A Visit to White Rock

Another long weekend, and another adventure. At PennWest we get an extra day off for each long weekend in the summer, and this works well for us. It lets you take a little more of a vacation and do just a little more on the weekend. For my August Long Weekend I decided to go to White Rock to visit my Granddad, his wife, and step-daughter.

I packed up all of my stuff Thursday night, and Friday morning I hopped into the truck and drove to the Edmonton International Airport. Everything went perfectly, and I got in through security without getting frisked once! My flight was delayed by a few minutes, but only a few. It was an earlish day, and by 10:15 am I was at the Abbotsford International Airport.

Granddad was waiting for me. We greeted each other (with a manly hug) and then headed to the car to drive to White Rock. Granddad succeeded the driver’s seat to me and I took the wheel. We drove down to Avenue 0 (that runs along the Canada-USA Border) and headed West. Everything was going find until we felt a shudder in the car. It was strange, but at first it was isolated and we shrugged it off. A few minutes later the shudder occurred again. Soon we were feeling the car jerk quite frequently. We tried a few things but could not get the car to run smoothly. Not knowing what we could do, we decided to limp it back to White Rock where we could take it into a garage.

Granddad worked in a vehicle depot during World War II, and with his experience he thought that there was something wrong with the transmission. We took it to the dealer who decided they needed to check it out, and then they told us it was the transmission. They said they could fix it, but we really didn’t want a random refurbished transmission so we took the car to the transmission specialists. They said they could fix it, and they said it would cost way less than the dealer.

Fantastic, we found somewhere we could get the car fixed! The issue now was that it was the beginning of a long weekend and we had no ride. We gave a few places a call and then headed down to Enterprise. I got them to give me a discount from APEGGA and then we rented a car and were on our way.

Unfortunately these car issues ate up most of our first day. We still managed to meet some of the folks at Christina Place (where Granddad lives), fix Granddad’s computer so he can resume his Facebook Scrabble games, and then go and eat supper with Helen and Sherry (Granddad’s wife and daughter-in-law). It was a lovely day, and we enjoyed an excellent meal while we briefed the ladies on the vehicle situation. We also managed to squeeze in a walk on Blackie Spit where we had a rather interesting time feeding the birds bits of sausage.

Reach

Across the Bay

Treasure!!!

Feeding the Birds

It was a very busy first day and by the end of it I was thoroughly exhausted. I rented the guest room at Christina Place, so when the time came all I had to do was hobble down the hall and into bed.

Pannekoeken

We got up the next morning and skipped the usual meal to head out to De Dutch. De Dutch is a pancake restaurant that sells the biggest pancakes I have ever seen (called pannekoeken). I had some meat thrown into my pancake and with a little syrup it was fantastic.

We headed back to Christina Place for a quick turn around and then headed down to the beach. It was the weekend of the Sea Festival so the beach was packed, but we managed to find a spot to ditch the car and then we headed out to the sand. Granddad would tell you that I urged him to go down and take a walk on the sand, but I would say that no urging was needed. We were down on the sand and in no time our shoes were off and we were headed out to the water.

Low Tide

The tide was almost all the way out so we were able to walk along the flats and through the tidal pools hiding all sorts of nasty seaweed and interesting critters. I picked up a few shells along the way, some that were evidently quite... fresh... We did make it out to the water and it was worth the long walk. The water was warm and the view was spectacular. Behind us we could see White Rock, and to the south we could see the United States (and there we could see people looking at us, making that same walk to the water that we had).

The Beach

White Rock

We somehow made it back to the car, and then we somehow made it back to Christina Place. The walk and the sun had sapped our energy so we decided to rest. I had sent Granddad copies of the "Sharpe's Rifles" TV series featuring Sean Bean. It is an amazing TV series, and it goes along with an amazing series of books. We rested on Granddad's couches and were lost, for a time, in the Napoleonic wars.

Richard Sharpe

Over the Hills and Far Away

I had been checking the clock occasionally, and it was a good thing. We were going to have supper at Sherry's house (Granddad's wife's daughter - we have decided that makes her my Step-Aunt). We were up again and on the way. Helen (Granddad's wife) has limited mobility so she is unable to make it up the stairs into Sherry's house. With a little imagination Sherry set up everything needed for a gourmet meal down on her driveway.

We all piled into the car and made our way to Sherry's. It was a lovely meal and a lovely evening on a whole. Good food, good company, and the view and ambiance is always spectacular when you are looking over the ocean.

Supper on the Tarazzo

A great night, but alas, all good things come to an end. We piled back into my little rent-a-car and headed home. We said goodnight to Helen and headed back to Granddad's room (in an adjoining building). We finished the episode of Sharpe we had been watching, had an excellent chat over Nestle Quik hot chocolate, and then headed to bed ourselves.

Granddad said that I pushed him to do things that he had not had the opportunity to do for a while, but I must say, I really had a hard time keeping up. He was full of energy all the time. We got up on Sunday, had a quick meal, and then were off to the Garden Room. Granddad is a retired Minister and some of the people who live in the same building as him have a hard time getting to their churches, so, Granddad does a small service for them there. It was an informal service, but one that everyone enjoyed.

Following that we went to Granddad's church for the service there. I have not been to a service in a long time, so it was interesting to go.

Much of the rest of the day was spent doing errands and visiting. We cleaned out Granddad's closet, messed around on the computer some, and visited Helen.

This ended up consuming most of the day and before we knew it it was time for supper. I had managed to get a Keg gift card for doing a good job at work, and I could not think of anyone better to spend it on than Granddad. We headed off to the Keg and enjoyed a full meal. It was nice to go out as a treat, for him as well as me. To be able to go and get appetizers, and an entree, and even desert without worrying about the cost. It was excellent.

As I mentioned before this weekend was the Sea Festival in White Rock, which meant that there would be a parade. We went from supper back to White Rock and parked the car at Sherry's house. From there we walked down to the waterfront and found a spot to stand. We were right at the beginning of the parade route which worked out perfectly. We watched the parade go by (and watched the Christina Place bus go by (it won second place, outdone only by Ogopogo)) and then were the first to be free when it had ended.

Christina Place Bus

Sea Festival Torchlight Parade

The Christina Place Bus!!!

Ogo Pogo... Ogopogo? Ogo-Pogo?

Optimus!!! Pulling country dancers... um... yeah...

I grabbed the car and picked up Granddad. Full and tired we returned home. We spoke for a while over apple cider and then decided to retire.

The next day was very relaxed. Up. Breakfast. Cleaned out my room. Checked out. Visited with Granddad. He had a chair that was breaking so I took a look and managed to fix it with only a few nails. He had also managed to get a free stair exercise machine that he salvaged from the side of the road. The woman he got it from did not know whether it worked or not, but Granddad took it back to Christina Place and put it in the parking garage.

The Stair Machine

The unfortunate truth is that the machine was broken. The good thing was that though it was broken, it was a relatively easy fix. I took a look at the machine, and carefully read the manual end to end. I took note of the warning saying that under no circumstances should you take the cover off of the machine, then I neglected the warning, and took the cover off of the machine. There is actually a rather intricate set of pulleys in there which I was careful not to disturb. I was able to diagnose the problem, and fix it with relative ease. We did have to go to Home Hardware to grab a few tools, but for the most part it worked...

Fixing the Free Stair Machine

The Stair Machine

In the end I did manage to fix the machine, and only with minimal blood, sweat, and tears... mostly the first two... Hopefully the machine will get relocated somewhere more convenient for people to use, and hopefully people decide to use it.

We did not have an enormous amount of time, but since we had seen the sea, Granddad wanted to show me what else White Rock had to offer. We headed inland and went to a Redwood Forest. The forest had been harvested before, but some true tree lovers bought the land and filled it with redwoods and whatever other exotic trees they could find that grew well in that area.

Canopy

Red Wood

Holly

Size Matters

Walking

Significance

It was a hot day, but in the forest it was quite pleasant. We found a path leading through the woods and wandered through. I took many photos here as I found the trees to be exquisite.

Aware of the time we bid the forest adieu and headed back to White Rock. It was almost time to go. I would be flying in the evening, so it was best if I ate before my flight. Sherry, Helen, Granddad, and I all headed to a restaurant where we had a lovely supper together. Granddad and Helen paid, which was a nice treat, and the food was very good. It was nice to see Sherry and Helen once more before I headed off.

When supper was done we said our good-byes and then I was on my way. Granddad came with he to the airport and then we too said good-bye. He will be visiting us in Calgary soon enough, so it really was a so long and not a good-bye, but whatever it was we said it.

I gave Granddad a hug, passed him the keys to the little car, and headed into the airport.

I arrived in Edmonton late, got a slurpee in Leduc, and headed back to Rocky Rapids...