The house is in chaos, the weeds in the garden have mostly been pulled. We have piles of gear in three different rooms: camping pile, clothes pile, Otis pile. We're going away again.
It's been a month since we came home from Mexico and the time has slipped through my fingers like cold, soft water. I think we thought we'd have nothing to do in this month-long home layover but sit around, finish renos, play in the garden and maybe toodle in the canoe. Not so! It has been a whirlwind. In fact, once we're all packed up and on the road again, I think we'll catch back up with our relax.
So, what's the plan, you ask? We're moseying our way up to Hornby Island via Nanaimo where we'll spend a couple days getting back into the swing of 'away' with Brian's parents and my fam. Hornby brings us a campsite full of friends and the kind of beaches that I don't even want to tell you about cause they're so totally perfect. (shhhh.)
From Hornby we'll head down to Vancouver for the Vancouver Folk Festival where Brian and I will celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. Woop! And Tuesday we fly to Regina, Saskatchewan!
I laugh when I tell people we're going to spend 3 weeks road-tripping in Sask. I'm not sure why it seems funny to me. I guess I probably underestimate it as a beautiful place to holiday. People often assume family is the call to the prairies, and it is. But beyond that, it's the opportunity to understand the horizon through Brian's eyes - all low earth and sky. My horizons feel cozy with mountains tapering into oceans. It's the opportunity to experience the seasonal & climatic opposite from my only other experiences in Saskatchewan. I'm looking for heat here, people. Between family time with B's sister & fam in Regina and my Grandma Dorothy in Churchbridge, well spend 5 days camping in Grasslands National Park. Now close your eyes. Imagine prairie grasses and low rolling hills. And there, in the distance, just coming in from the left - that us! We're on horseback, being led by a real-live cowboy. Cowman? Cowperson? A real tourism Saskatchewan moment.
It's the opportunity to learn about our families' roots. Brian knows his Saskatchewan family story. His Dad's family farm, now run by B's cousin is on our roadmap. We'll be paying our respects to his grandparents who have passed on. We'll stop on the bridge in Saskatoon where his mom's parents met. I'm just learning my family's prairie story. We'll be sleuthing our way around Craik, SK, looking for where my Nana's grandparents homesteaded. I've grown up with stories from my Nana about the beautiful garden that her Grandmother kept. Her inspiration, I suppose, for her full, fragrant, fruitful colourful gardens. And my inspiration, in turn. We have coordinates for where my Granddad's family homesteaded, somewhere west of Prince Albert. I have virtually no stories from that side of the family. Just longitude & latitude, text messaged to me from my Dad in preparation for this journey.
This feels important as we raise a new generation. Otis won't remember this, but we'll remind him. We'll have pictures and stories that follow him forward.
So here we go! On the road again...
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| Otis' garlic, planted the week after he was born. Harvested 9 months later! |
So, what's the plan, you ask? We're moseying our way up to Hornby Island via Nanaimo where we'll spend a couple days getting back into the swing of 'away' with Brian's parents and my fam. Hornby brings us a campsite full of friends and the kind of beaches that I don't even want to tell you about cause they're so totally perfect. (shhhh.)
From Hornby we'll head down to Vancouver for the Vancouver Folk Festival where Brian and I will celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. Woop! And Tuesday we fly to Regina, Saskatchewan!
I laugh when I tell people we're going to spend 3 weeks road-tripping in Sask. I'm not sure why it seems funny to me. I guess I probably underestimate it as a beautiful place to holiday. People often assume family is the call to the prairies, and it is. But beyond that, it's the opportunity to understand the horizon through Brian's eyes - all low earth and sky. My horizons feel cozy with mountains tapering into oceans. It's the opportunity to experience the seasonal & climatic opposite from my only other experiences in Saskatchewan. I'm looking for heat here, people. Between family time with B's sister & fam in Regina and my Grandma Dorothy in Churchbridge, well spend 5 days camping in Grasslands National Park. Now close your eyes. Imagine prairie grasses and low rolling hills. And there, in the distance, just coming in from the left - that us! We're on horseback, being led by a real-live cowboy. Cowman? Cowperson? A real tourism Saskatchewan moment.
It's the opportunity to learn about our families' roots. Brian knows his Saskatchewan family story. His Dad's family farm, now run by B's cousin is on our roadmap. We'll be paying our respects to his grandparents who have passed on. We'll stop on the bridge in Saskatoon where his mom's parents met. I'm just learning my family's prairie story. We'll be sleuthing our way around Craik, SK, looking for where my Nana's grandparents homesteaded. I've grown up with stories from my Nana about the beautiful garden that her Grandmother kept. Her inspiration, I suppose, for her full, fragrant, fruitful colourful gardens. And my inspiration, in turn. We have coordinates for where my Granddad's family homesteaded, somewhere west of Prince Albert. I have virtually no stories from that side of the family. Just longitude & latitude, text messaged to me from my Dad in preparation for this journey.
This feels important as we raise a new generation. Otis won't remember this, but we'll remind him. We'll have pictures and stories that follow him forward.
So here we go! On the road again...
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