Savary Island

Early, early, so ridiculously early on Saturday July 9th the Jinks crew loaded up the truck and headed out to start their Savary Island Vacation.  We boarded the Horseshoe Bay ferry for 7:30 departure and were on our way.

The kids were so excited they could hardly sleep, and then so excited we could hardly get them to focus that morning at 5:45 am, with such questions as 'why do garbage bags come rolled up in this little container' 'what is tinfoil made of' 'when we go back to school can I get a new lunch bag?'  We responded while gritting our teeth as to what any of that had to do with finding your shoes and getting in the truck??

On our way we met with Christina, Jon, Sienna and Tristan on the ferry and started our journey.  The kids discovered the arcade and due to a glitch were able to play about 200+ games on a single loonie, they as well as we were in heaven.  From there we drove to Saltery Bay to catch a ferry to Earles Cove and finally a short drive to Lund BC.  Once in Lund we had lunch at the local fish and chips place while waiting for our scheduled Water/Land taxi.

Fully organized and loaded onto the water taxi we headed to Savary Island and Island life.  The cabin was amazing, truly Glamping at it's finest.  The main cabin had two bedrooms and a loft, kitchen, bathroom, living room and a massive dining table that sat eight.  Outside all connected by a deck was a sleeper cabin as well as some outdoor showers and finally another sleeper cabin with half bath and small kitchenette.  The girls claimed the cabin with the half bath and kitchenette, Trish and Adam had the sleeper cabin and Jon and Christina stayed in the main cabin with the boys.  And so began the great battle between siblings, the older sisters wanting nothing to do with pesky younger brothers and the younger brothers wanting nothing more than to annoy their older sisters (as is the nature of things).

The kids were set loose on their bikes to explore and managed to bike all the way to the other end of the Island in search of the Sugar Shack, not finding it turned around and headed back and found it on the way home.  Their money spent and bags worth of sugar attached they biked home to show us their goods.  Some of it was hidden away and subsequently stolen with only empty wrappers left suspiciously near the boys room.

Trish had brought beads and elastics along with the promise to Samantha to braid and bead her head, a few days into the trip both Sienna and Samantha were sporting a full head of beaded braids and looking like little warrior princess's.

Many days were spent at the beaches, the sand was endless the crabs numerous and opportunities to just sit back and chill were countless.  There was fort building, sand castle building, sand ship building and sinking, crab catching and releasing to be had at the beach.  At the pier Jon and Adam had set up some crab traps which didn't work out quite as planned but an early trip to a rocky beach proved fruitful and we were able to feast on fresh oysters and clams for dinner.

On Tuesday there was a farmers market that we all went to.  It was almost quite a shock to see so many people (maybe 100) in the same location.  We bought some fresh produce, stole licks from the kids ice creams and enjoyed the afternoon.  Adam, Jon and the kids went down to the pier to check on the crab traps and so began the jumping of the pier.  Jon was the only one to jump this day, the rest of us would soon follow.

Wednesday was the day of Wipe Outs.  First up was Oliver, slammed himself hard into the ground and scrapped up his knee pretty bad and hurt his arm.  Some ice for the arm and knee, some gauze and bandaids and make shift sling and all seemed well.  Took him about a day to recuperate and then he was up and running around and wreaking havoc.   Later that afternoon Samantha flip flopped her foots way into the spokes of her tire, Sienna stayed with her while Tristan made it back to the house to let us know.  She managed to bike home and after more bandaids and a protective sock made it out to the beach later that day to man a Sand Ship.

Jon and Adam had both jumped off the pier on the Monday and Tuesday earlier and we all somehow managed to get talked into jumping off the pier on Wednesday.  Even after their wipe outs Samantha and Oliver both jumped.  Samantha took some encouragement to build up confidence but did eventually go and then continued to want to jump.  Sienna was nervous as well but Christina said she would jump with her, on the count of three off went Christina while Sienna watched.  A few moments later Sienna made it into the water followed shortly by Trish and then Jon, Oliver went in as well even if his main goal was to show up the girls by just barely counting to three before jumping in.

Thursday was a main group family Beach Day.   This was the day of the great Sand Ship, Adam helped and dug out the majority of the hole, the girls, Tristan and sometimes Oliver helped out to create a large retaining wall along with some out circles or moats to be filled up first.  As the tide slowing came in there was much drama to save the ship with Tristan announcing that as the Captain of the ship he would stay with it to the end and kept asking if this was the time that he needed to faint/perish with the ship.

Thursday night was Karaoke at the local pub Riggers.  Trish and Christina managed to get the nerve up and sang a song and getting that out of the way managed to enjoy the rest of the night and entertainment.

Friday was a slower and more hectic day at the same time.  We managed to get some gift shopping in, beach time as well as packing and organizing and one heck of a nap as Oliver showed us how it is done on the Island.

We all got up earlier Saturday morning and started the great packing, our land taxi was coming to get us at 10:00.  We somehow managed to get it all done and sorted and tidied with perfect timing.  Once all loaded on the taxi we went down the pier where we had sent the kids in advance to get in that one last bike ride.  From there it was home, stopping in Costa Del Sol in Powell River for a little Mexican feast before finishing off our journey.

Somehow we all made it there, had a fabulous time and cannot wait to go back.  Time stood still for us that week and I think we all had a great vacation!