Summer update Part II

Now that I have some encouraging comments, and the house is quiet, I feel inclined to continue. I know it is rather pathetic, but I really do need validation when it comes to blogging. If no one bothers to comment, I simply lose all steam.
Anyways, like I said, it was pretty cool the whole time we were at Shawnigan until Friday morning--the day we were leaving. So Friday morning came around and Brent and I lay in bed discussing what to do with the rest of our vacation time. We can be 2 of the most INdecisive people! Brent had mentioned before when we decided to go to shawnigan, that since we could only go until Friday, that then we could go to the place that I had found. I was leaning more to going home and cleaning up and doing back-to-school prep. So we kept talking ourselves around in circles...'we might not be able to get a camping site on the labour day weekend and the place was up in the alberni area and we were down in the cowichan valley...it would be another tank of gas in the van and the truck (brent knows this argument almost always wins with me) but we made arrangements to be away from church for another sunday and if we go back now, our vacation is over...we could go visit Kim in Victoria, but she has a cat...and will be doing some hockey stuff (we have become so anti-hockey) and then we won't be just our family anymore...but it would be nice for the kids to see their cousins and there is an old navy in vic we could still be on vacation and do a little back-to-school prep. We kept talking ourselves in circles "what do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?"
So we called the girls in and asked them their opinion. We got one vote for vic and one for going shopping. So we decided to go to vic. Brent took the girls out for one last trip in the canoe while I packed up. They came back and said they wanted to show me their special spot, so e and I went out too. It was really nice and warm and peaceful on the lake. brent said "this makes me feel like camping still" and so we decided to go camping.
Since we had such a slow start to our day we rushed around to pack up and get to the new place before it was too late. [just a little side note: we found 2 dead mice that morning] We got to port alberni by 5pm. Now we had to find the place. Nahmint lake. It was described as "A beautiful site on the shores of Nahmint Lake under large old growth Hemlock. Activities include boating, fishing and a great beach." We followed the directions which took us out along sproat lake and couldn't find the road we were supposed to turn off on. So I asked a local. She had even never heard of nahmint lake. As we were figuring out what to do, a man walked up and said he heard we were looking for directions. He knew where it was because he had been a logger. He said it was about 30 km into the bush. So we took his directions and started down a logging road. No biggy--the road out to Mabel lake was gravel too. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that e had started crying to get out about the time we arrived in alberni. So we started down this gravel road which turned out to be way rougher than the mabel lake gravel road. To our surprise there was a suv driving along right behind us and eventually it passed us when we took a wrong turn. You see, there wasn't just one gravel road--it met up with others and very few of them were marked. the road was so rough that we couldn't go very fast--30km/h was about the fastest. Other then the one little wrong turn which we realized right away, we were on the right track. Eventually after over an hour of driving on this terrible road with e demanding me to hold her foot (a comfort technique) and me singing the "i love you" barney song and ring around the rosie repeatedly, we came to a place where we weren't sure which way to go so Brent sent me down a little road to check it out while he drove up a hill to see if he could see the lake. the road I took became so narrow that bushes were rubbing on both sides and then of course, what should I see, but another minivan coming towards me. In a slightly wider spot we managed to pass them, but I asked where the road went to first. Their answer was "I wouldn't try it in that van" they said the road just got worse and they had a heck of a time turning around. So I turned around as soon as I found a spot (I think I managed a 5 point turn) Brent said he could see the lake but that he had passed 2 piles of bear poop and one was fresh and he couldn't take us out there unprepared for bears. (that is where the schofield part of the family kicked in) we got out of the cars to discuss our options and were immediately dive bombed by massive mosquitoes. I was more convinced by the mosquitoes than the bear poo. I wanted to try my plan b camp site but brent wasn't having any of it, so in the end we ended up at qualicum bay resort at 9:30 at night setting up our tent by the light of the truck lights until the truck battery died and then we couldn't find the van keys to jump the truck....Once we got there and set up and fed, we had a nice little weekend there. The luxuries of qualicum bay--showers, running water, fires...We started our summer off at qualicum bay and so I guess it was only fitting that we finish it there.