The Willing family headed over to Vancouver Island on early Saturday morning. It was a long weekend in Canada last weekend, in 1974 British Columbia decided that the residents of BC should have a holiday in August (as every other province did) and so proclaimed the 1st Monday in August to be a civic holiday, it was called BC Day to celebrate the early settlers of the province. Anyway, back to the weekend, we all arose bright and early and headed out to the ferry terminal in Tsawwassen. We ended up missing the 8am ferry and so waited on a grassy knoll for the 9am boat. Ben tried to take advantage of this wait to take a nap, but I guess we were too noisy for him as he kept piping up from under the sleeping bag (he was getting some strange looks from passer-bys as well.
We made it over in time for the wedding which was in Sooke. It was held in someone's backyard and it was a beautiful spot! There was a fog rolling in, but luckily we were sheltered in the yard as up on the road it was a wee bit chilly and everyone was dressed in summer wedding clothes.
Our traditional partial family photo
The reception was held in the Ranger club house and there was a lot of family there. The Willing family is quite large as Ben's dad has 5 brothers and sisters. Uncle Peter and his band provided the music and Sandra (Ben's sister), Kim (cousin) and Jewels (the bride) got up to provide the back-up for Mustand Sally. I, luckily, had gone to the bathroom otherwise everyone's ears would have suffered.
Ben's cousin, Brian (who we were staying with) is quite the fisherman, so he took us out on Sunday morning to go salmon fishing.
This is me reeling in a fish, there wasn't a lot of room to move around in the boat and take photos.
So beautiful!
Ben's parents also went out with Uncle Glen (Brian's dad).
It was amazing! We only caught Pink Salmon on Sunday, but we caught 16 5-7 lb salmon in about 1.5 hours. We were pretty much putting lines into the water and catching fish instantly. Both Sandra and I complained of sore arms the next day as our muscles are not trained for this type of activity.
We saw some seals!
We canned some of the salmon and gave 2 away but our freezer is still full of fish.
The rest of the weekend was spent with the greater Willing family at the Farm and Monday, Ben and Brian went out fishing again and managed to catch only one fish worth keeping - a Spring though, so nicer than Pink. Then we all went to the Sooke Potholes. for a quick dip before heading back on the ferry carrying our bags, a cooler full of fish and a box of apples from the Farm.
Ben wanted me to photoshop a photo of him with extended arms from the weight of the cooler and the apples, but I'm sure when we're enjoying tasty apple treats he won't be complaining.
Gotta run to go have lunch with Sandy!
Erin
