Temp: 27 degrees
I'm not ashamed to say, we slept in a bit this morning... like, until 11:30. Hey, gimme a break - that was still only 7 hours sleep!
It's my Mom's Birthday today, and though they're vacationing on Vancouver Island this weekend, I managed to track her down and call her to pass on some birthday wishes.
We had planned to get together with our friends Wayne and Patty this afternoon for some cervesas and perhaps a few hours on one of the nearby beaches, but last night at the Irish Heather a bunch of people started talking about how there was going to be a HUGE Summer Solstice party at Wreck Beach this evening (yeah I know, the solstice was 3 days ago ... but this is what they said) and that a whole bunch of people were going to head down.
So, I called Wayne and asked if they'd be interested in altering the plans slightly to include a few hours down at Wreck. Of course they were! After all, anybody who knows Wayne and Patty, will know that they first met on Wreck Beach five years ago this August. This would be their (and our) first trip down there this year.
So, we hooked up at 3:30pm, and decided to head straight downtown for an early dinner at The Keg before the jaunt to Wreck. Back in Coquitlam it was already 27 degrees (81 yankee degrees) - starting to get NICE! This was going to be an AWESOME day for the beach!
We made awesome time into the city and were parked on Pender by 4PM. We all had big juicy steaks and a few libations, and were back on the road exactly 2 hours later, and $190 lighter.
After a quick BCLCB stop, some intense beach traffic through Kits, a bit of navigational confusion through UBC, and several failed attempts at finding parking, we were on the beach trail by 7PM.
That feeling you get when you finally make it to the bottom of the ridge, as the trees open up to reveal the source of everything mystical and magical you'd been hearing and smelling during the steep and winding trek to the ocean... the never ceasing tribal drums and exotic instruments, the savory smells of hamburgers, falafels, and samosas wafting from the vendor stands, the clapping and cheering of hundreds of people grooving to impromptu jams, and of course the carefree nudists frolicing in the surf. That feeling is pretty hard to describe - but if I had to put a word to it, 'freedom' or perhaps 'inner peace' - okay, maybe a combination of the two... is there a single word that means that? Well anyway, it's a neat feeling.
We pulled up a section of sand, tossed our towels down, cracked a few frosty cold ones and relaxed. Someone nearby was playing Black Sabbath's Paranoid album, and jamming along with an accoustic guitar. The tide was in, and lapping close by. The cool ocean breeze had brought the temperature down to about 23 at this spot. Everything was just perfect. To be honest, Carole and i had only been back to wreck once since the day Wayne and Patty had met five years ago, but it was like we had never left. I could have lay there forever, but two hours after we stretched out, the sun was setting and the "Tribute to the Sun" ritual began. I love this ritual - I've never seen anything like it anywhere else in the world, and it's just so pure, and real, and honest... from the time the bottom of the sun touches the horizon at the westward Vancouver Island mountains, people start clapping. It only takes about two minutes from that first touch of the horizon until the least glimpse of sun dissapears, but in that time the clapping grows louder, becomes cheering, and swells to a crecendo at the instant the crimson glow is extinguished. It's the way the people of the beach say "Thank you" to the sun - thank you for another glorious day, thank you for your life giving light and warmth, thank you for making this another day in paradise. Good bye, good night - we know you have other hearths to warm on the other side of the world... We hope you grace us with your warming presence again tomorrow. And this happens every since night. I just love it.
So anyway, it turns out there really wasn't a solstice party this evening, but that's okay - we had already agreed we'd packup at sunset anyway. It's a good thing too, because the police showed up to anounce that the beach was closed at sunset, much to the surprise of the many campers that had already begun pitching their tents and preparing for the night. I guess that's a new thing, or maybe it was just a special thing tonight, as I've always heard of people spending the night on the beach, where the never ending impromptu jams apparently continue straight through 'till dawn.
Short but sweet, but the perfect taste of Wreck on a glorious evening. It was 10:30PM by time we got to the top of the hill and it was now dusk. Lots more police and parks board people were at the top turning away hoards of people that were trying to get down the hill for the night... maybe there really WAS supposed to be a solstice party, but the police got wind of it and figured they'd nip it in the bud? Who knows...
After dropping off Wayne and Patty, we were home by 11:30 - Carole watched Saturday Night Live while I played Need for Speed until close to two.
What an awesome summer this is turning out to be.
Posted by Calvin at June 24, 2006 09:48 AM