Hornby Island Tribal Experience (Jul 30th, 2006)

This Friday a great big diverse party took place at the Joe King Baseball Park on Hornby Island. We're talkin' a half dozen belly dancers followed by killer DJ-driven tunes outside, a fire show with performers from all over the big island, some more engineered grooves, a black light dance performance ..... and more tunes 'til dawn. Fun times.

Capture the what? (Jul 25th, 2006)

Every Monday night for the last 3 months a group of Nanaimo hooligans have been meeting downtown at Maffeo Sutton park to digress to their childhood pastimes and join in for a few games of capture the flag. I admit, I'm one of the lead hooligans and it's probably the most exercise and the funnest times I have all week. Last night there were 20 or so young adults participating in the games. Next week ... maybe more.

Making matters more exciting, after the game last night most of us went to Piper's Lagoon for an impromptu game of 'naked bioluminescent jellyfish tag'. Now that's fun!

Bay of plenty (Jul 24th, 2006)

It was full of girls splashing in the waves, boys on surfboards and a woman spinning fire that evening. Cox Bay had it all Friday night. It's been a heat wave here recently and in addition to our jaunt to the west coast of Vancouver Island, we've made several trips to the river to soothe our overheated bodies.

Silly Boating (Jul 20th, 2006)

Every year in Nanaimo around this time in July, there's an event called the 'Silly Boat Race'. This is not your ordinary race, it's a competition in which it's cool to be fast but almost cooler to be goofy. The teams get 4 hours to assemble their craft on the lawn at Maffeo Sutton park on the waterfront. Luckily, it's ok to pre-fabricate parts that will be assembled on the fateful day.

Sound like fun? It is. I spent in excess of two dozen hours last week designing and making parts for my 'Crimson Coast Cruiser'. From 3D model to dimensioned CAD drawings to routered and sawn parts to finished product. The boat went together on Sunday almost without incident and floated and moved with decent speed and helped win our team 'Sillyest Sailors' as well as the front page of the local newspaper.

Hula for the masses (Jul 13th, 2006)

It seems unlikely that such great audiences would gather to watch a lone hula dancer doesn't it? Well, you've never seen Willow hula hoop obviously.

All shananigans aside, there was a greater reason those people were gathered in Duncan's Market Square this evening. Shane Philip put on another one of his dance inducing concerts for all to share. The crowd at this event, unfortunately, would probably have broken a hip or two had they tried to dance. Why were they so 'mature' you ask ... well .... I don't really know. Are there not young people in Duncan?

The Vast Island Forests (Jul 12th, 2006)

Looking out at hectares upon hectares of forested land earlier today gave me the sense that on Vancouver Island, we're doing ok. I've read figures in the past that seem to indicate that over 75% of our forests have been logged but I guess that figure doesn't take into account the amount of second growth that has regrown. From the top of Mt. Benson all you can see is forest in every direction (except for the settlement they call Nanaimo, of course).

For the love of the sea (Jul 11th, 2006)

After two nights of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks (the most recent of which was truly kickass!) I was more than ready to set sail for the George Strait with my bro and his borrowed vessel, Topaz. Our trip (which, on a GPS, looked sorta like someone's handwriting) marks the first occasion of Leif at the command of a sailing vessel. The first of thousands surely.

Quadra Island Life (Jul 3rd, 2006)

There's many different levels of living in this part of the world. A bit of driving and two ferries can immerse any citygoer from Vancouver into a completely different culture on one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of Vancouver Island.

I'm not really a city person but I still love to escape from my world and dive into the relaxed lifestyle that takes place on one of the smaller islands. This weekend it was Quadra Island, off the coast of Campbell River. It's home to my grandparents and I've been there many times before. This weekend, in addition to the visiting, I enjoyed two concerts, some kayaking and a fire dancing show.