Lasqueti Island 2009

Greetings! It’s September 2009 already!

We intended this as a travel blog, and we haven’t traveled much in 2009. We went to St. Martin in February, and had a fabulous Bob’s-birthday-weekend with all the kids in Georgia, but we didn’t go anywhere else for 7 months, very unusual for us. Now we intend to catch up!

We’re back in our favorite Canadian house, on Lasqueti Island, for the month of September. The house is still incredible, with wonderful and unique character, and spectacular views. In the evening, just as the sun dips behind the snow-covered mountains on Vancouver Island, the sky turns fantastic pinks and purples, and the whole Gulf of Georgia looks like one of my grandmother’s paintings.

Davin took the time to travel and spend a long weekend here with us, and it was fabulous to see him. We rode bikes around the island, and had a couple of days to catch up. We had seals in the water, and an eagle diving from a perch 70’ in the air into the water for lunch. The loons were also back this year, but we saw no sign of the otter family from last year.

We also had dinner with the neighbors who watch over the water and electricity supply, and bring us things from the garden. And we went to market – an eclectic group, to be sure, on an island with no electricity and a full-time population of 300 people – but an essential source of both information and vegetables.

And we celebrated our 15^th anniversary together with a special dinner in the gazebo on the lower deck.

Unfortunately, this is the last time we’ll be in this magnificent house. The guy who built this lovely place got hammered by the real estate crash, and has lost not only this house, but literally everything he owned. He builds gorgeous houses, but had a total of six unsold when the economy and the real estate market collapsed (in Canada, as well as in the U.S.). Six mortgages would sink anybody, no matter how hard they worked.

We really love the Gulf Islands, and we still plan to spend part of every Fall in British Columbia. Next year we’ll stay in different houses and identify the one we’d most like to return to every year. And it feels like we’re getting older, even compared to five years ago. The next house we choose will have more dependable water and electricity.  And broadband and more accessible shopping, so a trip to the grocery store doesn’t involve hours on ferry boats and consume an entire day. Wherever it is, we’ll show it to you!