Fun times of Reading Break!

I am a terrible blogger... It's been a week. But I have been busy having fun!!

On Saturday of last week our house had a Fondue Party! It was soooo pretty! We had a cheese and crab one, with meats, crackers, sourdough bread and broccoli for dipping! MMMM!!! The best was the desert one though! Dark chocolate Toblerone, with coffee liqueur, and for dipping we had strawberries, pineapple, apples, cookie wafers, and bananas.

Joel gave us the Thumbs-Up!


Clockwise: Kelly (Girl with Blonde Hair), Kevin, Meg, Amy, Me & Joel


But a night is not complete with just food and wine (although some may disagree!) We also played Trivial Pursuit-Millennium Edition! Kelly and I won, well actually, Kelly won and I happened to be on her team. It was a great night, I really couldn't have asked for anything more.

Until Surfing.

Our friends (Jesse, Gord, Craig and Amy) along with Joel and I went out to Uclulet and Tofino for three days. We rented a cabin and surf boards for a fun-filled and rowdy time!

Our cabin was a two room place, looking out onto Little Beach (not far from Wild Pacifica Trail!) The first night we hung out playing cards, went on a walk to the beach, and went to bed pretty early.

Jesse, Me & Joel at the Beach


Me!


Everyone Chillin at the Cabin
Clockwise From Left: Amy, Gord, Me, Jesse, Craig and Kim


Amy's Poker Face (isn't she so cute!)


This is Chesterman's Beach, where we surfed. Check out those wave! They're around 6 feet high!


Another Pretty Picture


So unfortunately there was only a few pictures taken of us surfing, and they're all on Gord's camera. I'll upload them when he sends them to me.

Surfing was one of the hardest things I've ever done! But I loved it, and I seriously want to buy a board and wet suit. Not once did I stand up on my board, but I wasn't expecting to, so no disappointment there. I stayed (mostly) were I could still touch the ground, but because the shore is so shallow that was a few hundred meters from shore.

We all got taken out hard by waves. I paddled out past were the waves were breaking, which was a stupid idea, but I had to see what it was like. Once I got past the breaking point for the wave (hundreds of meters from shore), the water is just up-and-down, with a 10 feet difference crest and trough. Then the only way into shore is to catch a wave, but the waves were HUGE! Too big for a Jen. I got taken out, I felt like I was in a washing machine, mouth full of water, not knowing which way was up. It was only a few short seconds, but very terrifying. After I crawled back onto my board I looked to shore, which was still so far away, and to make it in I needed to catch more waves. My heart was pounding, my chest was heaving, and I was having a hard time catching my breath. But I made it back into shore, alive, thankfully.

Everyone had an experience similar to mine, Amy got taken out by 3 waves, one after another. Joel said he felt himself bend in half, backwards. Somehow though, we all had an amazing time, and we all love-and fear-the ocean.

The greatest part of surfing was the weather. The first day it was sunny, raining, and hailing. The second day it was raining, hailing, and then SNOWING! When we got out the beach was covered in snow, and we had to change out of our wetsuits in a muddy, snowing parking lot. (There were no change facilities.) So there were all of us, just gotten out of the ocean, trying to strip out of a wetsuit that has suctioned onto our wet bodies, which I thought was harder and more frustrating than the surfing part! The boys all got soaked trying to get all the surfboards onto the car racks, Joel's Gortex hiking boots were even soaked.

Then we all pilled into the car, grabbed some yummy food and coffee from Breakers and headed back to Victoria.

Reading Break Rules. This really does help students regain sanity.