This
year we had the best weather imaginable for our annual trip to
Parksville. On the Friday afternoon, Viki, Damon, Raya and I drove
up the island to our waterfront accommodation. Raya was a great
addition to the trip. We picked her up at daycare and she was
already talking about the beach. When we told her Brennan would be
there, she said, "Where is Brennan. I don't see him
anywhere. He could be anywhere." We stopped at the
Mitchells on the way up, then at the coffee shop in Shawnigan for
frappachinos, then at Burger King in Duncan. Raya climbed inside
the tubes at the restaurant until she was calling out to us that she was
lost. Viki had to climb up the tubes until she found Raya.
When she got back down, I let her go back up again - to Viki's
dismay. During the last half hour of our trip, we barely helped
Raya hold her sanity as she wanted out of the car and on to the beach.
When we arrived, it turned out to be perfect timing, as
the tide was nearly high. It reminded me of more than 10 years
earlier when Kathryn and I had the same experience. The two of us
headed out into the quickly advancing tide that was heating the water as
it spread over the low bank sand. We ran, splashed and we laid in the water
for more than an hour. Brennan finally arrived and I played with
both of them. Raya kept saying, "Join hands everybody.
Run. Run as fast as you can." She would run a short
distance and fall face first in the water. Eventually Brennan got
too cold and gave up. Raya had to be carried against her will from
the water by Viki.
