Vancouver Island
Based on feedback from a few locals (THANK YOU!) we chose to stay in Parksville, a quiet and family-friendly beach town ~30 min from the Nanaimo ferry. We rented a car by the cruise terminal and booked BCFerries way in advance (again – thanks to you all!) and really enjoyed the 2 hour journey across the bay. It was welcome chill time needed by all after the high-stimulus environment of the cruise ship, I think. The kids were amazed that the car actually goes on the ferry 🙂
Our Airbnb (which we will be leaving in a couple of hours – sob) is absolutely gorgeous. I chose a property that had only a few reviews because not much was left when we decided to add on this part of the trip! Thankfully that was just because it was a new listing, and the owners (seasoned Airbnb-ers I suspect) did an amazing job with it.
I could use another week here. It has the same relaxed energy and beautiful scenery that we enjoy so much in Amelia Island — and with DELICIOUSLY cool weather*!!! But sadly . . . reality beckons, particularly Josh’s call schedule.
*I have seen the daily heat advisories back home – ugh – and wish I could delay my re-entry to November.
A few pictures:
Now — don’t get me wrong. The hikes we are taking the kids on are like 1 mile and we still have to beg/drag/bribe G to finish at the end. Hopefully we can work on her stamina!
Meanwhile . . . it’s August!
And not even really early August anymore, either.
My YNAB (budgeting app) is a MESSSSSS and I have not set any goals. I did do a mini email cleanup on the ferry but there are 80+ left that require some kind of processing or response. And I literally cannot IMAGINE the state of my EPIC inbox – the medical assistants triage, but that’s only to put out major fires. The podcasts were fine but I am itching to create more fall content — planner season is about to be upon us! Also, MANY thanks to Laura for keeping our BOBW Patreon active and fun while I was gone – she is far better at working while traveling than I am!
So even as I’d love to continue this vacation forever and ever, I’m also feeling pulled to get back to routine. Some of my goals this month were inspired by reading Peter Attia’s Outlive (I’ll do a post on my takeaways eventually). Others are continuations from my summer goals (ahem estate planning).
Here we go, rest of August! I plan on really thinking through the rest of Quintile 4 on the plane.
5 Comments
VERY excited to hear your Outlive takeaways. I’m a big Peter fan!
This trip looks amazing! I’m adding a trip to the PNW to my bucket list. I also want to go to Alaska but my husband thinks I’m crazy.
We are going to Amelia island in the very near future and I was wondering if you had any recommendations for things to do? I’ve looked through some of your old posts and noted down the ice cream shop and some restaurants (we are actually staying at the Omni and definitely will try Verandah) but have been surprised there don’t seem to be a ton of actives off the resort. We often do a boat excursion at some point during beach trips but maybe Amelia island is SO chill people really just relax the whole time? Sounds ideal to me but the kids might not agree:)
Glad you enjoyed Parksville! We moved here from the mainland a couple years ago and have zero regrets.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Outlive also! I finished it on vacation at the end of June and intended to write a recap post on it too, but then got busy and now it’s kind of faded a bit so I probably won’t.
As a fellow Floridian I am green with envy looking at your trip pictures wearing pants and long sleeves! It is just miserable here. I am dying to take a trip to the PNW and your recaps reconfirmed it. I have two one-year-olds though so I think we are going to have to wait a bit!