craigmcn

I’ll warn you in advance that this is going to be long, and I apologize. On that note, let’s begin. Although this is not the longest I’ve gone between blogs—I don’t think, and I’m not going to check—it’s usually because I’m a lazy jackass, but you all know that already.This time I have a good reason: I’ve been on vacation for the past week. Yay! I spent 4 days on Vancouver Island and 3 days in suburban Seattle (well, Edmonds, WA in Snohomish County is part of Greater Seattle).

My mom, stepdad, stepsister and her partner, stepbrother, sister, niece and I had a gorgeous house (you’ll have to click on Suites, then Nalu House … damn frames!) in Tofino.There were 4 spectacular days of walks on the beach, a bucketload of hanging out, and even a bike ride on the beach with my stepsister and niece. And I can’t forget the event that led to the [slightly] cryptic title of this blog … a whale watching tour.

Two and a half hours becomes an eternity when you’re seasick! My sister had the heaves almost as soon as we left the dock, but never actually blew chunks. We got to the whale watching area where my stepdad, stepsister, stepbrother and I went out on deck to get a better look. Well, that set my stepsister off and she spewed enough to fill a small barf bag. I was okay for the moment, so I went back inside to sit down while we headed off to see some Steller sea lions. I started feeling crappy then, so I put my head down and closed my eyes. When we got to the sea lions’ island, I opened my eyes and pretty much hurled right then and there. Thankfully, I managed to get a garbage bag under me to catch the chunder! That’s how I earned the nickname Vomitor from my stepbro! And I’m not sure whether Barfy is my stepsister or my niece, but my niece was next to fertilize the sidewalk. My stepsister’s partner was ill, but was up on the top deck, so seemed able to contain her gack. My niece even asked the tour operator whether this was normal behaviour (which it turned out to be), since she didn’t want us to be known as the Barf Family.

Overall though, we had a great time. Excellent dinners of salmon and pasta, homemade burgers and barbequed ribs. Mmmmm…. reeebs! And one evening, us kids sat down for a viewing of Valley Girl.

My sister moved to Edmonds, Wa the day before I headed out west. My mom and stepdad had moved into a condo from a large house and had extra furniture they gave to my sister. So my mom, stepdad, sister, niece and I drove on down to Edmonds (just north of Seattle). We moved the furniture in, went down to Renton (south of Seattle) to the IKEA, and just basically hung out together. It was really nice.

Yeah, so, that’s it, boys and girls. The Big Cracker’s vacation summer 2005 to the Left Coast! It got me thinking about some major life changes …maybe a move to Saskatchewan (maybe even to Beatty (yup, the intersection of 3 and 368) and help Wublub and Gonch with the greenhouse and start a coffee shop/internet café) to become a freelance web developer. I’m pretty sure it’s time to get away from the Big Smoke and the corporate mess I work in. (Sorry, Daddy-O, I’m leaving the preposition at the end of that clause.)