed to go, but Tuesday is the day we fly back and we couldn’t risk the chance of not getting back before our flight. Monday night is spent at a Days Inn right by the harbour. I catch up on emails and everything Web-related and reflect on the last few days. I’m happy.
Tuesday, August 7: After Murray picks us up, Vic treats us to lunch in the town of Sidney. Murray and I have some kind of seafood soup that can only be described as vegetable soup, but just a load of things from the ocean (prawns, mussels, clams, halibut, salmon). Good eating.
Dropping us off at the airport, hugs and handshakes are exchanged and now it’s back to just Ma and I. She kills time reading a book, I kill time online as we count down the time to our flight. When the dinner hour approaches, we enjoy ribs at the White Spot restaurant right in the airport and look at incoming/departing flights. We then see that our flight is delayed. This is apparently because of some stormy weather in Alberta, and almost right on cue, it starts raining where we are, too.
More time is killed browsing around the duty free shop, which really is a damn scam when it comes to BC, since the PST and HST is outrageous, lending credence to the acronym BC – Bring Cash.
Wednesday, August 8: Leaving Calgary (we eventually got on the plane in Victoria and made it back to Cowtown!) and making the trek back home, we stop at a Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs chain in Airdrie. I remembered reading a while ago about that particular location, and when we passed it on our way to Calgary a week earlier, I made a mental note to stop in on our way home to try it out. I like it.
We get home at around 7:00, having picked up some KFC in Kindersley. We greet everyone back home, we unpack, and the trip is over.
Now that was a fun trip back in 2012! I'd love to do something similar again some day, but for now, I'm going to enjoy my first summer vacation as a resident of this fine town.
For this week, that's been the Ruttle Report.
