Today's our last day here which is unfortunate because I'm finally relaxed enough to just chill. It takes me a long time to wind down. Here's a few thoughts and notes as I sit on the beach and enjoy the ocean.

Some of you may remember a flick in the late 1980's called Cocktail. It was a relatively forgettable movie, made to cash in on the massive appeal of Tom Cruise at the time. The most memorable thing about it, in fact was a song about being happy that got a ridiculous amount of radio play time. In any case, if you remember the movie at all, there was a love scene that took place in a waterfall. It was supposed to be this intimate grotto in the woods.

In reality, it was the Dunn's River Falls (www.dunnsriverja.com), one of Jamaica's favourite tourist spots, the least likely place for a lover's tryst. That doesn't negate the fact that the falls are spectacular and well worth the visit. There are a number of ways to visit the falls and we choose to take a catamaran tour. For the record, the ride home was pretty choppy and I DIDN'T GET SEASICK ONCE!

I've always wanted to go to Jamaica. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's from reading too much about Nelson's time in the West Indies, or maybe it's too many years of listening to bands at Folk Fest cover Marley, or maybe I just got the idea that it was a good place to go back in the early 80s when The Love Boat was on and I was young and impressionable.

In any case, I'd heard from people over the last several years that they did not enjoy Jamaica. Complaints about weather, safety and atmosphere abound so I took everyone's advice three years ago and went to Mexico instead.

As I sit on the balcony of my room on this hot, beautiful night (listening to a live Reggae band), I'm hear to tell you; I'd take Jamaica over Mexico any day.

He is the Fun God, RA RA RA!

For those of you who know me, you are probably aware that I will eventually die of skin cancer because I'm not a big fan of sunscreen. However, when I was in Mexico three years ago I managed to give myself 2nd degree radiation burns and have decided not to repeat that episode while in Jamaica.

In honour of this momentous decision to occasionally wear sunscreen (kicking and screaming about it, of course), I thought that I would add a little survey to my blog.

It was so much fun, I thought that I'd go back for a few more days. So, a couple of friends and I hopped a 737 and headed out to Van for the weekend. I think that I'm getting restless to get back to work because I can't seem to stay at home for longer than a couple of weeks before I take off again.

While I was watching the Olympic coverage, I made a decision; I decided that Vancouver was too close for us not to road trip there while the Olympics were on. Evil Scientist agreed to this insanity so this past weekend we joined the crowds in downtown Van, if only for a few hours.

During the day of my leg of the Torch Relay, the facilitator on the bus that picked up each relay runner was already applying to work at the London Olympics in 2012 and after her stint with the Vancouver 2010 group she was off to a position with the Montreal Jazz Festival. I couldn't help but think of what a wonderful way this was to build a resume as a young person. Not only would a person get great experience in a huge variety of roles but they would do it all over the world. When I was a young adult, I never would have thought to kick in a resume to work at an event like the Olympics. Even though Simon won't remember it, I like the idea that every four years we can take out the photos and show him that he was there. I'm hoping that this will foster a spirit of adventure in the wee lad.

Ah the weekend get-away. This was the logic Evil Scientist used to pursuade me that we needed a trailer. He had to have something to convince me because when he said “let's get a trailer,” I heard “let's never, ever travel anywhere except Alberta and BC ever again.” The discussion went something like this:

ES: “But we can get away on weekends.”

ME: “These would be the weekends I'm always working on?”

ES: “Not always, sometimes you have ILO and in the summer you get time off during the week when we can go.”

ME: “Fine.” Resolving in my head that if there wasn't a plane trip to someplace I'd never been in the near future I'd go by myself and never come back.

Wednesday was the nicest day we saw for weather. I don't think I've ever been out to Victoria at this time of year when I've been this cold. Although, taking a look at our webcam, it was still better than home.

Well, I've had such a nice vacation that I've completely blown off blogging the last couple of days. However, several hours in the car took care of that.

We crossed over to Vancouver Island today as part of our annual spring vacation. In grey, cloudy, rainy weather we took the Tsawwassen Route. It's a prettier passage and there was much activity today.