Summer at Salt Spring Island

Our time is closing on Salt Spring but we have continued our busy summer.
Mike was our next visitor—his earlier visit had been brief so it was nice to have him here longer.
We had arranged for Barry to come back and go out to Portland Island—one of our favorite destinations from the past—overnight and combine hiking around the island with fishing and crabbing.
We caught a rock cod for supper and had a nice walk on the island picking and eating blackberries competing with the raccoons. We set the crab trap so added crab to our “seafood catch”.
The next day was spent with Mike desperately trying for the “big one”. He did catch a nice green ling cod which has amazing green coloured flesh which does turn white on cooking. I think it is as well as it as it looks most unappetizing raw. After Mike had lost several lures we decided to try one last place he finally hooked “the big one”!!! It was huge and provided much excitement. After Mike had finally landed it it flapped and flopped all around the back of the boat with Ken managing to kill it before it did damage. Then “weighing” took place, it was 116cm and weighed 40lb—the combination of centimeters and pounds is dictated by the confused times in our lives!! It had a huge mouth and quite the ugliest head you have ever seen. Mike had to call Kyle right away to rub in the fact that Kyle had lost his big one and Mike felt he probably was the better fisherman. After we got home Ken filleted it and after pricing it out in the supermarket at $29 a pound we felt it had more than paid for the lost lures and fuel to get there.
Mike spent the next few days painting his pottery—amongst the most artistic compared with his brother whose were amongst the least--and taking Barry’s kayak out for a day on the lake with his fly rod. He did catch a small fish which he released—we do not need more fish in our lives. We also had a round of golf which is becoming another SS tradition.
The next event was Ken’s birthday for which Barry came back with Roland and his friend sharing cake and ice cream.
We had a visit from Brian and Diana for a night. They are building their future retirement home in Maple Bay which is just a short ferry ride away so it was fun to share their excitement. We did not manage to get to see their partly built house but will try and take a bike ride over to see it before we left.
The next event was a trip for me to Vancouver to meet up with Diana, Judy and Carol Ann to relive the Vancouver Gift Show. It had been a tradition for many years for Judy and Diana to accompany me with my pottery there where I would take orders from local stores and as it was the last show of the season for exhibitors we were able to buy from them at wholesale prices. Diana and Judy had been my scouts for bargains.
I went on the Sunday and met Diana and stayed at her daughter Karen’s for a night. It was nice to see her family with 2 year old Daniel providing the typical 2 year old demands—Adelyn is not the only one!!—and baby Noah is perhaps the easiest calmest baby I have seen. There is justice in the world!!
We went to the gift show on Monday morning meeting up with Diana and Carol Ann and spent the next two days shopping. I had never had the luxury of spending as much time looking as I am usually selling my pottery so it was great to make sure I did not miss anything. I was not in a position to take advantage of a lot as we are going back to our boat soon but was able to buy Xmas gifts for the family as we will have a combined thanksgiving/Xmas before we leave Canada. We stayed in the hotel we always did and found a trendy Tapa bar for dinner so were able to renew old traditions.
While I was gone I missed a visit from Bob and Roz from Comox but Ken had a nice time with them.
Our next visitors were Carlie and Garret who had sailed with us in the US and Mexico for quite a long time on their catamaran Light Wave when we headed south 3 years ago. It was great to see them again. They came over on Light Wave which they have since sailed back via Hawaii, they now live in Vancouver. It was great to go on their boat and have a reminder that we are really still in the midst of our sailing adventure. We had shared many laughs and fun with them in the past so it we enjoyed reconnecting.
Our latest trip was to go to Port Ludlow in the US to visit Jack and Judy. We caught the ferry down and drove to their house from Port Angeles. They live in a lovely retirement community on a pretty bay and in typical Judy style have a beautifully decorated home. We went to some of the cute surrounding towns with Judy and me enjoying the galleries and the beautiful selection of crafts. We had one evening where much wine was drunk and music enjoyed—reminiscent of a time years ago on their boat where we had a “4 bottle night”. We were glad we had gone down as we have not had much time to spend with them this trip and our paths will probably not cross for a number of years.
We are happy that many of our friends are choosing this area for their retirements so we will have many future visits as we all get older.
We are now back and will start to sort out how we will store our things for the next few years. We leave here in 2 weeks and will go to Calgary. We will have one week there together when I will then go to Ottawa to stay with Kristen for 2 weeks before we both meet up in LA on November 2nd to head back to NZ.