Gabriola Island Part II

Like I previously mentioned, Fearthainn and I decided to take a mini-holiday while she was out visiting this past week and booked ourselves a couple of nights on Gabriola Island – the Isle of the Arts!
We stayed at the Silva Bay Inn, which was both affordable and offered a stunning view of the bay. We were also the ONLY guests, which was a good thing because Claire cried. A lot.
When we first got to the island, we took a driving tour around the two main roads (aptly named North Rd and South Rd. They meet at the south end. The first of many trips around the island via the North Road and South Road. We stopped at the end of Berry Pt to soak in the scenary and of course, nurse Claire, and play in the puddles.

Then we went back to the inn to unload and regroup for dinner. Dinner was a complete fiasco because Claire cried through the entire meal so I was forced to eat standing up. The meal was completely fabulous, at least and thankfully, we were the only people in “family” area.
The next day was spent frolicking through every park we passed by. The morning was spent exploring Sandwell Provincial Park which turned out to be a rather long walk in with beach gear and children but we got wise and found a quick route out. There was a gorgeous golden eagle (we suspect) on the beach when we got there that wowed us with his enormity. Callum and Auntie Fearthainn explored the beach while I, you guessed it, nursed.

From Sandwell Provincial Park we headed to Descanso Bay Regional Park which is incredibly beautiful with sandstone shoreline carved out by the waves. Of course, I didn’t take any pictures. Why? Because I was nurisng. We did have a nice little walk, and Fearthainn made us all sandwiches!
From Descanso Bay we checked out Drumbeg Provincial Park. We were hoping to find the park with the Petroglyphs but missed it somehow but Drumbeg was really very pleasant. That might have largely been in part to Claire neither crying nor nursing for the entire walk. Amazing.

From there we decided to figure out something for dinner, so we headed back to the room, I nursed Claire, then out for dinner. Unfortunately, it was clear that Miss. Claire was NOT going to co-operate through dinner so we got it to go and headed to Gabriola Sands Provincial Park where we madly ate dinner while Claire cried (the park was gorgeous at least). Back to the room and after a few hours of attempting to get the kids to sleep we loaded them up in the car and drove around the ring road. This worked on Callum, Claire was not fooled.
The next morning we packed up, then sat out on the deck for an hour knitting, watching the boats go by, and just hanging out. Once we got the kids into the car and the room paid for we headed out to have lunch at a park. This was a disaster. Once we managed to eat lunch (nurse Claire, and placate Callum) we headed for the ferry. Which was late. Poor Fearthainn had her fill of crying children.
That said, honestly, it was really very lovely. I’d do it again.
More pictures to come of both babies (I know, not a single picture of Claire in this post, sorry) but I gotta go, you guessed it, nurse Claire.

4 Responses to “Gabriola Island Part II”

1. Laura says:

   June 1, 2008 at 2:29 pm

   AHAHAHAHA your day sounds just like mine, except that yours took place with scenery and restaurants, and mine just has our house and yard
   It really does feel like we spend our whole damn days (and nights) nursing, doesn’t it??
2. Amber says:

   June 1, 2008 at 9:11 pm

   it DOES! I had planned to nurse every 2.5 hours, and was very annoyed when how I had it planned wasn’t working out – it was more like every 1.5-2 hours!
   Just goes to show me, I should be more flexible I guess.
3. Laura says:

   June 2, 2008 at 10:52 am

   What drives me crazy is how LONG Gwen takes to nurse … there are times when I nurse her for 60 or 90 minutes at a time, which doesn’t leave much space if I’m to nurse every 2 or even 2.5 hours!!!
4. Amber says:

   June 2, 2008 at 11:46 am

   I’m mean, after an hour, she gets taken off. Actually, now I’m down 40 minutes. It sometimes means I’m nursing again in half an hour, but hey, she’s gotta learn I figure .