Welcome to Campbell River, B.C.

After my blog last night, we had a terrific time with Jim and Anita and their daughters and families.  They invited us to join them for supper last night and we really enjoyed meeting their daughters, sons-in-law, and grandkids.  The food was good, the conversation was delightful, and it was a lovely way to end our last day at Hummingbird.

Today we had another beautiful morning in Powell River, enjoyed a final breakfast with Jim, Anita, and now Cheryl, then packed up the Subaru and headed down to the ferry landing to wait 1.5 hours for the ferry to Comox, here on Vancouver Island.  Lee and I spent the time reading:  he's finishing The Kite Runner while I am re-reading Brave New World.  (I haven't read this book since I was in high school - somewhere back in the dark ages - and forgot how truly frightening a vision of the future it is.)  Anyway, from there it was about a 40 minute drive up here to Campbell River.

We arrived at our new B&B, the Oceanfront, and met our hostess, Patty Johnson.   She is a very nice woman and the B&B is wonderful.  This one is right on the water along the low part of the Inland Passage.  The back deck, where she is currently serving breakfast in the morning, looks out to Quadra Island and the marina here in Campbell River.  It's gorgeous.  Our room is called the Eagles' Nest - it has a lovely king size bed, it's painted blue (my favorite colour), has a huge private bath, and overlooks the deck and water.  From the lower backyard, you can take the stairs down to the water when it's low tide - but not now or you'll be in the water.  We've already seen seals peeking their heads up, a rather large golden retriever swimming after a stick, and we've heard - but not yet seen - the eagles that have a nest in the large tree out our window.  Incredible.  It appears we've chosen well.

After unloading the car and unpacking, we walked down to the docks area - one whole block - and had coffee at a local shop, then came back and sat on the deck with a glass (or three) of wine while we looked over menus, kayaking options, and maps for the remainder of the week.  We also met the other arrivals, Marielle and Ranier and a friend of theirs - all high school educators from Germany.  Their son is in Nanaimo working as a carpenter for a year.  It sounded like an apprenticeship of some form.

Campbell River has grown since we were here last and the traffic has increased, though it is still a small town (approximately 35,000).  However, they have built up the businesses around the waterfront - something Powell River has yet to do.  Lee's found several new geocaches he wants to hunt for, and Patty gave us a new place to go scout for hikes and possible kayaking, so tomorrow promises to be interesting.  Hopefully I'll have some new things to report.

Joanne, thanks for the map of the fires at home - it gave us a much better idea of where things are happening.  We skyped Delene yesterday and told her what to take if the fires get down low enough, but the map showed she is out of danger - so we really appreciate what you did.  I hope your home is still safe.

Hope everyone else is doing well, staying safe and keeping healthy.  I'll post a couple new pictures shortly.

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