The Big Surprise

So for two weeks now Rodric has been telling me about this "Big Surprise" that he has planned for us after I finished teaching. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but kept giving me hints like "we need to take a ferry", "You need your tent", "It is really fancy and expensive", etc. etc. He said that we wouldn't be able to leave on this trip until Sunday or Monday, but that we could go for as long or as short a trip as I'd like and to celebrate my last night of school he would borrow his buddy's boat so that we could cruise around in English Bay for a couple of hours on Friday night. He even suggested that I invite friends along on this evening journey, so I asked Tom and Cecile if they'd like to cruise around and share some wine with us as well.
Meanwhile, in preparation for "The Big Surprise", Rodric has been running around like a madman, not sleeping, giggling at all hours of the night, and telling me repeatedly that I am "going to flip". I started truly believing that he really is nuts, because all the while he was also suggesting things like, "I think I'll go get us a little place up in North Van on the water..." "Don't you think we need a new vehicle?" "I think I'll put an offer in on a charter yacht..." "Maybe we should get some crab traps."
Now, after all of this, in my logical mind, I'm thinking that he has a serious spending issue and can't tell dreams from reality. I'm envisaging a) a new vehicle b) a very expensive open-ended journey c) a new water-front apartment in North Van d) a huge mortgage on some cruiser in the Caribbean... and all of this while we're planning to leave the country in 2 months for an unknown length of time. I'll admit that I had a breakdown on Thursday while he was in the middle of telling me about all of his dreams... he promised that it would all make sense soon.
OK. So the point of this story.
I finished work yesterday. Rodric told me to go to the Granville Island Ferry dock, so I did... with a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers, all ready for an evening of floating in English Bay on his buddy's boat.
Sure enough, he showed up, in this:


And I hopped on board and said that his buddy is Mr. Fancypants. Rodric said, "Do you like it?" Of course I did, and was immediately wandering down into the cabin and opening doors, etc...
He then said, "Good. Because it's ours."
We also own the boathouse that it's parked in, under the Second Narrows Bridge in North Van. This is the new apartment and the holiday (he's taking me cruising through the Gulf Islands this week) and the reason for all of the odd giggles and unexplained stress. It's been his life-long dream to own a boat on which he can travel, so now we have her... all 30 feet of her, with new teak throughout and a brand-new engine that hasn't even been broken in for 6 hours yet.
I'm still trying to absorb it. In the meantime, we're off to spend the night at a local island. (The hints about the ferry ride, tent, etc. were all just to throw me off... as if I'd guess it or something!)