And now for the happy thoughts

Thoughts below notwithstanding, us Canadians are a very lucky bunch to have our May long weekend. It usually serves as the formal entrance to summer, and is best spent outdoors.

A group of us are very fortunate to have started an annual tradition involving camping out on a good friend's mother's property facing the ocean during this weekend. As if spending the weekend on a sparsely populated lush little island is not enough, we tend to throw some ocean exploring (yes! more tide pools!), gorging on delicious food (we cooked up almost 40 crab this year), playing loads of random games (how long has it been since you had a three-legged race?), and near pickling ourselves in alcohol.

Some trip highlights:

An excursion to a beach well known for its oysters...


... which we mixed into shots and BBQ'd in mass amounts later on.
I know many people are grossed out by oysters, but I find them pretty damn tasty!


It apparently is also the place for purple starfish orgies.
I held one! It was remarkably unsquishy!



That night we had the Island Olympics, complete with trash-talking and face paint. My team came in second in our round, as we were pretty good at egg-carrying and popping balloons that were held to our teammates' behinds by pelvic thrusting them, but a little slow on the three-legged race. I also managed to hold my own in the beer chugging portion, which is shocking because I'm a sworn girlie-drink lover (the more umbrellas the better!) and a lightweight when it comes to beer.

Later on that night we managed to fit thirteen people into a six person hot tub. You can see how hijinks may have ensued as described below... no, not like the hijinks the starfish above were engaging in.

The next night, before a rousing full-tournament of beer bong and late night walks to the pier, we engaged in a new sport our host dubbed "schlong bowling". As you can see in the (half) picture of the Duke and I below, this involves onions in panty hose and vigorous hip thrusting to roll a potato past the finish line.

The Duke is a huge schlong bowling cheater. He acted perplexed when the race was completed, claiming there was nothing in the rule book about being forbidden to push your opponent.

The Duke and I, owning no tents between us, ended up relegated into a tiny pup-tent. We were redeemed by the fact that it was a very water-resistant pup-tent, unlike the palaces of some of our companions.



The one thing that shocked me was the complacency that hangovers supposedly bring. Here we are, on a gorgeous island, the sun is finally out... and people want to sit on the balcony and play cards, rather than exploring. These, coincedentally, were the same people who didn't share my glee at seeing a seal.

However, a group of us did do some more beach exploring. Mud be damned (though it did do a number on my pretty toenails)!


We even found spare ship parts.


The Duke and I also took some time out and visited some secluded areas, including this great old church where some friends are getting married next summer.


We had some visitors while we were there.


And, finally, the ferry ride home...


It is a bit of a culture shock to so quickly be immersed back into the hustle and bustle of the city, especially when it was so easy to forget in the first place.