Sand Castles, butterflies and ...

For the last little while I've been thinking I don't go see Paul and the family enough. I do drop by once in a while but usually a long while. It doesn't help that they have a busier schedule than me with them both working shifts and Lelaine is into so much after school. She has become a great little swimmer and from what I've heard she very good at Highland dancing as well. This past week I decided I wanted to do something with Aunt Gladys so I told her Patty and myself would be picking her up on Sunday to go to Parksville.

Sunday came so off we went to pick up Aunt Gladys. When we arrived Paul told us that she had a pretty bad fall about 20 minutes before we showed up. At 89 years old any fall would be pretty bad but she had been looking forward to going so off we went. The only thing I told Aunt Gladys before we left was to leave her purse at home. Aunt Gladys feels bad when other people treat her and at restaurants she will say she is going to the washroom but will sneak up and pay the bill. I told her there will be none of that this time. We drove up to the beach in Parksville only to find out that they had kidsfest on that day. I asked a guy guarding the gate if I could at least drive up and drop Patty and Aunt Gladys off and he let us through. I then went to try and find a parking spot to meet them. I only had to do one lap of the parking area and got a spot pretty close.

The first thing we went to see was the sand castles from the yearly competition they hold in Parksvill. It was a very sunny day so taking photographs wasn't easy but I'll post the results anyways.















Next we drove down the coast to a little restaurant on the beach to have lunch. It has a beautifull view of the sandy beach and ocean and the meal is quite nice and very filling. Aunt Gladys behaved her self and let us pay.

Next it was off to Butterfly World in Coombs. We had tried to go here when Jodi and Maisan were here but it didn't work out. The place looks like a jungle inside and its very warm and there are hundreds of butterlies floating around. The hard part of photgraphing them is they don't seem to land much and when they do they constantly move. Add in the fact its dark and its even more difficult. I managed to get a few photos of the butterflies as well as the flowers and other creatures they have inside.














We left there and decided we would get an icecream on the way home. Coombs market was way to busy so we decided to keep going till we hit a Dairy Queen. We past Nanaino and I said I'd go to the one in Lady Smith. As we got near Lady Smith I noticed Aunt Gladys was tired so I asked her if she just wanted to go home instead. She said no but that if we stopped for the icecream she had to pay. I let her twist my arm and said OK. The drive through was closed so I said I would go get them. When I brought them back Aunt Gladys didn't want her change she said it was a tip but I told her if she didn't take her change back she'd wear her icecream instead of eating it. All in all it was a fun day and I'd like to do it again sometime.



One last note about something that has nothing to do with this weekend. I contacted the B.C. Lions and asked if I could get a side line pass for the game Sept 15th vs Toronto and they said yes as well as offering me one for the Montreal game which I can't make. As much as I like the Ti-Cats it burns me how they came up with so many excuses not to give me a pass and how B.C. is more than willing to help me out. If I knew the guys name I had dealt with I'd send him an email telling him what a jerk he is.