Do you know that feeling when you blink and years and years have passed by and you didn’t even have time to wave? This was the case with my husband Michael and I…. we just celebrated our 27 wedding anniversary!

Being busy at our jobs, our Segway tour business, household and family commitments really helps to make time fly. But this year, in the spur of the moment we decided to do something completely out of character and take a mini weekend vacation. What better place than Parksville where we celebrated our honeymoon.

Parksville is a quiet, beautiful little town that refreshes the soul. It’s a great place to visit for family and people of all ages and interests.

The hotel from our honeymoon wasn’t available so we chose a lovely resort right next door, the Sunrise Ridge Waterfront Resort. While it is an ownership resort they still take reservations just like any hotel. It was lovely!
The service, the resort, the room and the bed… yes the bed! Were amazing. Clean, updated, comfortable, and environmentally conscious. All things that we look for when we do get around to travelling.

Following a lovely uneventful drive up to Parksville we checked into the resort and checked out the suggestions for a great place to eat.  You would be surprised at the variety to choose from!  We decided upon a little seafood restaurant called Ailoi Seafood.

It was a nice casual little restaurant with a nice selection on the menu and great prices with good value.  We got in fairly late so our meal took longer than we expected. Despite that we enjoyed a lovely meal. Coconut shrimp appetizer, steak and lobster for the hubby and a seafood lobster trio for me. Our server was cheerful and made us feel welcome they whole time we were there.

If you’re visiting Parksville you have to be insane to not head down to the beach. After all the long sandy beaches are one of the main attractions. So of course we headed down there after dinner and were lucky enough to catch a beautiful sunset. And after bringing our Ninebots all the way up with us we had to take them out for a nice little ride.

Trying to veer off from the norm, for breakfast we sought out a local breakfast/coffee house and found ourselves at The Pacific Brimm café.  What a treat!  The ordering style was different then we were used to with a typical restaurant but the service and atmosphere really made up for it.  We enjoyed Eggs with Sausage and a Pacific Brimm Benny.  Very Yummy! Eggs prepared just the way we liked, fresh and a nice size portion plus giant cups of coffee to get the day started off right!

We’ve both lived most of our lives on Vancouver Island and I’m ashamed to say that we went to Cathedral Grove for the very first time!  We are so spoiled here.  It’s one of those instances where you just don’t think about how good you’ve got where you live.  People come from all around the world to see Cathedral Grove and it’s practically in our own back yard!

On our way back we had to stop at Coombs!  Such a great little tucked away gem!  Full of vibrant shops and iconic sights like the goats on the roof.  Now I have to apologize here, I neglected to take pictures while we were there so just another reason to go see it for yourself!

Being that my husband does construction we decided that we absolutely had to stop by at DemXx.  Now if you are into great antiques and re-purposed items for your home or construction project, this spot will leave you feeling like you are a kid in a candy shop!

Thoroughly recharged from our short trip to Parksville, in no small part to that great bed, we headed home. While it was great to get away even for one night it was sad to be leaving so soon. Seeing as it was such a short trip we missed out on all of the fun activities that Parksville offers. We vow to go back soon for another relaxing staycation and we highly recommend that you do too!