Vacation on the Sunshine Coast

It's Victoria Day long weekend again, and for the Ng family, this means it is time for our annual vacation! For some well needed R&R, Karen, Erich and I are on the Sunshine Coast for a few days. This year, of course, vacation takes on a new meaning travelling with our five month old: Gone are the days where we can hop from city to city exploring vast geographical areas. Instead, we have taken a much more relaxed approach this year - opting to stay in one place to rest and to do some personal reflection. We booked a one-bedroom suite with kitchenette at a scenic resort called "Sunshine Coast Resort" located in Pender Habour, about a 60 min drive from Gibsons.

Gibsons, BC (Day 1)

After driving to Horseshoe Bay, we boarded the 9:20am ferry to Langdale/Gibsons. Gibsons is the site where the famous Beachcombers television series was filmed. I remember watching the show when I was younger, living in Quebec - so it was quite exciting to see some of the buildings featured on the show in person.

We explored the town and soon discovered the cozy small town atmostphere of Gibsons. Having arrived after the mad tourist rush of Victoria Day long weekend, we experienced a bit of what real town life is like. We walked into this one antique store where we explored the treasures of years past. (We were almost tempted to purchase a tall and narrow antique walnut bookshelf to compliment our hallway!) We walked into another store, an artisan's store, where we found some of the most beautiful and creative creations from local artists such as Zoey Ennenberg. As we were admiring the art, a local boy on his scooter (probably the kid of the Chinese restaurant's owner next door) pops in and just hangs out with the shopkeeper as part of his daily routine. Quite the interesting community dynamic that is often missed in big cities like Vancouver.

We had lunch at Molly's Reach, the former set of the Beachcombers turned restarant/pub. The food there was so yummy that even Erich couldn't resist grabbing some of the fries and salad. We suspect that he might have actually ingested some of it because he had rather interesting poop afterward.

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Photo: Jonathan & Erich at Molly's Reach Restaurant

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This trip also marks the first time Karen has been able to feed Erich outside of the home for any significant length of time. For instance, while mommy and daddy were busy having lunch, Erich was breastfeeding too right in the restaurant.

Pender Harbour (Day 1 Afternoon)

After lunch, we began the second leg of our journey. We had been warned by one of my coworkers that the highway from Gibsons to Pender Harbour had many curves, but were left wondering what he was talking about all the way to Sechelt. But soon after Sechelt, we were probably hit with 15 or 20 turns all in the matter of a few kilometres! A little car sick and a few dozen turns later, we arrived at our destination.

We checked into our very cozy suite, and set up "shop": crib, swing, bedding, food, and of course - wireless internet. Yes, that is correct - the resort provides wireless access and I managed to get hooked up via an OpenWRT router set to Client mode. More on that in a few days on my technical blog.