Chapter 16 - LD Services travel - start to retirement
L.D. Services was introduced in a previous chapter in connection with the writing of the restaurant review column “Fare Comment,” but its original and major purpose was to promote the availability of a facilitator, speaker and professional development leader of workshops - Les. The experiences from the time with the Ministry of Education, combined with being Professional Development Coordinator for the BC Principal’s and Vice-Principal’s Association and later the Superintendent’s Association, had given Les a profile and a wide range of contacts, so that when districts were seeking speakers for conferences, Les was a potential choice.
As Director of Programs and Professional Development with School District 68, Les arranged for trips to further his training, and to bring new skills back to the district. First was a three day workshop in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver, where there was an intensive period of training based on the theory and practice of School Improvement models.
One of the presenters at this workshop specialized in Co-operative or Group Learning, and Les engaged him to come and present workshops for teachers in SD 68 every two months over the next two years [Friday evenings and Saturday workshops], and this proved to be valuable when Les returned to teaching at Malaspina College in the Education program there.
Les and two colleagues went to Tacoma in Washington State to be qualified as trainers in Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement [TESA], which resulted in SD 68 introducing this program in several schools each year. Pat came along on this trip and spent her days touring nearby botanical gardens and heading into Seattle for shopping and exploring the ‘market’ during Les’ workshops sessions.
The following year, there was an up-date on the TESA program held in San Francisco. Les was invited by the Tacoma trainer to assist in San Francisco, and the Dickasons booked into the Fisherman’s Wharf hotel where the training sessions were held. Pat had two delightful days playing tourist while Les presented at the workshop sessions, and the Dickasons ate fine seafood and drank lovely Californian white wine after working hours.
One of the offerings in the L.D. Services kitbag that Les developed was “Laughter in the Workplace” which was based on some of the life experiences of Norman Cousins, and some of the communication theory lectures from the M. Ed. program during the University of Victoria summers. It could be ‘bought’ as a keynote address or as a workshop with participation. In shopping this offering around, Les kept his eye on conferences in places the Dickasons wished to visit. As a result the workshop was accepted and included on the program at an annual conference of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development - in Chicago.
Two of the play-going group, Roy and Janet, had married during the time when they were working at the University of British Columbia, and Roy subsequently had been hired as the Director of the Chicago Botanic Garden. They had a home then in Glencoe, a suburb of Chicago, and the Dickasons were able to combine a first visit to Chicago where the ASCD conference was in the downtown Palmer House Hotel, and a visit to Janet and Roy. Les had just the one session to deliver - Laughter in the Workplace - a hands-on workshop presentation - and it ended with the audience of some forty Superintendents and Assistants from across the US and Canada having a marshmallow fight, and then cleaning up the room afterwards.
While at the hotel for the period of the conference, the Dickasons enjoyed their first visit to the downtown of the “windy city” and took a walking tour with a volunteer from the American Architect’s Association and learned the history of the skyscraper as it evolved in Chicago. Being early December, the buskers on the street corners played seasonal music, and one evening after sampling deep dish pizzas at Uno Grill, the Dickasons heard a dozen brass players from the Chicago Symphony giving an impromptu concert of carols just a block from Palmer House, with hundreds of spectators gleefully watching and singing along.
After the conference, the Nanaimo visitors moved to the Taylor house in Glencoe for a few days with Janet and Roy. Visiting the Botanic Garden was a highlight of course, but spending time with our friends was very relaxing as we went for dinner in restaurants, drove out into the rural areas, visited the Frank Lloyd Wright house and generally explored this area for the first time.
On that trip, Les attended a session at the ASCD conference offered by a professor of Education and his four doctoral students, at which they introduced a prototype of a board game [not unlike Monopoly] entitled the “Change Game.” It was based on research and practice in ways educational institutions could effectively manage rapid change. Les told the team that, immediately the game was in published form, he wanted to buy two sets - each set was designed for 20 players - and left his contact details with the team.
British Columbia at the time had an education system undergoing very rapid change dictated by the Ministry. School districts generally and some schools in particular were resisting the changes, or attempting to introduce them and having difficulty. When Les received his two sets of the published Change Game, he advertised his availability to conduct a half-day workshop featuring the game for a selection of district personnel or for the staff of an individual school. Bookings for L.D. Services to facilitate the “Change Game” grew quickly as Les headed for sessions in Harrison Lake, Tofino, Quadra Island, the Superintendent’s Association conference in Victoria, Powell River, Duncan, Port Alberni, Kelowna, and more.
On travelling to some of the Island locations, Les found the accommodation was in waterfront hotels or motels, and Pat, if not booked as a docent for Morrell Sanctuary, went too and some evening or early morning strolls were very relaxing and allowed time for photography and fine dining. The photograph below was taken one morning before Les’ workshop at a nearby conference centre.
One of the students in the Masters program at the University of Victoria was on the Executive of the B.C.P. & V.P. A. at the same time as Les and together they worked, while on Hank’s boat fishing, on an outline for a workshop entitled “Vice Principal - Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?” This occurred while the Dickasons were visiting Hank and his wife in Port Hardy, a five hour drive north of Nanaimo, and after polishing the script in Nanaimo, Hank and Les presented it at the annual BCP&VPA conference in Fort St. John where it drew an overflow of Vice Principal registrants. The word spread, and the pair were invited to present a version of the workshop at a variety of B.C. sites during the next two years.
The L.D. Services contracts were not restricted to presentations in B.C. Les kept his eye on conferences and workshops which advertised for proposals from presenters. As a result the Dickasons made their first visit to New Orleans, where Les was on the program again of ASCD, this time speaking of School Improvement Programs in B.C., and though he was obliged to shuttle daily from a hotel to the huge Convention Centre to attend sessions or to speak in his time-slot, that allowed Pat time to explore the unique city - pre-Katrina - and the nearby everglades. In this city the Dickasons spent a day and a night post-conference strolling Basin Street
listening to jazz, walking along the levy, and sampling creole cooking.
On the final night the Dickasons went to a suburban high school [despite the efforts of an incompetent taxi driver who could not admit he did not know the way].... to hear a recital given by Flicka - Frederica von Stade - a long-time favourite mezzo. When she came on stage for the second half of the recital, in a very fetching red dress ready to sing excerpts from Carmen, a man in the audience gave a loud wolf whistle. She held up her hand, laughed and said “Damn, I’ve lost my starting note” and left the stage to compose herself. Her second attempt was without incident. The packed house gave several standing ovations through the evening.
This short stay down in Mississippi was sufficient to whet the appetite and move New Orleans up the top ten list of places to visit, and it would not be long before another visit occurred.
With contacts made at this ASCD conference, Les received invitations to present one or two day workshops in Australia. Fortunately, the timing of the Australian conference coordinators was flexible, and they were able to wait until the next trip downunder by the Dickasons to see family and friends. One workshop, over two days, was in Brisbane, so while Pat was staying with her father on the coast just to the north, Les rented a motel room in Brisbane and made the presentations. A second, as luck would have it, was in a professional development centre just outside Geelong, so while the Dickasons were staying with Alan and Helen in the guest flat, Les took his leave during the day and gave the same workshop as in Brisbane to over 100 educators invited there. A bottle of Grange was enjoyed with Alan and Helen.
One of the audience in Geelong invited Les to give a shorter version of the workshop on School Improvement Programs at a professional development centre in a suburb of Melbourne, and once the Dickasons had returned to Pat’s sister’s house in Surrey Hills, the largest audience of the Australian ‘speaking tour’ attended this presentation. The overhead transparencies for that workshop certainly logged many miles from Nanaimo to New Orleans and then around eastern Australia.
As well as ‘kitbag’ topics from the L.D.Services brochure being successful, there was a growing demand at the time for a facilitator who could spend a day with a group of people to lead them through an evaluation of the current situation of their organization, develop a Mission Statement, generate goals for the future and set an action plan for implementation of the goals with a time schedule attached.
Once Les had successfully led such a process with the Vancouver Island Regional Library Directors and senior staff coming together in Nanaimo one weekend, the word of mouth resulted in Les travelling to do similar facilitations with quasi-government groups, corporate groups, and school districts. Trips to Vancouver, Victoria, Parksville and Campbell River followed, and in some cases, a year later, there was an invitation to repeat the process with the latest Board or group of senior staff. At one stage, when Les was very busy with ‘real’ work at Malaspina University-College with the placement of student teachers demanding more time as the numbers of students in the program grew, L.D. Services attempted to slow the demand by increasing the fees for half-day or day-long workshops. Akin to the result when a company repackages say, a box of chocolates, and doubles the price, this attempt succeeded in producing greater demand, the opposite of the intended outcome. Placing the fee for a day 50% higher had the effect of attracting a wide range of new clients especially in the corporate realm.
Retirement - travel and?
In 1996, the senior staff at Malaspina University-College were forced to cut the institution’s budget and offered retirement buy-outs to faculty with seniority so that less experienced, and less expensive, faculty could take their place. Les, in leaving the school district and joining the faculty only eight years previously, did not qualify with sufficient seniority for a package. However, the first cast of the net did not catch sufficient numbers of senior faculty willing to leave; consequently a second request for potential retirees was circulated. After discussing the prospect of early retirement over several dinners at Lenhart Ave. the Dickasons decided to go ahead with an application, not having much hope of being successful. However, later in 1996, Les was informed his request for retirement at the end of the semester, January 1997, had been accepted.
The birthday at the end of January would be the last day at Malaspina - and Les was gratified that during December, the BC College of Teachers had approved the application from the Malaspina University-College Education faculty to proceed with a new Teacher Education Program. Independence from the University of Victoria would become a reality after three years of development work and progress through the various stages of approval. It was the last major project Les had hoped to see concluded before leaving.
Planning for retirement began in late fall of 1996. The Dickasons, inveterate list makers, after reading all the books in the library offering advice on retirement, produced a tentative list of what activities would dominate the years of retirement. Travel topped the list, closely followed by promoting L.D. Services and accepting more contracts, gardening, physical fitness [especially more golf and tennis for Les], taking care of finances given the lower income especially as Les in leaving the work-
world early would have a reduced pension, and experimenting with volunteering was the final item.
But, by the time January arrived, and the non-Panama cruise had come and gone, the Dickasons decided to spread the word that L.D. Services was going to take a one year break. Les told those who phoned with offers of contracts that he was going to take a year “to find himself in retirement” so the list of retirement activities was reduced from six to five before retirement started in 1997.
On the 31st of January, the day after the reception to honour Les and his service to Malaspina and to the Education faculty, the Dickasons drove south to explore potential places should they decide to be snowbirds in future years. Once southern California was reached and after visiting Janet and Roy, who had moved to Claremont where Roy was now the Director of a research botanical garden, the Dickasons drove east to Palm Springs and Palm Desert. These were obvious choices to consider for possible snowbirds, and with golf courses and tennis courts at many of the resorts, the file of brochures grew quickly.
Indio was next, further out the Coachella Valley, and the lower prices for rentals appealed there. Driving south to the Salton Sea followed, and instead of continuing south to check out Yuma which had been recommended by friends, on a whim the Dickasons turned west across the desert on highway 76 and stumbled on Borrego Springs.
A tiny town, situated in the middle of the huge Anza Borrego State Park, it appealed because it had no ‘chain’ restaurants, motels, or stores .... everything was locally owned and operated. The Palm Canyon Resort, despite its hokey western theme with wagons and wheels and the old-fashioned decor of the dining room, was a comfortable hotel for the Dickason’s night in town. After one day touring in the huge State Park and driving to the Borrego Springs Resort with its lovely new golf course, clubhouse, tennis courts and hotel we extended our stay at the Palm Canyon for an extra night, and the next day, found the local farmer’s market at the roundabout [Christmas Circle] and visited the Tourist Office to collect information for future reference.
Armed with brochures from Borrego Springs, we crossed the mountains towards the coast and drove through the Lawrence Welk Resort villas just north of Escondido in an inland valley - a huge, attractive complex, but expensive. Once the Dickasons reached the coast to the west, there was a night in each of two resort cities, Oceanside and Carlsbad, but for some reason, the potential of the coast and the less reliable weather did not seem as appealing as the desert. One last recommended southern California destination, Lompoc, was the final alternative to check before the drive back to BC for the rest of the winter.
In the spring and summer of 1997, the Dickasons devoted hours to the garden at Lenhart Ave. Over the previous years they had done a major renovation of the
front garden which now had a dozen rhododendrons and almost two dozen roses and other plantings, and in the back there were six fruit trees, raised vegetable beds, a large bed for strawberries and raspberries, a squash and pumpkin bed and a set of three compost heaps being rotated.
However, in the first full year of retirement, the garden felt more like an anchor than a pleasure. The Dickasons realized that the garden had been a welcome break from the working life over the years, but that the schedule required for preparation, maintenance, harvesting and shutting down for winter was going to reduce the opportunities for taking advantage of travel deals.
So, in the late spring of 1998, that house and garden was sold and the Dickasons moved to Edgewood Drive - a hilltop townhouse with a small area of garden to maintain, and a wrap-around deck on which some container gardening could be practised as needed. This shift removed a second item from the list of retirement activities - this list was now shorter still.
Two other events of the late 90’s had an influence on the retirement planning and travels. Pat’s father George died in 1996, and Les’ mother Grace in 1998. In both cases there were hastily planned solo trips to Australia, with some flights having stand-by status for some legs, but they eventually worked as hoped.
As a result, future trips to Australia were not necessarily of the ‘duty’ variety.... the Dickasons could add a tourism slant to itineraries, and we did. One other short trip to Australia was in 1998 when Pat’s nephew Phillip. who had visited Nanaimo one previous Christmas, was married. The short trip was very enjoyable, though Les limped through the wedding day and for a few days later. On stepping off a tram Les was knocked down by an elderly man who lost his footing and fell on Les’ foot - what was initially thought to be a badly swollen ankle which required ice, strapping and pain-killers was later diagnosed as a small broken bone on the side of the foot. To this day it alerts Les to any sudden drop in atmospheric pressure.
A flurry of travel activity in the early retirement years
While the first two Christmases after retirement were spent at home in Nanaimo, other trips at other times of the year brought some new destinations and some returns to other places. September of 1997 provided an opportunity to re-visit Stratford, Ontario for the Theatre Festival. Landing in Toronto and renting a car for five days, the Dickasons first drove out west from the airport into the setting sun and found the freeway traffic an incredible chore. But once in the rural areas, driving was easier. A lovely bed and breakfast, not far from the Festival Theatre and from downtown, meant we parked the rental car most of the time and walked to restaurants for meals and on to the various theatres.
A very clever ‘cowboy’ version of “The Taming of the Shrew,” and a convincing “Richard III” were highlights on the main stage, and our driving trips out to local markets and the Mennonite farming area around St. Jacobs provided a contrast to sitting in the theatre. Of course the lovely homes and gardens, and the park areas of Stratford with the lakeside walks, the Shakespearean garden, and swans to feed, all combined to produce a September getaway we promised to repeat. The Dickasons also managed a picnic lunch with Chuck and Marcie met on the last Princess cruise.
January of 1998 featured a flight to London and connection to Malaga in the south of Spain. Mollie’s step-sister Eileen and her husband Ken had a condominium an hour’s drive to the west in Estepona, and they spent many months there leaving behind their other home in Kent to enjoy the weather, food and sports on the Costa del Sol. We had met them several times when they visited Mollie, and Les had arranged to play golf with them on Nanaimo golf courses. They kept insisting the Dickasons should join them in Spain, and after retirement, it became possible.
The drive west along the autovia from Malaga was a familiar one for Ken, who had a part-time job arranging golf tours for visiting British tourist/golfers and often went to the airport to meet the groups of golfers. But, the fast speeds and seemingly erratic drivers were an eye-opener for the Dickasons, who began to wonder about their plans to drive while in the area.
Visiting nearby towns with Eileen for a guide, walking on the beaches with Gibraltar in the distance [see photo at left], playing golf [the clubs did arrive as promised], and dining well occupied the first few days of this time on the Costa del Sol. In the evenings after dinner the Dickasons examined guidebooks, consulted the hosts, and planned a drive in Ken’s second car to tour the inland areas.
Based on the experiences of the earlier visit to Spain which included wonderful nights spent in paradors, some reservations were made in the southern versions of these national inns.
While in Estepona, we were amused by the enclave of British ‘residents’ who dominated the lawn bowling club, the tennis club, and the El Paraiso Golf Club where the posts of Men’s Captain, Ladies’ Captain and more were held by golfers from the UK who spent up to six months in the area. Competitions were identical to those ‘back home’ and the celebration afterwards included British beer and chips.
Many restaurants and pubs in the main strip of Estepona had English names and menus to match. Fortunately for the Dickasons, Ken had spent several years in Spain as a university student years ago, was fluent in Spanish, and loved to eat at
local Spanish restaurants. We quickly found that Ken was recognized by restauranteurs and as we entered we were treated to the hand-shaking, the gratis copita of Jerez [Spanish sherry - dry for the men, medium for the ladies] and freshly carved slices of the cured ham which sat on a special table near the small barrels of sherry. At the table, a small platter of olives was placed along with the menu - another pre-dinner tradition. The local seafood was so tempting, that though Les and Ken looked for excuses to order Rioja reds, most nights we drank fresh Spanish whites - until we reached the condominium after dinner when a red was opened.
There were several short trips away from Estepona - the first along the coast to the east and included stays in paradors in Malaga and Nerja on the coast. Both inns were high on a cliff, and the views during the day and night were stunning. The ugliness of the suburbs of Malaga we had seen while driving west from the airport the first day was a great contrast to the well-preserved older sections of this city. We climbed to the Gibralfaro with its solid fortifications and view of 360 degrees. The new Malaga was clearly seen to one side with towers of modern apartment buildings, and the huge bullring. The port and older sections were seen from another side of the fortified walls.
On the way down, we walked through archways with a moorish influence, arrived at the roman theatre which was still in use, and then strolled through leafy gardens which were dotted with the famous ceramic benches depicting the history and geography of the area.
Between our parador in Malaga and the next one in Nerja along the coast to the east, we passed areas of agriculture, many of which included greenhouses, plastic-covered raised beds, as well as large market gardens. Nerja was a small port town with locals feeding the fish from the docks, and with colourful fishing boats pulled up on the stony beach just outside the town.
cliffs, with the hills rising beyond.
Further along the beach were some resort hotels, then the parador. The view from our room was along the beach towards the rocky
Our lunch at a Nerja beachside cafe featured the southern Spanish version of paella and some grilled fish from a barbecue in the open air. A longer walk on the beach led to the Balcon de Europe viewpoint built out into the Mediterranean with views east and west on this rocky stretch of coastline.
On the day back in Estepona Les and Ken played golf, Pat and Eileen toured the trendy stores on the waterfront of Puerto Banus where the marinas were
crowded with luxury yachts [of the rich and famous?], then the Dickasons packed and headed inland for the ‘white villages’ on the hills to the north.
They really were white! In the midst of lush green fields and with grey outcroppings of rock above them, villages such as Gaucin and Jimena de la Frontera were sparkling white with light terra cotta coloured roof tiles. From a distance, each village looked completely white in the sunshine.
Our parador the first night inland was at Ronda, and it was situated on a ravine with clifftop views to the valley below. In the morning, the mist gave the plains a spooky look until it burned off in the warming sun - and the city of Ronda was a great place to explore.
The oldest bullring in Spain was a highlight there - no fight scheduled, but we joined a guided tour of the bullring, and the under-the-stands Museum showed the hundreds of years of history of this bullring, and included photographs and memorabilia of famous matadors and featured some of the most famous bulls - heads of several had been stuffed and mounted. The old town of Ronda featured palaces and churches in very good condition despite their age.
Another parador, in Arcos de la Frontera, was right at the top of the steep hill, and the access was up a narrow road which went under the buttress of a church. The width was so restricted, that Les had to fold in the rearview mirrors of Ken’s car to be able to pass through and reach the parking lot at the top of the town.
But, despite the clammy-hands-drive to reach the parador, the views were even more spectacular than those of Ronda. On our stroll around the village, we saw several churches, hundreds of years old, sitting right on the edge of the cliffs, with the river a long, long way below.
Our drive inland was not only planned for small villages and towns, and we eventually reached the outskirts of Seville. The advice we had been given was that accommodation and parking in Seville would be difficult to impossible, so the Dickasons had reserved a room for two nights in a downtown hotel which had underground parking available.
We were closely following our map, and still 2km from the centre of the city, when we began to realize how serious the parking situation was there. As we stopped for a traffic light, a young man tapped on our window, and asked if we wanted to park, offering to guide us. As we continued to the next block, we saw cars parked very close together, with three rows of cars starting from the kerb. Each section of the roadway had an overseer, two or three men acting as touts for would-be-parkers, and two or three pushers of cars..... all cars in the overseer’s section were locked but their emergency brakes were not applied. When a returning motorist wanted his or her car, the pushers went to work moving cars in the outer lanes forward and back, until there was room for the driver to leave. The gap left by that car was soon filled as the pushers closed the gap, and allowed another car to park at the front or back of the line.
After difficulty with one-way streets, we drove two or three times around a plaza, located the hotel, parked the car underground, and did not use it again until we drove out of Seville three days later. There was plenty to see on foot, and one day, at the suggestion of the concierge, we bought tickets on a hop-on-hop-off tour of Seville which took us to the sites further away.
Along one promenade running beside the river, in between Seville orange trees, were statues commemorating music and musicians; one was of Mozart with a violin, another was a tribute to Carmen. Nearby was the famous bullring where Carmen is dramatically stabbed in the opera. The Giralda tower beside the cathedral gave us wonderful views out across the suburbs to the wooded areas beyond, and the cathedral itself, built in the 15th century, included the tomb of Christopher Columbus and many priceless works of art including paintings by Goya.
Not far away was the Alcazar - a series of buildings some of which date back to the 9th century, and Moorish influences dominated here before the Christians reconquered Seville, renovated some of the buildings, and added patios and fountains. The Dickasons counted their blessings at being there in January - the small crowd of tourists out of season gave space and quiet to our visit. Some of the buildings featured gardens with pools, and we noticed the smell of jasmine as well as that of the citrus trees in bloom. Inside and outside buildings were mosaics of almost infinite designs and colours.... ‘come and look at this’ was the catch-phrase for our visit as we kept discovering more amazing art at every turn.
The Hall of the Embassadors [seen at left] included a stunning gilded dome in the ceiling inside, made of interlaced wooden pieces. Below the dome was a frieze with portraits of the Spanish kings.
When on our hop-on-hop-off tour we left the bus at the Plaza de Espana which was the site of the Latin American Expo in 1929. The plaza was dominated by the palace which is semi-circular and has towers, a canal, and a bench for each province of Spain depicted in beautiful ceramic mosaics. One of the benches is seen below at right.
In the evenings, after a day of sightseeing, and before we could find a restaurant willing to serve a meal before 9pm, the Dickasons joined the locals and cruised Sierpes and Tetuan, a pair of parallel streets with stores for just about everything - Spanish and imported. At the end we discovered El Corte Ingles, a huge department store. One night a visit to a tapas bar kept hunger at bay until the restaurants opened.
Dining in Seville was at big city prices, but the gazpacho [said to have originated here] was refreshing, and we did order heuvos a la flamenca which was a tradition there. Fried tomato, ham, vegetables are served on potato slices or chips, eggs are added before the dish is baked.
On a travel day we crossed east to check-in to another parador which proved to be the most fascinating of the paradors so far. It was in Granada, inside the walls of the Alhambra, so when other tourists had to leave and the gates of the Alhambra were locked, the Dickasons, as guests of the parador, were able to wander the deserted gardens at will.
The fortifications at the Alhambra, the Generalife gardens and the sultan’s palace had us imagining fairy tales and mysteries. The fortress which protected the Alhambra was completed in the early 14th century, and has a red hue due to the clay from nearby quarries. Inside the fortress are palaces, a royal complex, and a unique canal system which supplied water for gardens and the inhabitants. It was tempting to spend all of our time inside the walls, slowly working our way through the palaces and the gardens with reflecting pools and large and small mosaics features.
But, we did walk down the road to the downtown and discovered, on a poster in a shop window, that there would be a guitar recital that evening in a recital hall, not far outside the Alhambra walls. The poster advertised a concert by Eliot Fisk and students, and we found tickets on sale inside the store.
The concert was at 7pm, and the walk down the path outside the Alhambra was well marked. Eliot Fisk, though from the US, had established a series of classes for guitarists in Salzburg. He was touring with five of his top students, all young men [in their 20s?] and the concert featured them in solo pieces, in duets with Fisk or other students, and concluded with a group piece which had the audience immediately on their feet applauding and stamping their feet. It was a wonderful ‘birthday’ treat for Les, celebrating one year of retirement.
It was time to head back to Estepona, but some torrential rains slowed us as we drove south to the coast. Plans for a final round of golf had to be scrapped as the El Paraiso course was closed due to flooding [see the 6th hole above]. The Dickasons packed ready for the flight back to Canada - with plans to prepare the car in Nanaimo almost immediately and drive south again - to southern California and Borrego Springs.
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