Summer is, hands down, the best time to be here on the Sunshine Coast. Every year we struggle with the fact that summer is our time with a looser schedule and so our opportunity to travel, versus the fact that it’s so darn nice where we already live.
School finished in the last week of June and I went straight into a steady stream of workdays. We had Canada Day and family visiting in the first week of July.
I loved seeing the mixture of red and white with orange shirts. On Canada Day we celebrate what is good and strong about our nation but we also strive to acknowledge where we’ve gone wrong and how we can do better. This year, I saw more Canadian flags flown around town than ever before. We have work to do but we are proud to be Canadians.
At the end of the week, we headed out to camp at a place we’d never been before, Savary Island. To get to Savary Island from where we live, you have to drive about an hour up the coast to catch a ferry from Earls Cove to Saltery Bay. Then you drive maybe another hour through Powell River, all the way to the beginning of the highway at Lund. From Lund we caught a water taxi that took us across to Savary Island, about a 15 minute ride. From the water taxi to the campground was about a 20 minute walk.
Leading up to our trip, whenever we told anyone that we were going to Savary Island, their response was invariably some variation of, “Oh, you are going to love it.” And you know what? They were absolutely right. Savary is an off-grid island, meaning no electricity except what is provided through solar power or generators. There is running water and our campground had one flushing toilet so the girls declared it to be “luxury”. The island is primarily full of summer dwellers with cabins and there is a general store as well as a couple of other small stores and restaurants, all seasonal. Roads are gravel or dirt and while there are cars, the speed limit every where is 20km/h. Bikes are really the best way to get around. We brought bikes for the girls and were very happy that we did so.
What Savary Island really is known for though is its sandy beaches. This is an anomaly in our part of our the world where you might get sandy spits or the occasional sandy spot on a beach. The majority of our beaches are pretty rocky and you’re going to have to watch out for barnacles when you walk into the ocean. But Savary is almost entirely wide open sandy beaches. I have also heard that the ocean there is a degree or two warmer than where we live but I didn’t particularly notice this.
Pascal’s campground is the only one on the island and we found it well situated – not far from the main dock and close to the general store. It’s in a sort of loop so we gave the girls free rein to ride their bikes around. A hacienda nearby provided food and ice cream at certain times, though we were also able to get ice cream at another time when we caught Pascal nearby.
Our days were spent exploring the island and visiting different beaches. Since Peter and I didn’t have bikes, we stayed mostly on one end of the island but we were still able to visit several different beaches and explore some different trails. We played on the beaches, picnicked and swam.
It really felt like a total time away from our regular lives, in the past ways possible. I brought my “big camera” and so happily let my phone die while we were there. We had slow mornings and stayed up until the sun went down (late for our kids). We ate simple camping meals and roasted marshmallows on our camp stove every night. (No fires allowed on the island.)
After three nights, we felt ready to head on to our next spot and we packed up and caught the water taxi back to Lund. (We had pre-arranged this before leaving for the island.)
Once back in Lund we had to visit Nancy’s Bakery, home of delicious cinnamon buns. We reminisced about our visit there last year, in the rain, with our dog.
Driving back in to Powell River, we had time to stop at a thrift shop and a grocery store before we were able to check in to our next camping spot. This time around, we camped right in the heart of Powell River, at a busy site that we’ve camped in before. It’s located on the water, next to a playground and water park and close to stores and restaurants. We had already decided that this would be a cushier form of camping (car camping usually is) and that we would eat out for our dinners.
Our first evening we read on the beach, paddle boarded, and went to dinner at a spot we always love to visit – the Thaidal Zone. Campfires were allowed so we roasted marshmallows properly this time.
Campfires came in handy because the next morning it started to rain. We were hopeful it might die down but, dear reader, it did not. It rained all day. We (Peter) set up a tarp and got more firewood and brainstormed what to do on our rainy camping day. We had promised the girls to take them mini-golfing and then for ice cream at a place nearby. They insisted they didn’t mind mini golf in the rain but we, as more experienced adults, knew that standing out in the rain for an hour or more and then not having a dry indoor place to go, would not be a pleasant experience.
Peter overheard another family in the campground say they were going to go bowling (our town has neither a mini golf course nor a bowling alley) so we offered that up as a suggestion, with the promise that we could still get ice cream after. Our girls have only been bowling once, at place in the Lower Mainland with disco lights and loud music. Overwhelmed by the noise, I ended up taking Rose down the street to a nearby park for a granola bar and a quiet time, so we weren’t sure if bowling was for us. We decided to check it out in Powell River though and I’m so glad we did because it was right up our alley (pun intended).
I won’t claim to have a lot of bowling experience but this is my new favourite bowling alley. It was delightfully retro. Very little was automated (it took us a few minutes to realize we had to press the reset button between turns) and we had to figure out how to keep score with paper and pencil. Only four alleys were working (and most of the others were also occupied by families from the same campground). Music was quietly playing in the background and not at all overwhelming. It was the perfect rainy day activity.
And then we went for ice cream afterward.
For dinner we visited a new restaurant, Genki, which served a mix of Japanese and Korean food. The Korean fried chicken was excellent. Then we spent our evening going to watch How to Train Your Dragon at the Patricia Theatre, Canada’s longest-running movie theatre. (It opened in 1913.) We’ve often passed it but never been in and it ended up being the perfect evening activity for a rainy evening.
We headed home the next morning, glad to be returning to our own beds and some hot showers. Summer has been off to a great start.
And for some bonus, book-related fun, here are the books the 4 of us read on our time away. Can you guess who read what?
Karissa Reads Books 
Did Justin Beaver get a family? I see more brown stuffed animals!
Bowling alleys can be obnoxious when they have that crazy loud music, and I don’t know why they do that! Typically, if I’m bowling it is with Nick and my parents when they visit, but each time, everyone ends up injuring themselves! Is there an age limit on bowling??
I would have thought more Canadian flags would make you nervous. Flag waving is such an American thing, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I do know my nieces’ high school had an orange shirt day at one point, and it was for the local Ojibwe/Chippewa tribe.
Justin does indeed have a family! He has a wife, three sons, a grandson, an uncle, and a father. I think the animals you’re seeing here though (the ones in the bike helmet) are actually Pearl’s weasel family. She has three of them.
I have never heard of bowling injuries – you must be very vigorous bowlers! The most we encountered was crushed fingers when the bowls roll back into line. The loud music in our last bowling alley was obnoxious; I was actually glad of an excuse to take a break. You couldn’t even talk to the people you came with, which I thought was kind of the point of bowling alleys.
Prior to 2020, I felt only a vague pride in the Canadian flag. You didn’t see it flown that much aside from schools and government buildings but you might wear a flag pin or patch while travelling (so people knew you weren’t American). During Covid, there were these “freedom convoys” that took over Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates and they really co-opted the flag. This was also around the same time as the bodies were being discovered at residential school sites. It got to the point where flying a Canadian flag would largely been seen as meaning that you 1) hate science and 2) are probably racist. Unfortunately, I feel like this is where American flag waving has gone too. At the same time, a lot of Canadians I know were frustrated that our flag had been taken over like this. We wanted to wave or wear our flag but didn’t want to be lumped in with this group. In 2025, when Trump started with his talk of making Canada the 51st state, the maple leaf started being seen all over the place. In February, it was flag day, which I didn’t even know was a thing in Canada before this year and so many flags were being flown, mostly because so many Canadians felt how important it was to show that we are an independent nation and we’re not interested in being a part of any other country. I think a lot of people took it as an opportunity to sort of reclaim the flag from the “freedom” convoy. So now when I see Canadian flags on display I think most of them are being flown by average Canadians who celebrate the good in our nation and hope to keep improving it.
Sorry, that was a bit of an essay! It was a great question because flags are certainly not neutral objects!
No, I loved your response. If I see someone flying the American flag, I automatically assume they’re racist. It’s been coopted in the U.S. to mean close the borders, etc. The convoy thing was so scary to me because it felt like Canada had fallen. I thought I heard on the news that the convoys were actually American truckers in Canada stirring up trouble, but I have no idea what the truth is. Now that you are all flying to flag to separate yourselves, I can see how you would be very proud of that.
Sadly, that is now what I think when I see people displaying an American flag. And it did feel for a while like the Canadian flag was going the same way. I think it was found that some American truckers were involved but I also think it’s important to acknowledge that most were Canadians. It was a minority but they were very loud for a while. Thankfully, our most recent federal election showed that the majority of Canadians don’t support those types of groups.
I had multiple conversations with people during that time where we wanted to sort of “take back our flag” but also had to recognize for myself that as a white, middle class, Christian, it might not be perceived well! So this most recent opportunity to fly the flag proudly and to know it doesn’t stand for racism or hate is very welcome. Again, I think our recent elections have made that possible too, as we’ve shown both provincially and federally that we’re not interested in being led by those types of voices.
I’m so proud that your elections show your country on the right side of history.
I would love to see us move further left of centre but I am proud that we didn’t choose the party that seems to want to blame immigrants and women!
Okay, I just saw the trailer for a new Pixar movie about a girl that puts her brain in a beaver body and goes out into nature, and I got really excited for your family. 🤣
That’s wild! I went straight to find the trailer – it seems like a movie made for Rose!
Looks like a lovely time was had by all! I don’t know the kids books but I’m going to guess you were The Sea and Peter was The Power and the Glory…
You got it!
[…] last couple of weeks since my previous highlights post have been both full and peaceful for me. While Peter took the girls on epic hikes, I stayed home […]