A hockey road trip.

Surfside RV Resort, Parksville BC (2 stars)

Whoo-hoo - road trip to the big city. Well, Nanaimo, the biggest city in these here parts. Kind of like us going to Red Deer or Grande Prairie. But hey, it has what we need. Like for instance the absolute best mid-eastern themed grocery store we have ever seen. It is the MB Mart down by the waterfront. They advertise themselves as a treasure trove of Greek, Turkish, Arabian and Persian food. And they do not disappoint. Lez says that if we lived closer we would be in there every week.

The second thing we "needed" was a hockey game. Yup, a road game for the first place Generals against the last place Buccaneers. We sat with the Van Herk family, enjoyed their company, received a nice Christmas card from them and watched their son/grandson Brady score a goal in a 6-1 win with shots 38-24. Live hockey is a lot of fun, especially when you are supporting a really good team.

Date Night! LOL - Dinner and a movie NOPE - a much more interesting dinner and a hockey game! Off to the Nanaimo Ice Center (NIC) we went to watch our Oceanside Generals leave their mark of another win giving them first spot in the VIJHL.

The Buccaneer's arena is adorned with seven sports-themed artworks printed to vinyl banners to mark the opening of the Nanaimo Ice Centre in 2006. The wall hangings are by artist John Newby, and one artwork by Kelsey Theedom. Wonderful depictions of the youngsters on ice.

Although it had snowed and was quite frozen out there, the roads were good, and travel unremarkable.