Well, we’re finally back from our vacation! It’s so nice to get away from the city and spend some extended time in our favourite place in the whole world.

11 days of camping and surfing is a long time… I have to admit I was ready to get back home and have a shower by the end of it. It was the best shower EVER, that’s for sure. Still, there’s nothing that calms my soul quite like surfing and camping in Tofino, so I’m really glad we were able to be there for a long period of time. So what did we do?

… lots of surfing (Greg, Trev, Allan, and me) …

… hanging out at the beach until sunset …

… celebrating Canada Day …

… by applying tattoos …

…. and eating lots of cake …

… spent a lot of time enjoying our amazing campsite …

… and surfed with sea lions …

… we checked out our wedding venue again …

… and made sure our amazing menu was coming to life (yes, they did our recipes proud!) …

… we went crabbing (Nice work Crista!) …

… for Red Rock crabs and Dungeness …

… and it was a success …

… we celebrated Allan’s birthday (Happy Birthday my love!) …

… and we spend a lot of time just enjoying our favourite place.

What have you been up to lately?

Happy Canada Day everyone! I hope you all had a good one.

Sadly, I have had to return back from Tofino early. Yes, I had a crazy surfboard incident. 11 stitches on my forehead. If you’d like to see the stitches, click here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! So it’s back to work for me.

Pictures from Tofino coming up soon.

So yesterday, instead of surfing and being on the beach, I spent the day with Allan and my Dad in the garden and in the kitchen for Canada Day. We made hamburgers, garden vegetables, spring salmon, and potatoes. Yum!

My Dad has been meticulously taking care of a garden for as long as I can remember. When we lived in Australia for several years, I remember eating oranges right out of our garden. It’s been a long struggle for our family to make ends meet, but somehow my Dad has always found time to take care of the garden in the morning before work and after working 12 hours a day. I remember helping out in the garden when I was growing up, and eating fresh vegetables and fruits throughout the year.

Here’s just a sampling of pictures from our garden from yesterday, and the meal that we cooked up:

Freshly picked veggies and fruits from the garden: HUGE raspberries (my favourite), boysenberries (they are basically large and juicy blackberries), new potatoes, peas, basil, mint, and cilantro.

A view from one side of our garden, click to see where everything is located. Click All Sizes to see the large size.

The view from the other side of our garden, again, click to zoom in.

I used to have a rooftop patio in the west end but had to move all my planters to my family’s house when I moved into Allan’s apartment with no patio for a couple years. Fortunately, our new place has a patio so I’m planning on moving my planters over soon so I can start gardening again.

Lilies…

The blueberries starting to come out…

The plum tree, still green… but they will be ripe and juicy soon!

Fuji apples starting to ripen…

Tomatoes starting to get ready!

Garden-grown garlic drying out (shame I didn’t get that bug in focus!)

Green grapes starting to form on the vine…

Dill! I love eating herbs straight from the garden.

Flowers in the garden…

Our family’s secret recipe for hamburgers! Lots of fresh herbs and onions from the garden, and lean organic beef.

Hamburgers all cooked up from the charcoal BBQ with hickory smoked chips.

New potatoes and fresh garden vegetables (all except the broccoli)..

Grilled spring salmon (just caught last week) on the BBQ and grilled zucchini from the garden! Yum!

Yes, we definitely enjoyed some home grown and home cooked food yesterday!

How did you spend your Canada Day?

So, I’m off to Tofino! Time to quickly publish the post I prepped last night and head straight from work to the ferries! I’m not going to get started on the ferries though.

So I’ll be in Tofino until July 6th. Finally, a long week of surfing, camping, time by the beach in the sun (and rain), camp stove cooking, and friends.

Every year, we get a big group of people together and head over to Greenpoint in Tofino for camping and surfing on Canada Day.

Let me show you all the crap we bring along with us! Ah, the joys of car camping. Our equipment is well-worn and not in great shape after camping trips every other weekend, but they still hold up!

First off, time to prep the shallots. I got this idea from my friend Trev: prep all your food in advance where there’s light, good knives, and cuttingboards and then you don’t have to worry about all the mess and disaster while you are camping.

Pro Tip: Wear your snowboard goggles to prevent from massive eye hysteria while cutting up millions of shallots. It works. LOL!

Here’s all the food we prepped last night. Needless to say, we were up late. But it’s such a bonus not having to wash everything and cut it all up when you are hungry after a long day of surfing and it’s dark and cold out. Click on the photo and then click on “All Sizes” to see a bigger version so you can see the text.

Also very necessary: camping equipment. MEC Tarn 3 tent, MEC rollout mats (WAY better than having a bulk air mattress in my opinion, and much lighter)… and we normally don’t bring camping chairs when we go on our own but considering how much we miss them when we have a big group of people we decided to go buy some fancy Roots camping chairs with foot rests. Can’t wait to try them out. Allan’s not a big fan of how bulky and heavy they are in the car, but they will be nice to bring along every once in a while. We are also bringing our golf clubs so we can play 9 holes of golf at Long Beach Golf Course. Golf equipment + surf equipment + camping equipment = VERY full car.

We’ve also got tons of food, not to mention 40 strips of bacon from Granville Island (WOHOOO!), two coolers, a camp stove, a cast iron grill (a MUST for car camping cooking), lots of hoodies, my underwater camera case for my DSLR, my DSLR of course, and lots of supplies.

Food we will have there: Pacific Halibut, scallops, bacon, sausages, breakfast potatoes, everything you need to mix up Mojitos, lots of beer, cane sugar colas, tons of fruit, chocolate vegan cake, Uprising Breads, New Moon cookies, and tons of crackers and chips! I love food.

Not picture: 2 huge surfboards, also tons of wetsuits (bringing wetsuits to share with friends too)… I love my Roxy 5 mil wetsuit, but I bought Allan a new O’Neill Infiniti Drylock 5/4/3 for his birthday this year (a little early, his b-day is in July) and I have to say I am VERY jealous. It’s a darn nice wetsuit. Also pictured, lots of groceries, beach towels. And of course an absolute essential: TWILIGHT! Hahahaha.

Lots more not shown here, but you get the picture. It’s a full car.

Can’t wait to be out there for 8 days, hopefully our food lasts.

In other news, I booked my accommodations for Costa Rica! 3 nights at Paradisus Playa Conchal and then 4 nights in a villa rental on Langosta Beach (loved that beach when we stayed there last). Lots of time for surfing, relaxing, and hanging out on the beach. The weather: Humid, thunderstorms, sun, and rain. Just the way I like it.

Sadly, won’t have much time to blog in Tofino, but I’m looking forward to posting when I get back on July 6th! See you soon, and HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!

Happy Canada Day (believe it or not, this photo was taken with a friend at my Xbox 360 clan’s annual meetup. Yeah, Patron tequila is trouble)!