Galiano Island

We had wanted to get to Galiano this weekend because they were holding their annual Active Pass festival.  Montague Harbour is several km from the various festival venues, so first thing in the morning Emily and I took the dinghy into the marina, to see about getting into town.  I met one of the brothers who owns the marina, who informed me that there are no busses or cabs, but hitchhiking is common and easy.  He mentioned something about maybe lending me his truck, (we're not on the mainland anymore!), but I declined his generous offer.  Meanwhile, Emily had made a new best friend, Archer.

It took some convincing to get Emily to suspend the game of fetch, so we could go back to the sailboat to collect Sara and Camille.

The hitch hike to the festival was pretty straightforward.  We split up, with Emily and I catching a sweet ride in a convertible (although they dropped us about a 20 minute walk from where we wanted to be).

The main festival grounds was pretty quiet, with most of the action taking place on a number of tours, which we had missed.  We started walking back to an area we know had restaurants, when we were picked up by a festival shuttle.  The driver convinced us to let him take us to the "locivore lunch", one of the festival events.  Seemed like a good way to experience local culture, so we agreed.  Definitely an interesting menu, with the star ingredient being nettles (yes, the stinging kind!).  Nettle soup, nettle orzo, nettle strata, nettle crostini, even nettle and mint ice cream!  All for $5.00.  Quite good, actually,  and very nutritious, we're told.  Somehow, though, we didn't find the motivation to head into the forest in our protective gear to harvest a bunch for ourselves

After a quick stop at a nearby market, it was time to hitch back to the boat.  Sara and Camille were interested in checking out a store across the street, so Emily and I went on ahead.  The guy that picked us up  said he couldn't resist the charms of a pretty young girl, and took us well past his own stop right to the marina.

By the time we got to the marina, it was raining pretty hard, so we went into the little shop there to get out of the rain.  As I was pulling Emily's rain jacket out of my pack (so she could play more fetch with Archer), I commented to the lady minding the store that my wife probably wasn't too happy that I had all her rain gear in my pack.  Once again the small town/island hospitality showed itself, and she quickly produced her car keys.  Emily and I were soon off in search of Sara and Camille, who we found about 5km away.  I normally would not pick up such wet hitch hikers, but, it not being my own car and all, we made an exception.