We are leaving for Courtenay later today so we spent this morning and quite a bit of the afternoon cleaning Kristina’s apartment. I did find time to go to Café Fantastico, treating myself to an Americano with cream and a toasted bagel with cream cheese, and, for the first time ever, a French pastry called a dacquoise. It felt like a little ritual of indulgence before heading out. I will be glad to get back to my “regular diet” once I get back to Courtenay! This food tastes good in the mouth, but all the sugar and fat makes me tired and listless… Yeah for the “Whole Foods Plant Based Diet (with Egg Whites!)”.
Once we left Victoria the first order of business was dropping off the keys with Kristina’s son, who lives up near the airport. Once that task was done, we headed for home. The kids were hungry by this point so we stopped off at McDonald’s for hamburgers and fries. Bobby soon fell asleep in the backseat for most of the trip (see photo to the right)! Katie and I got to have a nice long talk without being interrupted by “Are we there yet?” … 🙂 The drive morphed into Daddy/Daughter Chat Day #37!
Katie saw a YouTube video last night about a guy who is selling homemade bath balms and this got her into “business” mode… Today she was brimming with ideas about starting her own business. Her idea is to create and sell her own hand-drawn stickers, maybe even set up a booth at the local Farmers Market with her friends. I encouraged her — seeing her creativity take shape felt like a reflection of my own drive to build and create.
On the way north, we stopped at the Tim Hortons in Oyster Bay for coffee and Timbits. I grabbed a large double-double, my daughter enjoyed a chocolate dip donut, and later, when my son woke up, the three of us shared the box of Timbits. Somewhere along the drive, I introduced my daughter to some of the songs that have meant a lot to me — “Joey” by Concrete Blonde, “Alone” by Heart, “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie, “Help Yourself” by Tom Jones, and a few others. She played them from her phone, filling the car with a little soundtrack of my own past, bridging it to her present.
Their mother, meanwhile, was eagerly awaiting our return — this was the longest the kids had ever been away from her, nearly ten days. She tracked our trip on her phone and noticed when I detoured through Royston to take a scenic route instead of the highway. She wondered why it was taking longer, but eventually, we made it home just before sunset. The kids were hungry, so she cooked them a meal, and my son, having slept most of the way, was allowed to stay up a little later than usual.
For me, the best part of getting home was something simple: finally crawling back into my own bed! Being away is nice, but it’s also nice to be home! To everything in it’s season! It felt like grounding, like arrival. The day held laughter with my kids, memories of the past, and a warm return to home — a day of movement, reflection, and connection.