A Tale of houses! - An unexpected 7 hour cruise - Easter Visiting - March 28 - April 8th

 A few more days of rain and a couple with sunshine. The nice days I got out in my garden with Penny (my "garden angel") getting ready for spring. Still very cool overnight with freezing temps, -1C (30F). I ended up putting a bit of heat on in the greenhouse for my strawberries.

Saturday afternoon is nice enough that I joined Mike next door at his campfire, donating some of Ray's cedar scraps. lol He was cleaning up some winter debris.

Ray got busy staining Kristi's planters and one of the vertical gardens he repaired that fell apart last year.

Managed to get a picture of the garden with all my ornaments in the night.

Thursday morning we left at 6:30 am for the Departure Bay ferry at Nanaimo heading to Squamish for a few days. Easter visits with family. Today a visit with our friends Delle and Chris and then two days with Garrett, Kat and Stella and then over to Coquitlam to visit my cousin Gord and his wife Suzanne for a couple of nights. We were at the front of the ferry so stayed in the car for the trip.

Once we landed in Squamish we headed to the Howe Sound Brewing Company for a light lunch. We were able check in early, so headed there after lunch.

Here is the view from our B&B.

The rental is up on a bench in Garibaldi Highlands, where we lived years ago. After unpacking, we were in  still early, sowe drove past the places we'd lived years ago. That inspired me to dig up some pictures of past digs. We've moved a lot lol

We married in July 1977and then Ray got a job in Terrace BC. We moved up there in December in a cold snap with snow in our little Honda Civic packed to the gills. The new company paid for our furniture to be moved out of our apartment in South Vancouver. We rented for several months before finding this house (pictured below) to buy in the spring with the help of his parents for the down payment. (We got a truck for more off roading.)

We were only there a few months when Ray got transferred to North Vancouver. We rented in North Vancouver for about 4 months and found a house we could afford back in Squamish. Both of us commuted down the Sea to Sky Highway every day. This is what it looked like, Chestnut Drive, Valleycliffe. It felt huge to us coming from apartments and our small rancher in Terrace.

This is what it looked like today when we drove past it. Not bad after 45 years!

The company Ray worked for had a different perspective than he liked, so he looked for another job.... Guess what, it was back in Terrace, BC. Again we packed up and ended up moving in December in the winter. I was 6 months pregnant with Garrett at that time. When we sold our Squamish this there was a major flooding event from the river nearby. Fortunately we weren't flooded out but the buyers we had at the time backed out of the deal and we kept their deposit. We were able to sell the house again shortly after.

We spent the next couple of months in a motel! I was busy washing baby things and trying to figure out how to stack it all in boxes to be ready. There weren't many houses on the market and only a few we could afford. We moved in March 1st and I had Garrett March 31st!

6 months after Garrett was born, the forest industry took a dive in 1981. Ray got laid off and I went back to work as a manager of a Fish and Chip Restaurant to have some money come in. October 1982, I was very pregnant with Kristi. My Dad told us to come back to Port Coquitlam, Ray would have a better chance of finding an accounting job in the lower mainland. Dad paid for my airfare with Garrett, and he drove our truck and camper back to Vancouver and Ray drove the U-Haul. They left and I flew out on December 4th. They got to Dad and Mom's December 6th and I had Kristi December 12th! 

We ended up selling this house to our best friends Dan and Jayne for less than we paid for it as the markets had crashed.

Ray, Garrett and I moved into my old childhood bedroom and Kristi soon after. Good old Berkshire Place, in Port Coquitlam.

We seem to always move in the winter. :) We sold our truck and camper and bought Ray's grandparents car for cheap to have a down payment on another house.

Ray pounded the pavement for 3 months and finally secured employment with Weldwood (foresty company) downtown Vancouver. Once he had a job we quickly found a house to purchase (Dad did), fairly close to them about 6 blocks away. 

The house on Windermere Drive,

Ray took the bus to Vancouver everyday and was later offered a position in Squamish and he took it as living expenses would be lower. We would miss Port Coquitlam though, as we were busy with the raquetball club.

We found a house in the Garibaldi Highlands to rent. We decided to rent there and rent out the house in Coquitlam to get ahead. Property prices were higher in the lower mainland than Squamish.

Today it looked like this, not much different.

After summer holidays on my Dad's boat, we hatched a plan that; in a year we would go off-shore sailing for a year .... Wow really! Ok. We got busy taking scuba diving lessons and Ray also took his ham radio license. I'd trained for almost 2 years as a nurse, so we figured I knew quite a bit in the first aid department. We decided to move into an apartment and cut our rent in half to save up. At this time Garrett was 5 and Kristi 3 years old.

The only good thing about this place was the pub was walking distance at the end of the complex. :)

After about 6 months in the apartment, my mom realized we were all serious about off-shore sailing and put a kibosh to the whole plan! Well I wasn't going to live in this apartment for nothing. We sold the house in Coquitlam and bought ourselves a nice house in the area, on Cedar Drive.

Drove by it today, looks pretty good for 35 plus years ago.

This house was Ray's first real building experience. He created an office out of one half of the double garage as he'd started up a computer business on the side. He did a great job. I was going to night school for legal steno. Things were going great until........ there was a change of managers and the new one was someone Ray did not like. Ray would come home from work every day more and more upset. I told him to find another job, he can't stay working there while the kids and I were getting the brunt of his crabbiness lol

He answered this really small ad in the newspaper. It didn't say where it was. Turned out it's on the Queen Charlottes (now Haida Gwaii) for MacMillan Bloedel as a Divison Accountant. They had us fly up there to interview both of us. He was told the job was his, so this time, the move was in June not December! We actually bought a log house in Port Clements, while we were there being interviewed. Not much to choose from so not a hard decision. 

Ray started by June 13th, so I was left selling, packing up our house, while working at the Crown Counsel Office as holiday relief steno, where I'd been hired for 2 months before. The very end of June found myself driving all of us from Squamish to Prince Rupert and then the ferry over on my own. Let me tell you a lot of Raffi was playing on the tape recorder and a big cooler between the kids so they didn't kill each other while I was driving. lol Ray was happy to see us.

After almost 8 years there, it was time to move back down to the lower mainland. The kids were in high school and the highschool suggested we take them to Vancouver for higher level schooling. Since most people only stay in the Charlottes for a maximum of 3 years we'd done almost 3 tours. The company made a three-way accountant switch and we ended up in Port Alberni with Ray Divisional Accountant for the Sproat Lake Division. The accountant that moved to the Charlottes actually bought our house. 

We flew to Port Alberni to house hunt February 14th, 1996 and within 3 days had purchased this house on Huff Drive with a closing date of April 30th. We arrived in Port Alberni mid-March and stayed for 6 weeks in a Bed and Breakfast at Sproat Lake.

We managed 11 years this time. With all the reductions in the forest industry again, Ray's job was transfered to the Western Forest office in Duncan. Too far to commute from Port Alberni. Although his job transferred in November, we did not get clearance to sell our house until February, unfortunately the property prices tanked and we actually didn't sell until August. Ray spent 5 months in our fifth wheel coming home on weekends, or I stayed with him at the Living Forest Campsite in Nanaimo alternate weekends.

After hunting for houses for 2 months we found this brand new one on Tamara Drive. Ray spent many hours developing the lot and gardens as it was all dirt when we bought it.

Ray's job evenutally moved from Duncan to Nanaimo which was a whole lot more convenient. After attending Sprott Shaw for my MOA, I also worked downtown Nanaimo.

5 years in this house and 2 back surgeries later, we decided to sell everything and go on the road before Ray couldn't. Ray was already on long-term diability by this time and hadn't worked at his office for a year.

While the house was up for sale, we moved into the fifth wheel in our driveway. June 13th 2012, was my last day of work, the house had sold, new people took possession a few days before. We moved out to our campsite on the Port Alberni Inlet for the summer.

Ray and I packed up the campsite at the end of September and crossed the border for the first time for the winter on October 13th, 2012. We started out full-timing in this fifth wheel, but the first few months down south found out we needed a plan B as bending too much was killing Ray with everything in one big compartment. February 2013, in Mesa, we found our new home, a 2011 Tiffin Phaeton.

This was our only "home" for 5 years before purchasing our current home, our lakehouse. We still had the MH for 6 years for winter travel south. We sold in May 2024 after coming home deciding we were done going to the USA for the winter. There are other places to see. 

Now that we have this wonderful lakehouse, I'm never moving again!

Now back to Easter Visiting:

After arriving in Squamish and checking in, we met our oldtime friends Delle and Chris for dinner at Pepe's Chophouse. Great visit and great food. I met Delle at Parent Participation Preschool when Garrett was 3 years old! He just turned 45.

Adam Sandler is shooting a movie here and sat where Chris two nights before.

After dinner we went to their house, a short distance away for another hour or so before going back to our AirB&B.

Friday morning we were out the door early, heading to Garrett and Kat's for fresh cinnamon buns for breakfast. Yumm.

Stella is very happy to see us. Lots of "show and tell" lol She also enjoyed the mini karoke machine we bought her. :)

After breakfast, and when it warmed up a bit, we took a drive up to Capilano University where Kat works and where some of Garrett's bike trails are. We did a short walk down to a bridge over a creek. Beautiful.

Back in the car to another bike trail where there's a beautiful waterfall for Ray to photograph.

We hung out the rest of the afternoon after a small lunch. 

Stella showing me how well she is learning to read! She did great.

For dinner tonight, and Garrett's BD we took them all out to the House of Lager Brewing Company, right down on the waterfront. Everyone's dinner was great. 

Back home at Garrett's for the evening, until 7 when it was time for Stella to go to bed. We went back to our rental which is only 5 minutes away, so very convenient.

Saturday morning we were back at 8:30 am. By 9:15 we were out the door for the Easter Egg Hunt festivities downtown. First up though was donuts from the Oak and Fox Bakery. They make the best.

Which one should I get????

Next up was going to the Easter Fair. Stella had a marvelous time with all the craft tables and hunting the stones for clues. Face Painting was a hit!

After a bunch of crafts we took a quick walk through the farmer's market and then headed back to Garrett's, enough walking for today. For tonight's dinner, we ordered in Chinese Food. Another great day spending time with them all.

Sunday morning we packed up early and were out the door at 8:30am to miss the holiday traffic coming to and from Whistler. We did stop at Beaucoup Bakery and Cafe in Britannia Beach for a pastry and coffee. There happened to be a car club there too. Ray got some pictures.

Traffic was great and we arrived in Coquitlam at Gordie and Suzanna's by 10:30 am. After unpacking, we headed out for a walk around LaFarge Lake. I had not been there since I was a teenager. Boy has it grown up around there.

Out for lunch for Sushi and then back home where Gordie made ribs and twice baked potatoes for dinner. My cousin Pam came over for a visit and Gord's son, Connor.

This flyer is advertising my Grandpa's Meat Market, years ago. McCormack's. Prime Rib 33 cents a pound!

Monday morning, after morning coffees etc. we headed out to Port Moody to walk on the waterfront before lunch.

Gordie drove us to the old train station, now a museum. Closed today but Ray took some pictures.

Gordie took us on a driving tour through Belcarra Park area. Huge houses.

For lunch we ate at Float 30 at the Reid Point Marina. Great fish and chips.

Tonights dinner was great burgers and wedge fries. We got spoiled. 

Tuesday morning after coffee, we were on the road by 8am to miss hopefully some of the traffic on Highway 1. Nope! Stop and go from Burnette entrance ramp, all the way until we hit West Vancouver. It took 1 hour 20 minutes to get to Horseshoe Bay Ferry terminal. Good thing we left early. We were pretty much 3rd car in line for the 11:05 ferry. It gave us enough time to go to Trolls for breakfast.

Ray was able to take some pictures of Horseshoe Bay.

All seemed wonderful, not too much wind, beautiful sunny day and no ferry cancellations! And Then! The Kalamaty Kyle Curse was launched!

Being that we were right close to the front of the car deck, Ray and I stayed in the vehicle for the trip as I find our car seats are more comfortable and we already had breakfast. When it came time to disembark, the car was DEAD! Nothing worked. The ferry guys came and tried to boost our battery ... oh oh, where is the battery? Of course this all took too much time and as this was the end of a holiday weekend, they could help us or wait so we had to sail back to Horseshoe Bay with everyone parking around us facing the opposite direction to us.

Hello Nanaimo! Goodbye Nanaimo!

After watching a UTube Video we found that the battery is in the rear side panel of the passenger side, which meant Ray had to crawl through the car moving all our luggage forward, then get a screwdriver from the stewards office to remove the plate in the hatch so we could open the door. Then remove floor boards and unhook side panel to access the 12V battery! Great for his back. 

We then asked for them to boost the battery ... nope cannot start motor when ferry is underway! Finally a crew member took pity on us and 10 minutes before we reached Horseshoe Bay he jumped us. He said we could keep the car running. They had a crew change after we arrived in Vancouver, so we sat in our car with it running for over half an hour before they started loading again. Another crew member came to speak with us and after hearing what happened we were allowed to keep it going for the whole trip back to Nanaimo. No one wanted to take a chance it wouldn't start. We couldn't leave the car so one of us stayed as the other got food and brought it back to the car. 

After doing some research, we think that when I turned on the accessories to open a window and then thought I had turned it off, even though the dash when dark, it must have still be engaged to draw down the battery.

We finally offloaded at 6:05 pm instead of 12:40 pm. They let us off right away not taking any chances of us being stuck again. lol I drove us straight home and we arrived at 7 pm. Almost 11 hours in the car. I was stiff leave alone Ray with his back! 

Ray and I hope to do a cruise in the future, but not on BC Ferries!

Wednesday morning, car is fine, but I have ordered a battery bank to use if this ever happens again to us. (It came in 2 days and is now in the car after I charged it.)

While we were away, Agata, our landscaper, did all our pressure washing and the painters started prepping the trim for paint. 

That was our Easter Vacation!

Ray's latest puzzle he finished. Venice.