Note: This post has been co-authored by Liam and Megan

Megan: Good morning from Matriarch!

Liam: We stayed up late last night because we watched Finding Dory last night at the pool. It started around 8:30 and ended at 10:30. There was free popcorn and it was unlimited. I had two bags and the girls had three. I thought I’d wait a bit because I didn’t want to look greedy but I waited too long and the movie ended and they closed. The movie was really good. It was amazing to sit in the pool and watch the movie from the water. There are lots of activities going on here. There have been two movie nights since we’ve been here but the first one (Ralph Breaks the Internet) was cancelled because of a big thunderstorm. There also is trivia at the pool on Sundays. There has been a kayak tour. Yoga and pool exercise classes on the weekend and a big dinner and dance party at the pool a week ago.

Megan: The movie was the first thing we joined in on as a family at Herrington Harbour North. Mostly because we’ve been busy…also because we aren’t super big joiners when it comes to community activities but we know we need to overcome that and just get out there if not for our sakes, for the kids. We have met and started to build some relationships with a few other “live aboards” here, including 3 other boats on our dock. We even had a little apps and drinks get-together with the lovely owners of Vinyasa (Allan and Levon) on their boat…we plan to reciprocate with an invite for board games this week. I really hope they like board games LOL….

Liam: Since we were up late we all slept in and for breakfast / brunch we had pancakes for the first time on this boat. We had to cut out a template from a silicone mat for the frying pan because we don’t have non-stick frying pans with us or a griddle like we used at home. Mom made the pancake batter and then we put the batter on the pan and made the pancakes. The first ones did not turn out so well, they where big but black and smelt a little like fish. The fourth was a lot better and Grace got that one, it was ginormous. The fifth was even better than Graces. Bigger, not black, and did not smell like fish. I got numero six, it was a beauty… so big, so not black and did not smell like fish, yay! I think it took some time for mom to get it right and after she did they were amazing. That is the tale of the first time we had pancakes on the boat. It is so hot out today and I think even in the boat with the AC on it will still be too hot and we will need to go the pool .🌊

Megan: Ok look. The first pancake looked a bit weird yes. But it was NOT black and only smelled maybe a little bit like fish and that is because the last time we used that mat we cooked salmon on our BBQ at the house in Milton. Sorry dudes. The second was better, the third was a BIT darker than I would like (Liam: Are you kidding me?! It was totally roasted!”) but you still seemed to eat it fine so don’t complain after the fact :P And yes, we hit our stride with numbers 4-14…there is a heat distribution knack that I had to sort out and it’s not that bad that it only took me 3 tries to do it. Pancakes are important to me. Like weirdly important. I LOVE pancakes. And more than that, they represent home to me. Home, comfort, routine, tradition and family. Many many Sundays when I was a kid my Dad would make pancakes for us and it was all-you-can-eat. We would put them back by the dozens….he always made a triple our quadruple batch and we might have a few leftover but then Kyle (my brother) and I would wrap them up and take them with us on a Sunday hike through the ravine that ran behind our house, exploring creepy caves, winding streams and stopping to eat them as our ‘provisions’. Pancakes are attached to some of my very very best memories as a child. When I started making pancakes for my kids I quickly realized how much they also loved them and we started our own tradition. It’s not every Sunday but as many as we can swing. I am pretty sure Kyle does this too with his kids. I absolutely love taking our time to make batch after batch and watching everyone eat them up. I even love the curse of the cook where you are eating last, often alone and among sticky dishes while someone else is tidying up. Today was an important milestone for me: making pancakes on Matriarch made her even more of a home for us in my eyes.

Downside to this: Greg does NOT love pancakes (yes and I married him anyway). I think it’s genetic…his mom hates them…weirdos). He tolerates them for me and the kids. He SLOWLY works his way through a FRACTION of what the rest of us can put back and kindly replies with a “they are good” when I ask him how they are. He’s a pretty sweet guy. This will not stop me from making pancakes as often as I can. Pancakes are more important to me than Greg’s palate. Sorry not sorry hon!

Oh ya and the title of this blog was inspired by a very very crazy morning Liz Lusk (my business partner) and I had at the Whitehorse airport (that’s Whitehorse, YK, Canada for people not familiar with the great North). We were there for work, talking with health and social service providers about the upcoming federal legislation about legalizing and regulating the production, purchasing and consumption of cannabis in Canada (stop yawning, it was actually very interesting!) and we got stuck in the elevator at our AirBnB at 4:30am (yes this happened), missed our flight (there are NOT many flights leaving Whitehorse people - this was big), had to stay at the airport (which apparently shuts down in between flights, as in, ALL AIRPORT STAFF LEAVE AND LIGHTS ARE TURNED OFF) and the only thing for us to do for several hours was to eat at this…ahem…rustic? gnarly? quaint? icky? restaurant on the second floor. It was the only thing open and they clearly relied on that fact for business. Their menu was rife with handwritten additions or cross-outs (mostly cross-outs) and immediately Liz’s design-eye was attracted to the heading for the pancakes: “PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES” in red font (nothing else was red). We were tired and frustrated and this struck us as hilarious…we couldn’t get over it. Why four times? Does that mean you get four (it did not, apparently you used to be able to get three but then that was crossed out)? Why the red font? Why all caps? Why the hype? Sooooo curious. It ended up being a hilarious highlight of that trip.

Why this story today? For some reason this morning, when I woke up (late) thinking of pancakes, all I could hear in my head was Liz’s voice chanting “PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES” over and over and it made me smile.

Liam: I love pancakes. My favourite are zucchini pancakes - they sound gross but they are actually really good. It’s still really hot outside and I still really want to go to the pool and maybe get some ice cream. Yeaaaaahhhhh.

Megan: You live a charmed life my son.

We hope you have a great day!

M&L

P.S. We are almost out of Canadian Maple Syrup…this is going to be a problem.