Salt Spring Island, August 3-9, 2025

 I went kayaking, 8.5 miles launching at Fulford Harbor), and Donna drove to Ganges and knocked around the shops.  She continues to get a lot of positive comments on her “We are sorry Canada” shirt.

A ten mile kayak for me, and more Ganges area for Donna.  She talked at length with Jonathan, the owner of the shop that we got some great keepsakes a couple of years ago.  He said we should just stay here.  Canada won’t bother to go after us.

Donna’s birthday, and the Mother Theresa of Littleton set up a visit with Derrick who is residing in the memory care unit of an assisted living facility in Duncan.  So we caught the ferry from Vesuvius to Crofton ,and took Derrick out to lunch.  We were planning on going to The Vine in Cowichan Bay, but it was closed on Tuesday, so drove out to the Unshur Winery,.  Derrick’s dementia has significantly worsened but he did know who we were, although he thought his deceased wife, Pip, was alive.  As Donna said it was a bittersweet time.  Afterwards, we drove to Cowichan Bay and walked the storefront and I got a few good photos of Donna. We forgot to take a photo of us and Derrick but Donna did one of Derrick laughing.

It rained overnight into early morning.  We hung out at the boathouse in the morning and then went blackberry picking and took a walk in Burgoyne Bay in the afternoon.

We hiked Ruckle Provincial Park, a favorite location on SSI today.  6 miles RT, parts of which were pretty rugged.

The Canadian coast guard doing a man over board drill out in front of our place, and the moon setting on Saturday morning.

I dropped off Donna at the Salt Spring Saturday market in Ganges, and I did a few shorter hikes and shore walks, and picked blackberries on the north part of the island.   Donna had a number of interesting conversations with folks, even without wearing her “We’re sorry Canada” shirt.  Notable was an American couple who live 6 months on Salt Spring Island and the other 6 months in Southern California, but are looking at other possibilities for their 6 months in California; i.e. it’s time to get out while the gettin’s good.  And a Canadian that suggested we should spend 6 months in Canada and the other 6 months in Portugal….something I’ve suggested as well.