Beach Daze

We’ve spent the last few days just hanging out at the beach. We head down there in the morning with Maggie for a long walk along the tide’s edge. Maggie loves to play with her new soccer ball. She actually can play catch with it by bouncing it off her nose back to you. She’s a big hit with everyone there. Jamie likes to head down later in the day when the tide’s out further with his skim-board. And if it gets really warm in the afternoon Harry and I will go down and play in the waves. Often we end up walking the beach again at sunset.

Here’s a photo of Jamie about to jump onto his skimboard.



New Years Day at the beach was pretty crowded once it got to be past noon. Up to then it seemed that everyone was sleeping off the night before. The parties started early in the evening with everyone really dressed up—and continued until the morning hours. The fiesta on our block included a live Mariachi band complete with tuba and they were still playing at 8:00 the next morning. So the beach activities didn’t get started until later in the day. There were lots of people zooming around in jet boats, parasailing, and riding on the banana boat; lots of vendors selling sunglasses, hats, dresses, fruit in cups, sea shells etc.; and lots of Mariachi bands playing for big groups sitting in chairs under umbrellas and drinking beer.
Yesterday was Jamie’s last full day here and he went up parasailing from the beach. He said it felt like flying slowly over the harbour and the city. He had so much fun that Harry and I are almost ready to try it ourselves.



This afternoon we’ll be taking Jamie out to the airport to catch his plane back to Canada. His flight lands in Edmonton at 9:00 p.m. and he doesn't fly back to Vancouver until the following morning. What a contrast—from skim-boarding on the beach to spending the night at the Edmonton airport!