It started off as a gloomy day. The sky was grey and the clouds weren't breaking. I was without much sleep as I woke up at 3am and couldn't fall back to sleep. It was one of those nights. By 4:30am I've had it with lying in bed awake and decided to ditch the sheets and tried to call up my friend, whom we were going to hang out on a small island daytrip anyway, to see if we should go catch the sunrise together. We did. Although there wasn't much of a sunrise to be had. A slight streak of orange hue peaked through under the layers of the uninviting clouds, among a scene of dull, uninspiring view off the lookout of Cypress. Coffee in hand, the moment was nice, but the scene was slightly disappointing.
On to breakfast we go. My friend felt the craving for congee, so we grabbed some from the only spot open at that ungodly hour on a Sunday morning. The gloominess loomed at the Steveston Harbour over our warm soupy rice with peanuts and preserved fish and various miscellaneous pork bits and a serving of deliciously tender beef briskets and rice flour wrap. Our tummy was satisfied, but our eyes weren't so much. The clouds seem thick. It doesn't seem like it was going to break. The day destined to be one that would not quite reward our optimistic faith that the iphone weather report could be wrong (it has promised a 30% chance of shower and basically a persistently cloudy day..).
Should we carry on with the rest of our planned day? We had initially contemplated a leisurely trip to the nearby Bowen Island. Something simple. Something close. Something that could be perfect for a Sunday, on the last official weekend of this unconventional summer. Sure, we decided. Let's go ahead and see what happens.
Onto the ferry, it was a mixture of uncertainty and slightly upwards optimism. The day seems brighter (which, naturally, would make sense as we were indeed transitioning into the regular daytime hours from our stupidly early start of our day...). The seabreeze proved to be refreshing. If anything, the steady motion of the ferry and the shifting landscape around us brings a sense of promise. Maybe something nice awaits us on the other side. Our adventure, potentially, could still be fun.
And with that glimpse of optimism the day slowly opened up to us. Un-docking from the ferry, we were greeted with the first few sunshine of the day. We parked our car and roamed around the pier. Ah, there's the cute little lunch place I saw on reviews, Branch and Butter. With the sun comes a promise for ice cream later. Hey look there's kayak rental place. Again with the sun there's a promise that we could dry up if we get wet (we weren't dressed for the occasion, as both of us were in jeans and not the best kayaking attire...). My friend couldn't swim, but that didn't stop us from signing the waiver and exploring the waving coast along the nearby edges of the island. Blobbing up and down with the waves always seem to freshen up your soul a little. The gentle splashes of the paddles are always a calming influence.
Two hours later, my butt completely soaked, we once again undocked and enjoyed some delicious tacos under the sun (and ice cream indeed). Onto the dry land we went, and explored a short nearby trail with a speculator lookout to Howe Sound. The clouds had cleared by that time. Blue skies and simmering waters as far as the eyes can see. The day was looking more and more beautiful with each passing hour. Unexpectedly, but welcomed. Now why did I ever doubted coming here in the first place? I'm glad we didn't listen to our guts.
By late afternoon, we decided the best view to soak up the rest of the day was by the west coast of the island, among the various quiet and seemingly private rocky or beachy fronts by the water. The day was ending beautifully, a far cry from the way it has promised at the start. With the stunningly peaceful sunset getting us with its warm rays complemented by the gentle cooling late summer breeze, it was a rewarding end to an unspectacular summer. Still drunken from lack of sleep, we waited until the sun had fully bid farewell, with bugs starting to chase us into our misery. We drove back, in the dark, dodging deers and squirrels and other unseen wildlife creatures. We ended the night on a starry ferry ride back to the mainland coast, even catching several glimpses of passing satellites that we pretended were shooting stars and made wishes anyways.
Why did I write this? Apart from marking an unexpectedly beautiful day, it was to remind me of the many intangible factors in life, often altering the prospects of what we initially could expect from our calculations. For many of us, our intuition and intellect often drives our decision making, but our pride in such decisive thoughts can often rob us of the unexpected. The weather, for one, although highly studied and readily available (so it turned out that my app had been wrong, once again...), still manages to surprise us in good ways and bad, if we give it a chance. So sometimes, despite potentially strong feelings based on the available information at hand, life can still reward us if we give it a shot to serve us the unexpected. Allow some intangible factors into our lives, and they might promise to be rewarding. Let go, and be carried along by the waves, and see what happens on the other side.
