August 14th: First Stop Saltspring

Caroni, Madeleine, and Naomi (Caroni's mom and Madeleine's Aunt) prepare dinner for the crowd.

We broke up the long drive to Ucluelet by stopping for the night at the welcoming Saltspring home of my brother-in-law and his family.  Despite already having two extra house guests,  and another two extra dinner guests, they had invited us without any concern.  I suspect my niece and her cousin of some sort of Hogwartsian magic.  When you're not looking the dining room table stretches, food multiplies on the countertop and if you listen carefully you can hear the "pop" as an extra bedroom bursts forth off a nearby wing of the house.

Their usual table of four was expanded to ten and we were treated to a wonderful meal of salmon, steak, a warm yam and potato salad, broad beans from the garden, a gourmet green salad and fruit crumble.  Keith shared his special recipe Sangria that he'd made up ahead of time, Mike made some Pisco sours and a bottle or two of wine magically emptied themselves.  When bedtime arrived we were directed to a most comfortable spot for the night, in the coveted "turret" room.