Zooming and signalling with the van Barens in Lekkerkerk.

Surfside RV Resort, Parksville BC (2 stars)

We had a nice chat with Hanneke, Aldo, Riet and Kees this morning. They are fine. Kees is as fine as can be expected given the medical issues he has endured for the last several years.

French Creek is one of the busiest commercial fishing marinas on the west coast. Many are here for the herring season which will start soon, unless the Fisheries department puts a halt to it given the very low stock of herring in the Salish Sea. The sad thing about herring fishing is that the catch goes entirely into pet food.

Lee imagines standing near the dock, eating a smoked herring Dutch style holding it up in air by the tail. Nice memories of the Netherlands and the way they treasure their herring season.

Skies this morning, as the sun rises, are thin, almost like a high fog. This is creating rainbow coloured sun dogs. A jet stream is also crossing over us and passing the sun. The estuary itself is almost mirror still. And we have FROST on the ground. GRIN - at least we don't have to shovel it.

We connected via ZOOM with Lee's cousin Hanneke and family in the Netherlands today. It was great to see and speak with Lee's aunt and uncle too. It has been quite a while since we have spoken directly, and now I am ready to pack up my bags and go visit. Well, maybe we can consider one more trip to Rotterdam and area, as there are other cousins too. My Dutch is good enough to chat with the elders, and if I forget a word, the cousins' English is excellent.

A sunny afternoon drew us out to the Dutch store in Coombs today to stock up on the goodies. We then wandered on to French Creek and the Seafood store. Pricey, so we passed on the previously frozen salmon. We did walk a bit on the spit out there, and were reminded of a place we were considering when we first started exploring the area four years ago. Not what you would call a "shack by the sea".

We are happy with the choices we didn't make back then, or we would never have since seen all we have from over the Arctic Circle and across the prairies as far as the Manitoba-Ontario border.

We ended our tour back today with a stop at the DQ for an ice cream treat and parked with a view of the Parksville beach - very quiet as the darkness settled in.