Eirwyn and Her Ducks

I don't remember that last time that we had been on vacation as a family. Come to think of it, outside of camping, we had never been on a trip as a family. The logical choice for us was to take a trip to Hope, B.C. Even though Hope is fairly close, it would be far enough to consider it a vacation and close enough to keep costs lower. We also had family there that we had not seen in 10 years. They had been begging us to come out for a trip for pretty much the whole 10 years.

Hope is about a 10–12-hour drive and a 45 min flight. I have been terrified of flying since the first flight. I was so nervous that I burst out laughing during the take-off, in a completely silent plane, so we were going to drive. We would do the drive in 2 days so that we could make a road trip out of it. Now road trips are awesome, but not if your child has motion sickness, halfway through the first day she vomited all over the back seat of the car. We had to pull over, clean the car, and then deal with the smell for another 2 hours after that.

By the time we stopped in Nelson we were starving, exhausted, and just happy to be out of the vehicle. We found a nice little Japanese restaurant to get some dinner and then headed to the motel. The motel was exactly what we needed after a long drive, with a playground, a pool, and a hot tub to relax in. We did not have much time as we got there late, but it was just enough.

In the nightstand drawer of our room, we found one of the nifty pamphlets that tell you what there is to do in the area. We found out that there was a ferry that would take you on a 30min trip across the lake. We decided that it would be fun for Eirwyn to go on the ferry as she had never been on a boat before. We figured we would take the morning ferry so we could get an early start on the second day of our trip. Google let us know that there was a restaurant beside the loading dock that opened early for breakfast.

After a much need night of rest we got up early, re-packed our bags and headed to the ferry port. When we got there, we went into the restaurant where they had a very tasty, decently priced breakfast. While eating we saw that they had duck food for sale. We bought some for Eirwyn and headed out to where the lovely server told us to.

Eirwyn lit up at the sight of all of the ducks walking around the shore. She was so excited to feed them. She was dancing all over the shore spreading out the duck food, making sure that all of them got some and none of them would go hungry. I love this picture of the ducks and her because of the ever so slight grin on her face. My heart is captured all over again, every time I look at it.

I am glad that we took the family trip. It allowed me to capture this picture of ducks in their natural habitat with their semi-unnatural food supply. I am also happy for that semi-unnatural food supply because it allowed me to see my daughter out of her element. It also allowed me to see the love and admiration that she has for wildlife, which in all honesty has given me some hope for the future.