Canada Day Weekend June 29 - July 1st

Saturday morning both Ray and I slept in until 7am. Wow .. nice being back home. We woke up to puffy clouds with the sun breaking through. Ray jumped outside in his PJ's to take a few pictures.

Sunbeams on our vaulted ceiling.

Sunrise

Not much on the agenda today other than a little shopping in town, especially picking up some dog food for Freya at our local pet store, before the masses wake up with the big music event happening here for the long weekend. Apparently the last group to play starts at 12:45 am. Fortunately we only hear the occasional bit on the sundeck when it is very still outside and nothing inside the house. It's great for the town though with all of the stores doing well. Between our Country Grocer and the Home Hardware all of the campers can get anything they need or forgot.

A little weird not having any company this weekend ... last year we were up to our eyeballs with visitors ... this year not so much. Part of the reason is that BC Ferries has made it way too hard to get on a ferry without a long long wait. Garrett and Kat will not ever come for another long weekend due to that. People that make reservations end up losing them with the breakdowns.

Hopefully Ray and I can get out on the water this weekend with the boat for a tour once the showers pass today it should be much nicer for Sunday and Monday with temps forecasted at 24C. The lake is still a bit chilly at 70F. Does not seem to stop the kids though. The neighbour's girls were swimming at dinner time last night ... squealing after jumping in.

Saturday morning it was off to the Farmer's Market in Duncan before the highway got too busy. There were more people there than I have ever seen ... body to body. After a breakfast of champions ... fresh baking and coffee we braved the crowd and I managed to get a neck massage with Jaz and Ray found the vendor to buy some of their natural soap he likes. Certainly more vendors now than early spring or winter. It was quite sunny and 19 C while there, but the clouds formed up again an although it looked like it might rain it held off all afternoon.

Very busy at the Duncan Farmer's Market.

Back home I made us lunch and we had a bit of a "toes up" before Ray had to head to Nanaimo for his MRI. He is having dinner with Jason as Kristi is on call at the hospital before the MRI at 10pm (on the Saturday of the long-weekend).

Tonight I was invited to our neighbours, Roy and June, for a wine night at 7pm. Well, I had a fabulous time next door with all of the neighbours. After we all chatted for a couple of hours, Mike suggested that he take us all out on his boat for a sunset cruise. What a blast. Turned out to be Darryl and Pat's 45th Wedding Anniversary so what an unexpected party.

Pat and daughter-in-law Regan

James, Pat's son-in-law and Darryl and Ron

Mike, his friend Justin, Deb, and her friend Shannon and Roy behind the bar.

June and Donna

 Here comes our ride. What a boat, can seat up to 16 people!

Captain Mike with his co-pilot Izzy.

I took a movie of the antics of the boys. So funny.

Sunday morning the neighbours and the lake was pretty quiet until 10 am. Puttered around inside for a couple of hours and then moved down to the dock for a bit. Jason came down from Nanaimo to bring Ray some lumber that we could not fit into our car and picked up our power washer to use at his house. Kristi and Jason are having a get together tomorrow at their house and he needed to clean his sundeck. Before he left we all sat on the dock for a bit to enjoy the lovely day.

Ray mentioned that the campsite next door was completely full when he walked the dog over there this weekend. He said the smells of bacon, coffee and onions were awesome!  By the way, what's for breakfast he continued.With the sun out today, lots of people enjoying the beach. There were 5 times as many people later in the day. lol

The weekend fun ended for this guy as he was towed in.

Ray adjusted some tiles on the deck by the stairs that were never installed properly and he worked up a sweat in the hot sun.  Sooo ... his first dip of the season. In and out! lol He tried to sneak down there so I wouldn't notice and take a picture ....

At 5 pm I was just thinking about starting dinner when there was a knock at the door. Mike from next door, invited us over for dinner at six for ribs and a halibut fish fry. He had also invited Pat, Darryl and crew. Wow what generous people. Of course we said yes ....

Mike and Deb have a fabulous outdoor kitchen and large sundeck. With all of their kids and their friends, Justin, Shannon and kids, Pat, Darryl and crew plus us ... they had about 18 people for dinner!

Pat's grandchildren Sevie and Emily

Deb, Ray and Darryl

Mike with his son Dillon assisting.

Mike's son Tyler 

The Pit Master Mike

When dinner was ready Mike told me to ring the dinner triangle and watch the kids come up from the dock ... too funny.

As soon as the big kids were fed it was down to their games room.

We stayed for an hour or so more visiting and then it was time to go. After such a late night for us yesterday and Ray's long day with the MRI we were both bushed.

Happy Canada Day. Woke up to another beautiful warm sunny morning. Had a relaxing start after two busy days ... Made fresh scones and tea and we sat down at the dock in the morning sun. The rest of the morning we did a few chores, Ray pruning our maple tree for viewscape so we could see more of the lake from our deck and I puttered cleaning the kitchen. The rest of the day was spent down at the dock until the wind came up too strong and then we moved to our rock patio. A gorgeous day with lots of people taking advantage of the great weather. As it was windy there were quite a few Hobie Cats on the lake. It clouded up at dinner time as predicted for everyone that celebrated the weekend to go home. I am still suffering with a bout of my plantar fasciitis in my left foot so lots of soaking it in the cool lake water.

Later in the evening around 10:30 pm a bunch of fireworks were set off. Ray and I did not even notice it being in bed but Freya certainly alerted us to it. After waking us up and scratching at Ray's arm, I put her "thunder blanket" on and she settled right down beside the bed for the rest of the night. Boy does that thing work great.

That was our fabulous Canada Day Weekend.