The first day, reinvented.

After 19 years as a student followed immediately by 35 years as a teacher, today is the first day of school in 54 years that I am not 'going to school'. True enough, I had 2 maternity leaves that allowed me to be at home in a September, and one deferred salary leave, however, those were temporary times off. Because I knew I'd be returning each of those years, my mind was very much still 'in the game'.
This year feels quite different. I confess I've thought of almost nothing else, so clearly I haven't let it go quite yet, however, I feel an increasing separation from the reality of education this fall. Some of it is purely practical. Instead of back to school shopping, I've been doing British holiday shopping (I leave next Tuesday!). Instead of classroom prep, I'm making packing lists. I didn't help Trish set up her classroom this year. Part of it was timing, but another part was quite simply school avoidance. I'm not having back to school dreams. Bliss. The most interesting thing I'm experiencing is a growing sense of leisure. Pace of life and anxiety were big reasons for retiring, so feeling relaxed is welcomed! Even today, when I had to set my alarm way earlier than I wanted to make a breakfast date, it was actually fun getting ready and I knew that I could walk out of the house with keys and my little purse - not the bazillion bags that would normally weigh me down on the first day of school....and I'd still have forgotten something! And no thinking about lunch - hallelujah!
So, more about the breakfast date. Four of us who are newly retired teachers met at Langdon Hall for champagne breakfast. It was glorious. Conversation was about recent and upcoming trips, recommended reading, watercolour painting classes, our kids and our parents - and hardly a word about work. Retired teachers are a happy lot.

Here's a wee taste of the retirement version of the first day of school...

The beautiful Langdon Hall.

My first helping.

My second helping.

Yes, the Mimosa.

Katie, Sue, Christine and me. Cheers!

Bucket Lists and Fairmonts

Trish and I returned a few days ago from an amazing week in beautiful British Columbia. The trip was most importantly about visiting Judi - it's been too long since our last f2f and there was a lot of catching up to do! Judi has been living out west for a couple of years now - first a summer stint in Banff, then working at Big White in Alberta, Whistler and now Vancouver. She's had lots of amazing experiences (Judi's blog is incredible - check it out here!), however, lucky for us, she still has a B.C. Bucket list, so our trip also became an opportunity to help her check off a few more things on this list, with us in tow! Judi was able to take 3 days off work, which, when added to the weekend, gave us 5 days to explore and adventure! Honestly, we were happy just to be there, and with Judi in the travel industry after all, we let her plan our time and make most of the bookings! And wow - what a week we had!

For starters, who knew that there are FIVE Fairmonts in Vancouver (we stayed at 2 of them)? We also had one night at the incredibly beautiful and historic Empress in Victoria. Best. Beds. Ever. Oh, and I don't know what they stuff their pillows with, but they are magic.
I've jumped ahead. Trish and I actually had the first day by ourselves to wander Vancouver while Judi worked. We spent the afternoon at the Vancouver Art Gallery (wonderful!), walked to the waterfront and eventually to Gastown where we had dinner. It was a beautiful evening - the food at Chill Winston's was scrumptious and a couple of hours of people watching from our streetside table was fascinating. We will never forget the throngs of white clad rich folks carrying heaps of white food, tables and other accessories heading to Diner en Blanc. Strange but true.

On Wednesday morning, the 3 of us picked up our rental car and set out for Tsawwassen and the ferry over to Vancouver Island. It was a beautiful day and a luxurious ride in our brand new Taurus! The 2 1/2 hour ferry ride was lovely! We spent the afternoon at Butchart Gardens and the evening in Victoria. Judi found us an awesome Tapas restaurant for dinner, right in the vicinity of the Empress. It was a short stay in the city but lovely.
Although we all could have remained melted into the Fairmont bedding, we did drag ourselves up early the next morning and headed out to begin our island adventure. Tofino (#BCbucketlist) was the eventual destination, but we had food, shopping and sight seeing stops in Nanaimo and Port Alberni along the way.
I was a little nervous about how the drive would be. You see, there is only one road which crosses the island - following a river valley through a mountain range. But, it was a wonderful surprise - the roads were awesome! Very well marked, lots of guardrails, speed signs and warnings and all of the drivers were respectful and sensible. Whew. Great trip! And we arrived in Tofino by late afternoon and checked in to our awesome room right on the water - palm trees and mountain view from our deck! Another amazing find Judi!
Our dinner that night has a great story. A few years ago, Judi wrote an article about a food truck turned restaurant in Tofino called Sobo. She even has a copy of their Sobo cookbook! So we ate there (#BCbucketlist) and I'm not kidding, it was the best meal of my life. Judi and I both had their maple dijon glazed, cedar plank roasted, fresh pacific salmon (moan), scalloped potatoes with yams that were 'to die for', perfect broccolini and fresh off the cob corn. I was sad when my plate was empty. Licked empty.

Friday morning, Trish and Judi headed out to Surf Sisters for surfing 101 (#BCbucketlist) (this is another great story about a Surf Sisters article Judi wrote after skyping with their owner Chrissy, whom she met today!!) This was a pretty thrilling morning for the surfers! They had a lesson, then surfed at Cox Bay, one of the nearby beaches, for 2 hours! They were both very proud and very excited!
No, I didn't surf. I remained happily on shore, cheering them on and taking some pics of random surfers (random, 'cause I couldn't pick Trish and Judi out in the waves!)
For the remainder of the day, we visited the Roy Henry Vickers Art Gallery, wandered thru town, did a little hike to Tonquin Beach, had dinner at the Wolf in the Fog, did a short evening hike and saw a gorgeous Tofino sunset (#BCbucketlist) - beautiful!
Saturday, we were a little sad to pack up and leave Tofino. It's such a gem of a place and it's just far enough out there that you know you won't be back anytime soon. Well, Judi might - it's one of the only places in Canada to really surf!
That morning, we woke up to rain and overcast conditions. It turned out that there had been quite a bad storm with strong winds, power lines down and significant damage in the Vancouver area and mainland coast. We didn't know this of course, but started to see evidence of branches and debris as we got further down the road. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of beaches - wow, big waves! We also stopped at a Tourist Station near Ucluelet, in Port Alberni, Little Qualicum Falls and eventually Coxon, where we caught an evening ferry across to Powell River (#BCbucketlist) for the next leg of our adventure!
Judi found us a great room with kitchen and 2 bedrooms right across from the water. Since it was a late check-in, we picked up yummy Mexican food and brought it back to our room with us.
Sunday morning, we headed out on the road - and not just any road, the famous Sunshine Coast (#BCbucketlist) Highway. There was still lots of debris from the storm, and sadly, when we got to our Sea-Kayaking (#BCbucketlist), they were closed due to strong currents on the water. Boo.

Luckily, we found an alternative in Sechelt and had an amazing afternoon on the water. Trish and I shared a kayak, Judi had her own and we all loved it! We saw incredible wildlife and took tons of pics.
One of the thrills was seeing a family of seals very close to our kayaks. One of them climbed up on the rocks and gave us a good staredown, as you can see! They were so adorable!

Sunday evening after our last of 4 ferry rides, we made it back into Vancouver and spent our last night at the airport Fairmont for our early flight out the next morning.
Seriously, this drawer was where we found our wine glasses. Fairmonts really know how to spoil you!
We said a sad good-bye to Judi at the airport. Not only had we thoroughly enjoyed our time together, but this holiday was packed full of experiences, meals, scenery, locations and adventures that we likely would never have had the opportunity to do without Judi's connections, knowledge and research.
Thank you Judi for having a #BCbucketlist and letting us tag along! It was all amazing! Thank you thank you thank you!!

Another first for us on this trip was flying out of Kitchener! WestJet doesn't fly directly to Vancouver (not yet anyway!), so we flew to Calgary, then a switch in planes and on to Vancouver. We loved the convenience of being 10 minutes from the airport at home!
The flights were fairly overcast sadly, however, we did get a quick glimpse of mountains just as we left Calgary on the way home.
Amazing trip all around!