The long road home

For our last day I got up and watched the sun rise. It was spectacular.

We headed in to Campbell River for breakfast. It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday, so the kids got their own table. After breakfast, Dad headed towards Victoria. We decided to explore a bit more.

There's a lot of murals in Campbell River.

 Of course we ended up back on the pier.

 Then since we were so close, we headed up to Elk Falls where I'd heard there was a suspension bridge.

 We arrived, and walked towards the falls and the bridge.

And for some reason it was really, really hard for me to walk across this bridge.

But a gentleman at the safe side said he needed a picture with me on the bridge (hah!) so I had to put on my brave face and wander. The view was totally worth it.

David and his brave face :)

It was a beautiful walk. Campbell River is a gorgeous part of the coast. I had no idea.

 Then we took the old island highway back towards Nanaimo again.

The best part of the highway is the 20 minutes south of Campbell River. After that, it meanders away from the coast through the country. But every once in a while, there's a beach.

We found an oyster farm.  That was crazy. Oodles and oodles of cages. And so many oysters all over the beach. Elisabeth really wanted to find a pearl.

So despite the warnings posted otherwise, these hooligans cracked open an oyster. Maybe two.

We found a little marina.

 We stopped in Parksville and wandered on the beach there.

And after a few misadventures trying to find the right road, we finally made it to our ferry.

 Fabulous vacation, and what a start to the summer!