in Powell River

I'm in Canada as close to the end of the world as you can get without actually being there. The Pacific Coast Highway ends 26 miles north of the cute little town where I am staying. The highway, stretches out onto a dock and then down a ramp into the water. Yes, seriously. Its a boat launch ramp.

The name of the town is Powell River and I am visiting my Grandmother. It is so drastically different being in a little tiny town from being in New York City. From the big window in my Grandmother's condo I can see just about half of the main town. The town is located on the water on the main land just North of Vancouver, BC and Victoria Island. During the course of the day, I can watch the beach on an island just off shore slowly disappear as the high tide waters slowly cover all of the sand. In the morning the island has a pretty beige skirt all the way around, in the evening the water kisses the trees and the island looks as if it has risen full formed from the waters of the Northern Pacific.

Another fun fact. Looking the other direction out the window, way far in the distance is Comox, another island, where Pamela Anderson spent her childhood. A ferry makes trips all day between Powell River and Comox. Its weird to think a person like her started in a place like this.

A few days ago my Mom and I went and bought fresh caught fish for dinner. The northern pacific waters in this area are teeming (maybe less now than 40 years ago) with yummy fish: sockeye salmon, pacific halibut, jumbo prawns, snapper and more. So we bought some. We bought a 14 pound whole halibut and a 4 pound whole salmon. That's a lot of fish. I mean a lot of fish. The fisher filleted them for us, which was helpful. So we didn't take the weight of the heads, spines and tail home, but we can't eat those and Grandma doesn't have a flower bed to bury them under. That night we cut most of it up and froze it, so it would keep. The next morning I woke up dreaming about cutting up fish.

Otherwise this is the perfect place to retreat and write. I'm about a third of the way through writing a children's book and am hoping to finish it while I'm here.

The rest of my time is filled with small town stuff; farmers markets, church, caring for Grandma, waiting for the blackberry festival, making cookies for funerals and staring at the amazing view of the wild.