Girl's Getaway
Many of you are well aware that I am an island junkie and that if given the opportunity I will extoll the merrits of Salt Spring Island to the extent that I might even plan the vacation for you. In fact, I like that little gulf island so much that I helped send the Gerlach's there for their honeymoon seven years ago, before I myself had ever been there. And they liked it! I'm sure their approval had nothing to do with the rose coloured glasses of recent matrimony.
So since mom had a birthday and we are both having a crappy year worthy of escape, I stole her away for a little r & r. Actually, make that just r. No boys, no laptops, no phones and best of all, no blasted basal digital thermometer at 6:00 am precisely. God I hate that thing. (really, God, I hate that thing!)
Now I know there are other points of view regarding Salt Spring. One of them came from my lovely (and now I know crazy) friend Michelle a week after my return. Having perused Facebook she realized to our mutual horror that we were BOTH on Saltspring with our MOTHERS on the SAME EXACT DAY. We even did the same things that same day including visiting the farmers market, driving to the summit of Mount Maxwell and hat shopping and somehow we completely missed each other!!
If you know Michelle you know that she is a hard woman to miss, especially when you consider she had her mother, husband, five children and Japanese inlaws with her. Being that Salt Spring is such a huge place I might have been the only person on the island to have not noticed her;) Michelle's crazy came when she told me she didn't think the island was all that great. Boring actually. Maybe I heightened her expectations too much.
Maybe I like boring.
So mom's and my adventure started with the outdoor woodfired bread bakery. Yum! This was a beautiful attraction Royden and I missed last time due to the bakery's weekday only hours.
While bread is great, cheese is better and we thought maybe some day this little one could help us out.
Mmmm cheese. It was hard to pick just a few flavours to take home, and harder still not to open and sample them all (again!) before giving them away. Of course the next logical item one might need to complete this trio is wine, but we didn't like it much. Cute winery, not so great wine. I am losing my taste for it though so I may not be the best judge. Wine gives me heartburn. Margaritas don't.
A lot of driving was done, and even a little getting lost. I didn't think we'd need mom's new GPS but it actually came in pretty handy. We're such a couple of girls. The island is beautiful with plenty of beaches, ocean vistas and pastoral landscapes. There are also several beautiful old restored churches to see along the way.
During our adventure mom and I discovered we share a love of California poppies and old wooden fences.
Our next stop was Martinus Jewellery. How we missed this shop the last time we were there is a mystery that I suspect only Royden could solve. Mom and I found many items to our liking. This I thought particularly cool. Martin (the jeweler) took a branch from a pine tree, peeled the bark, cast it in wax and then made a mold for the gold.
Good times were had. Eating, shopping, reading, beachcombing and of course sleeping. We also got to catch some really great outdoor live music and drank a number of yummy lattes (thanks mom!). We relaxed and were entertained and got to catch up with some much needed mother daughter time.
Happy Birthday Mom!
Thanks for taking a fabulous vacation with me. I love you very much and am looking forward to planning our next fantastic exclusive adventure together.
Kudos to mom's little digital powershot camera for all these pics. Royden graciously offered to let me take the Rebel but I told him I didn't want to be responsible for it. He laughed when recalled that our last Rebel met it's fate in Salt Spring waters...something I had forgotten!
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