Kayaking Indian Arm

This past weekend, Patrik and I had planned a hiking trip up to Garibaldi Lake. Anna was heading over to mormor and morfar's for the weekend, and we were so excited to go on our first backpacking trip since well before having Anna. So on Wednesday after work, I jumped onto the ferry with Anna and headed over to Nanaimo.




We hung out with Josefin, Tim and Bella on Thursday.


It's so fun watching the girls play together, and Anna gets so excited by all of Bella's toys! One of the highlights of the afternoon (read with a sarcastic tone) was getting to spend an hour cleaning up a big tub of diaper cream that Bella got into when she was supposed to be napping. Diaper cream - water resistant diaper cream - over everything. Including Bella. Fun! Well, she sure enjoyed watching us clean it up anyway.

But, Anna managed to top Bella. She tripped over a ledge and fell. On my foot. This was good for Anna as it broke her fall. But the only problem was that the other thing it broke was my toe. Ack! What are the chances of breaking a toe just a day before going hiking for the first time in a couple of years?

Anyway, on with the thinking caps it was, and an equally good trip was decided on. Kayaking!


We managed to find a kayak to rent at the last minute and so we quickly swapped backpacks for dry bags, dried and tasteless food for lovely and luxurious food, and water was supplemented by a bottle of wine. And off we went.



On the first night, we camped on north Twin Island, and in the morning we woke up to blue bird skies.



And after a beautiful paddle, we wound up at Granite Falls campground. A late lunch of sill (pickled herring), potatoes, eggs, crisp bread and a beer left us feeling like we must be in heaven. This is after all part of the story of how Patrik and I fell in love - sill and the fixings on his boat in the Stockholm archipelago. Great memories...


We spent the afternoon reading in the sun, fishing (sort of), and on another delicious meal (why does food taste so much better outside?).




In the evening, a communal campfire was started. As luck would have it, there were some professional musicians at the campground that joined us around the fire, and who created an amazing atmosphere as they entertained us the whole evening long.

Although Sunday meant that the weekend was nearly over, it also meant that we got to see our Anna. We missed her, even while we had an amazing time.