July 18-20

Friday Anna went to her Nanas' for a sleepover, and Tim and I worked and then went to Sombrio for our first solo camping trip since Anna's arrival. I packed like we were going backpacking, strapping everything to our pack, taking small amounts of things and completely dismantling our camping "go" box for the purpose. Tim decides to look up the distance between the parking lot and the beach, and finds out its only ten minutes long! I had remembered it longer. The good news is, this means we can bring two beer each. Ever since hiking the Juan de Fuca trail end to end in 2002, when after a couple of days on the trail we came upon people camping at Sombrio with coolers, etc. and we had just our dried noodles and water filtered from the creek, I have fantasized about drinking a beer at Sombrio beach. The beach is one of the most beautiful in the world, without a doubt. We were blessed with excellent weather. We walked the length of the beach when we arrived, and gathered pretty stones, and Tim tried out a rope swing on the south end. We explored the little suspension bridge to the next part of Sombrio, then got the wood for our beach fire. We had an amazing supper of chorizo sausage and instant noodles sitting by our fire in the sand, and slept so well there, too. We had a leisurely morning with a huge breakfast and head out for a hike up to Minute Creek, then back to strike camp and meet Anna back at home. Sunday we stayed home, but in the evening I headed out for the Victoria School of Writing reception, which kicked off my week of workshops in creative non fiction with Rita Moir, which was amazing.