holidays

teacuppamela.png Several weeks back, we made some plans for a little ‘working holiday’ away from home. Now… this has providentially been a real blessing – not just bcz we love to spend time here, but also has been a ‘forced rest’ for Wes. We’d originally thought we’d come here a bit later in the year or after the first of the year… but taking into consideration both Kathryn’s and Timothy’s departures (at different times) to Africa, we thought we’d do this now. Well… in truth, I actually thought it might not be a very good idea and even voiced my sort of nervous concern to the cardiologist… and she promptly said: Go! Whatever you need to do to get rest, eliminate stress and not go back to work… that’s a good thing to do (again, candidly here, I was not relieved). Wes was relieved. Though he’s a swimming pool contractor, he really does not like swimming. At all. Isn’t that funny? But… give him a spa and a sauna or steam room opportunity and he’ll like that!

And so, here we are. It’s a wonderful place to spend some time… such a radically different place and pace than home. And bcz we’re not too fond of crowded places or swimming with others, we like that the pools during the week are practically empty, very calm and quiet. In a very peculiar way, I’m even liking the misty weather (even though that’s one of the drawbacks to vacationing in the “off-season”) and the cooler days.
I’ve since come to see that Wes sure did have excellent foresight to make these plans to be here while the Sand Sculptures are still ‘on display.’ Harrison Hot Springs was the site for an international sandcastle building competition that took place in May and the sculptures were available for viewing throughout the summertime Harrison Festival of the Arts… and fortunately, for us, even now! We’ve walked around the lake and then today we looked at each of the sculptures… amazingly, these many months later, the sculptures have withstood many hard rainstorms and high winds and still are quite impressive to see! Some of the sculptures have sustained a bit of damage, and some even have some moss growing on them! but, for the most part, they appear to have just recently been completed. I’ve no idea the tremendous time and skilled work that goes into the creation of these sculptures on the beach… they’re just such amazing things!

The leaves have turned and the air is crisp and we’ve had to bundle up as we’ve gone out for walks! I’m thinking that for the next several months, this will be our daily routine – just not here – we are going home – really! Now, isn’t this an interesting turn of events! Here I am the one who needs to lose weight, exercise and drop cholesterol – and it was my husband who had the heart attack! His blood pressure has been good for years and cholesterol level’s been good, too. He’d made many changes in diet in the last several months and eliminated the daily donut nearly two years ago. So… here we are today. He continues to make different changes and has regained strength and stamina and says he feels pretty good. I continue to… drink coffee.

Tomorrow’s another day… I’ll be home tomorrow. O, home… home sweet home – holidays are sweet… but home’s sweeter!

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0 thoughts on “holidays

  1. Yes… I would say, Go! if you can. It’s a real sweet blessing to me to be able to occasionally go places with my husband. It’s been particularly important lately! We love to go to Harrison. And, yes, the midweek-off-season package is more reasonable – and if you watch for ‘specials’ then even better. I watched the USD rate in the biz pages in the local paper each day and watched the USD decline… and the loonie was stronger. The exchange rate used to make the trip even more attractive, financially… but now, not so much. It’ll all change—the Can. finance pouring billions into the Can. banks will only help for so long. So… maybe go when the USD is stronger and the Canadian dollar is weaker. Or go when you can! ~smile~

    Anyway… with some creative planning… you can have a wonderful time! We eat the meals provided in the ‘package deal’ (breakfasts and 1 dinner for two) and then we then like to bring food for the other meals and eat in our room… there’s a little fridge in the rooms and it’s all so sweet to me! Long brisk walks, long deep talks, long soaks in the pools, long dinners… a couple of laptops and projects to work on… marvelous!! We loved every minute of our time there! But—we sure love being home again, too! Go when you can… the water’s fine! blessings to you… your family and sweet memories.
    thanks for writing! —pamela

  2. I’ve been reading your blog for about a month and just felt led to thank you for all of your posts, but this one in particular. You see, I stayed at this resort when I was 13 and loved it. I have shared those memories with my children and my husband and have dreamed of going back there. Your post encouraged me to go and check out their rates and I found that it is quite affordable off season! So thank you….

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