Off Like a Rocket (i.e. in stages)

Stage 1 was to get out of our house, which we did a little over a week ago. I then stayed at Sara's parents place, finishing up my last week in the ICU, while Sara and the kids headed out to Kootenay Lake, and went hiking at Kokanee glacier.

About 1/4 of the pile from our house.

Sara then came back in to town, and we re-packed everything we had moved from our house, trying to make it all fit in the van. After another round of culling, we managed to get the van packed.

Trying on hats in Crawford Bay

However, we didn't have any kids with us (or any of their bags), so when we get them all added, we will probably have to play another round of "should it stay or should it go" in order to fit everyone in. (As Sara has joked, it would be a lot easier if we just left a kid or two behind. Any takers? ;-)).

Crawford Bay - no pharmacy, only basic groceries, but all your LARPing needs can be taken care of.

We thought about buying this, but decided it might rust on the boat.

So now we are back out at Kootenay Lake for the week.  This will be our final preparation stage, with me catching up on administrative work, and trying to make sure everything is set up for my locums before we go. Once the final packing and arranging is done, we will plan to head off early next week. In the meantime, I have to start the mental adjustment from being on-call and full throttle to trying to remember how to slow down and stop and smell the roses. I suspect it will take a while, but I am looking forward to that particular challenge.