Visit with the kids and Amelia in Nanaimo.

Tuesday morning before Nanaimo we called up Ray's cousin Brian, and stopped in for an outside patio visit at their home in Saltair. We have not seen Brian or Sandy for a couple of years so it was nice to catch up. 

They have a lovely view.

Next stop was the Ladysmith Government Dock. I saw on Facebook someone is selling spot prawns right off their boat for $12/lb.  CHEK News also aired a feature on the vessel selling directly to the consumer due to reduced restaurant sales. Sign us up! Ray waited in line for 5 pounds and off we went to Kristi's. 

Here are some pictures of the Ladysmith Harbour

Dewatering logs.

The tug is going back in the water

Ladysmith Government Wharf

Next, we headed to Nanaimo so I could be ready for my "Amelia shift" on Wednesday morning. We managed to eat 2/3 of the prawns for dinner. It was fabulous. We all had fond memories of eating prawns like that, at Macktush campsite down the Alberni canal. Ray and I with our boat, hauled in prawns all summer long and ate great feeds over the 15 years we were there.

Dinner Entertainment. lol

Kristi teaching Amelia to roll over.

Kristi came downstairs at 6:30 am with Amelia as they were awake and Jason was sleeping.

At 8:30, Kristi went to work at her office and Jason began his Zoom meeting. He's teaching some high school kids the art of fly tying. He planned to have half the class, but the other club members internet didn't cooperate so Jason ended up keeping 12 kids busy for 2 1/2 hours. 

 

Nap Time

Story time

Fortunately for me, after Kristi left for work, I enjoyed a wonderful time with Amelia. Lots of smiles as we sang Raffi songs. :) 

Ok fed and burped now what do you want to play with?

Such a happy baby.

While I was babysitting, Ray headed out the door to Millstream Park to take some waterfall pictures. He spent a lovely hour puttering around with all of his filters for his camera.

Bowen Park Duck Pond

When Ray came back, I gave him the sleeping baby so I could have a "bathroom break". lol

Once Jason finished the Zoom, and a short visit, Ray and I packed up and headed out about noon. We decided to stop again at the Ladysmith dock for more prawns. lol Another 10 lbs.

Government dock

Back home by 1 pm and after lunch, we processed the prawns so we could freeze a bunch.

Of course another feed as well.

Thursday we got the call that our boat is ready to be picked up with the new bimini cover and the proper "EZ Steer" installed. While talking with them, they told us that with the new canopy the big motor could not go up high enough to engage the travel lock, but as we only had a short distance to go no problem. Ray then mentioned about the "big motor" not staying up and slowly coming down with the hydraulic rams. We were told that was not right! Monti's Marine, where we bought it, said it was fine when Ray asked them about this after we took delivery of the boat. Apparently not!!! Now we are going through warranty and have to take the boat to Nanaimo to have it investigated July 7th and hopefully it has not become a serious problem and we are without the boat for another month.

We parked the boat in the driveway for now. Ray and I are heading out with the motorhome on Monday for a week so we will launch the boat when we get back and use it for a week before heading to Nanaimo.

The nose looks really long from this angle. lol

When we got back with the boat, Pat invited us over for coffee on their deck, so off we went for an hour or so. Nice catching up. Although we live basically next door, this is probably only the 2nd time we sat together in a year! While there, our other neighbour landed with his helicopter. As Pat said ... this neighbour is in a different "snack" bracket than the rest of us. lol

I spent the day doing laundry and making a couple of lasagna's for our trip. I've been having some trouble getting our fridge in the MH cooling down. It was working fine, making ice etc. for 3 days then kaput! Turned out the freezer door was not closed 100% and there was a lot of ice. I cleaned that out and then checked this morning, no ice, and no cool! So, I investigated some more and found one of the clips to keep the door shut while travelling was not engaged properly so I fixed that. Waited a few hours this morning still not cooling very fast. Pretty warm in the MH right now with the sun so turned on a couple of heat pumps to cool ... Finally at 7pm it's finally starting to cool down in the fridge. I will know tomorrow if the bottles of water froze overnight or not. Fingers crossed. Changing out a residential fridge in the MH will be a great pain in the butt. You either take out the front window, take out the slide completely or hope you can take the fridge apart enough to get it out the door with the door taken off! Not to mention the $3000 for a new fridge.

Had a bit of a sunset tonight so we sat on the deck and watched it. Our viewing window. :) through the gazebo.

Good news, checked the fridge Friday morning and it's cold and froze the water bottles. Yeah!!!!! Now I can plan my meals, we were eating out if the fridge was toast. :) Turned on the propane and made sure the hot water tank also fired up.... it did. Next up to the local store for some items. They were selling off their herbs and plants as they will be closing their little "garden centre" so I bought a bunch and made a travelling herb garden to take with us on our trips this summer. My Italian Parsley this year is growing really big so I dug one of the plants out of my vertical garden to make some space and stuck it into the bucket as well.

Spent the next few hours dragging more things into the MH. Clothes, frozen meat, condiments etc. Definitely got my "steps" in. :) Spent a couple of hours before the dinner on the deck watching the activity on the lake. Should be a busy weekend.

Saturday morning, woke to high cloud and more wind. This whole week has been windy so Ray's been unable to get out fishing. Tomorrow the "mini heatwave" is set to hit. We shall see. lol

Sunday, indeed turned out to be a spectacular day. Temps were 29C (84F) Ray went out fishing for awhile and I was able to sit down at the dock with my coffee in my PJ's.

After a few morning chores and some more stuff loaded into the coach, we spent the afternoon down on the dock in the shade. Lake temps have come up to 69F... still too cool for this kid. :)

Poor Freya is really struggling with her left hind leg and can hardly put any weight on it. I've upped her pain meds, but I don't think this will get any better. It probably is a matter of time before she gives up, but we are not there yet. Fortunately I have a ramp to get her into the motorhome and a lifting belt. No more stairs for her, so she cannot get to the beach to cool off either. We will have to spray her with the hose instead.

Kristi is busy with her brother and wife and Stella this weekend. The kids sure are cute together.

Garrett holding Amelia, Stella and Kristi

Kat and Kristi set this up for Ray's Father's Day.

Monday we woke to another gorgeous day. We were up before 6 so were able to relax and have coffee before we get moving to get ready to leave for a weeks RV trip.