It’s a long story, gushing with lots and lots of details.
Here is a wee bit of the story.
My co-workers got together and sent me and the gf away to Tofino. To the Wikaninnish Inn.
We were picked up by a limo.
We were flown there in a plane.
We were picked up in Tofino by a fellow driving the fanciest, most tricked out van I have ever seen.
The hotel is basically a world class resort and they make a point of looking after you.
We had a jacuzzi in our room, and the tub looked out onto the ocean.
Our bathroom was huge!
After oozing out some of those old chemo toxins in my jacuzzi, I would then hop in the rather spacious shower.
Nice, nice, nice.
I spent a lot of time in that jacuzzi.
Oh, and the room is stocked with a bunch of Aveda products.
And everyday, the housekeeping staff come by and put more Aveda products in the room. I was kind of kicking myself that I was under-utilizing the shampoo.
The restaurant was spectacular.
The food is really, really delicious. And ask anyone who knows me, I am a food snob.
The food in the dining room was comparable to the food at Sooke Harbour House.
And the spa.
I arranged for a spa visit for Elaine.
It was a surprise for her. So, obviously, she didn’t know about it.
So, imagine my horror when Elaine was still lounging in the tub in our room a few minutes before her appointment. I had to ask her to get out of the tub to come on an adventure with me.
She came willingly, even if it was a bizarre request.
I took her downstairs to the spa and dropped her there and she returned, and couple of hours later, all googley and mushy.
It was really good.
It was so good that the next day I had to go for an appointment myself.
It was all kind of a trip.
The staff have you select the scent for the oil they are going to use on you, all while your feet are soaking in a warm water bath with marbles to smooth out the crinkles.
My massage was great.
And afterwards, I sat in the steambath for about an hour and a half.
I’d been sitting in the steambath for about an hour when another guest, an older man who was on the same plane as us, came in.
We started chatting, because that’s what you often end up doing in a spot like that when there is just the two of you.
I mentioned I hadn’t been at work for the last few months.
He asked if I had been off doing chemo.
I said yeah and he told me about how he had had prostate cancer. We talked about treatments and attitude and Lance Armstrong.
He said cancer people have to stick together.
He said he is ‘involved with’ a company that is doing the first stage of clinical trials on a drug that has been developed to treat prostate, ovarian, and lung cancer.
It was all kind of amazing how he went from the old guy on the plane to the kindred spirit that I like gabbering with.
And when we got back to Vancouver, he and his wife hugged me good-bye.
And I let them.
And I don’t really do the hugging thing much, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
And, beyond that, we spent quite a bit of time on the beach.
It was really quite mild for December, so we could go for nice long walks. The photos should make it to the gallery soon.
Then the time came to head home.
We checked out and got back in the tricked out van.
We got to the airport.
The plane that was supposed to take us home couldn’t land, because he was having some visibility problems.
He took 3 swings at it and then took off.
We stood around, with our new-found cancer allies and kindred spirits, and tried to understand what happens next, after your plane abandons you.
It ended up that they sent us by cab from Tofino to Nanaimo.
I guess it was handy that our airport check-in fellow also doubles as the cab driver in Tofino.
At the last minute, this hippie gal showed up and she was on her way to Vancouver too so there were six of us, including the driver, in an SUV, driving Highway 4.
I love that drive and I had been missing it, even though flying is great.
Unfortunately, hippie gal sat in the SUV and coughed the whole way to Nanaimo and now my girlfriend is sick (for the first time in almost a year.That really sucks, especially on the week of Xmas.)
A few hours later, we arrived in Nanaimo.
Our pilot was there, waiting for us.
We hopped into the plane, and we were back in Vancouver lickety-split after that.
It was nice to get home.
Then we hopped in the bath, splashed around and got out and went to my staff Christmas party.
That was a rather startling contrast, but it was really good to see some of the folks again.
It was an amazing week and a fabulous experience.
Really, it was the trip of a lifetime.
Thanks to all the people who made it happen.
And now, I have to go take my Vitamin C, since I have a strange tickle in my throat, and wouldn’t that just suck if I got sick too.
