Super Sunday!

I wrote the following post last Sunday, but couldn't get it to post. So please imagine reading this on the sunday previous. :)

Today was awesome. Let me tell you about it.

Every first Sunday of the month is designated as a Fast Sunday, where the members go without two meals and dedicate their time and energy to coming closer to God and donating the money they would have spent on those two meals to the church, who in turn give the money to local families that need it. Since we’re on the road and not in a specific ward, we’ve got no where to give that money, but we still took the time to fast and had our Sacrament Meeting in our little house. It was an awesome, awesome experience; the spirit was very strong in a very intimate setting, and I won’t be forgetting my experience anytime soon.

Today I visited the Ucluelet Aquarium, and I have no idea why I didn’t take my camera! It is the pride and joy of this little town, and surprisingly enough, it was actually quite impressive. It was about the size of a U-haul truck bed, and the tanks were fairly small, but the fee was only 5 dollars and the staff were incredibly knowledgeable. They catch everything locally in the spring and let it go in the fall. Sea Cucumbers are the weirdest things. They’re massive, squishy, stretchable blobs that use their muscles to get away from sea stars that will eat them. But they were bright purple and orange a red, about a foot long. The octopus was sleeping in the corner, the crabs were all over the place, the sea stars could move two meters a minute, and the little hermit crab made me think of Jaws. I touched one in his honor. (Ask my father.) It was really awesome. I like sea creatures, as creepy and slimy as they are.

Aren't these things weird? They had probably 20 or more of them. And they're squishy. really, really squishy. It was weird, man.



An orange Sea Pen. Yes, this is an animal, not some tacky plastic aquarium object. These were my favorite because they were so bizarre.

And some of them are tasty too! We had a sushi rolling party tonight, and I rolled my first ever sushi. The first one was vegetarian, and a disaster ... I ended up eating a lot of it in a big mess with my fingers. But the next one had cooked salmon in it, and it didn’t look too bad. I liked it. (Aren’t you proud of me, Mom?) And then we had tempura, which proves the point that anything covered in a tasty batter and fried, is going to taste good. No wonder fish and chips this week have been great, and sweet potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli ... other sushi ...

A lot of food already. And then! Because today was Priscilla’s birthday, we had brownies and ice cream. That was lovely. I’m always good for ice cream.

And then!

Michelle made Samoan pancakes, and those were covered in Nutella and raspberry jam. Incredible. And have you had a nutella-filled strawberry? treat yourself tonight. amazing.

I am on the verge of liking seafood. I at least don’t turn my nose at it anymore, which is progress enough. And this whole time I’ve wanted to sail a ship or be a pirate, with all the coastal stuff around here. Oh the sea! Being such a land-lubbard my self, no wonder I am fascinated by the sounds of the ocean.

I ATE SO MUCH FOOD. and it was awesome. :) And I got a change to talk with a guy that works here and does surf lessons from the Netherlands. He’s 18 and set his heart on traveling, and we had a good time talking about our lives. And I remembered that I’m in Canada. hah.

We watched a slideshow of our best nature photography and of pictures from the trip, that was a lot fun. It was just great today, which was great timing because I was beginning to look forward a LOT towards my return destination.

Last night we had a bonfire on the beach, and that was beautiful. I’ve always wanted to do that, and now I have. This trip is just knocking off goals left and right.

The countdown begins. Less than 7 days on this venture of mine. I’ll do my best to make it worth my while!

Word of the Day: Fathom \FATH-uhm\, verb; 1. To penetrate the truth of; comprehend; understand. 2. To measure the depth of water by means of a sounding line; sound. noun: 1. A unit of length equal to six feet (1.8 meters): used chiefly in nautical measurements.

P.S. a shout out to my brother, as today (June 7th) is his birthday, and he’s taking the LSAT today. Good luck bro, you’ll be awesome. And happy birthday.