Mussels and Dates

On Friday we set out to visit a beach on the West Coast to hunt for mussels. The day was chilly and clouds covered the sky but we were determined to spend some time pillaging the sea. I've always had this romantic idea of living off the land and Vancouver Island would be the perfect place since there's an abundance of edible plants and sea life. With shovels, knives, and buckets in tow, we trudged along on the beach up to the gnarled granite point. The deep blue mussels looked like teeth ready to tear us to shreds as we hacked at the fibres attached to the shells. The tide was on its way in licking at out ankles as if it was trying to sweep us out to sea with each wave. We stayed until the tide almost trapped us on the other side.

My sis and me

On our way home we were invited to a fun date put on by the super fun Schafers. The mom, Kirsten, is a McKay and if you any of you are familiar with the McKays you'll know they are always doing wacky things. Well, two of the Shafer children decided to design a fun date for their parents and friends. There were 4 couples and we had no idea was going on. First we were asked questions like, "where was your second kiss?". We all answered incorrectly. Then we had to play paper-rock-scissors to see who got to choose first. Choose what? We still had no idea. After they pulled out some sad looking inflatable tubes and dingies, some of which were half inflated with carrots used to plug the airways!  Our mission: To catch Daylin in the canoe.

It was still a chilly day and we were worried about getting cold swimming in our clothes. Of course, we were not told what was going to happen, so we decided that we would freak out the kids, telling them that we were going to swim naked because we wanted dry clothes to wear. It wasn't until the guys had their shirts off that Alyssa, the daughter, started to get worried. It was fun scaring them!

It was a sight to see us struggling in the water screeching and laughing trying to catch the canoe. Once we had made a spectacle of ourselves Daylin and Alyssa provided us with a yummy lasagne. It was such a fun and random activity, I loved it!! Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of the evenings activities.

Note: the pictures haven't been taken by me, it's great to share the burden with family!

With Love -  Dana!