September 1th

Hi again. Back with more stories from Canada. In this and the next session it's islands all the way. First a trip to a little island called Pender Island and afterwards a trip to the large Vancouver Island.

Our trip to Pender Island began in a funny way. We went floorball practice on a Monday for a couple of weeks ago - our first practice. Here we met Greg who was in charge. A nice guy.
There was one girl and about 8 guys - most of the guys was the sons of old icehockey stars, that was a bit funny. I guess they where playing a bit more icehockey than floorball - but it was still lots of fun and we're going until we're taking off to Denmark again - that's for sure.
Anyway - after practice we went out for a beer with our new couch Greg. We chatted with him for a hour or so and asked him if he had an idea for what we could do for a few days because we didn't have any plans. Well - he had a brand new cottage on an little island. The cottage was just finished a couple of days ago but we could use it if we would. Wauv - it came as a bit of a shock and we didn't exactly what to say - but we said: ok then!!

Well on our way we were!! A almost two hour sailing trip was up next. The key "should" be on the kitchen table... J
If not we had our car to sleep in...

It was a beautiful trip between small islands with lots of small hills on all of these islands.

As we were on our way it became a bit darker...

Actually it became very dark... To be precise it was so dark that we could see NOTHING when we arrived to the island were we didn't know were we lived... hmm - ok then... Well, we drove a bit and found a label at the end of a road which maybe looked something like what we found on the internet when we searched for Pender Island and the cottages.
Somehow we found a cottage which could be the right one...maybe...the number was almost right - number 8 and not 8A - and yes the frontdoor was open...and yes - the key was on the kitchen table. Here's a picture out the window to show how dark it was...
By the way - the camera lighted the image a bit...Eva-Marie thought is was the water she took a picture of J

But the cottage looked very nice - though we didn't know how the view was. Here's a picture of the inside when we arrived - first the kitchen.

And yes - a flatpanel tv - then the view doesn't matter...
As you can see the cottage was just finished. With fake gas fireplace and all J

But then we woke up the next morning...

What a view!!! We went out to the terrace:

It was a fantastic view!! Here are a couple of pictures just to show you a bit of how beautiful and spectacular it was.

Another one, also from the terrace. You can't see it on these photos but otters were swimming everywhere in the water below. I guess that's why they called the place otterbay!

Otterbay was a very cosy place. It had a little marina.

You could also rent bikes, which we did. By the way, it's the law that decides that one has to wear a helmet:

After a hard bike ride with lots of steep (up)hills we found that it was time to relax at the terrace:

Mmm.. cold white wine...

Dinner time was spent at Hope bay Café where we saw water beeing sprayed out of the water and 1,5 m up in the air... We couldn't figure out what it was until we saw this picture:

And yes, it was a whale.. besides we also saw eagles:

Pender Island is paradise on earth. Another proof of this is that the weed (ukrudt) spreding abundantly round the island is blackberry. We went on a "blackberry hunt" and found quite a lot of the very big and sweet berries:

Unfortunately all good things have to end and so did this fairy tale. On the way home we saw the cottage from the sea side. Very beautiful indeed. "Our" cottage is the one you can see all of in this picture...Nice eh...

Just one final picture. Bye bye Pender - we had fun J

That's all for now.

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