Vacation is a marvelous thing. Even more impressive – no skunks! I’d almost forgotten what a skunk-free evening smelled like! It is glorious.

We arrived yesterday afternoon after a three-hour ferry ride. We got to the terminal with about 4 minutes to spare, and we only made it by foregoing gas and food and an ATM. Luckily, boat technology has come a long way since my last trip to the island some 11 years ago, and this time the ferry was equipped with a cafeteria so we didn’t have to resort to cannibalism before we landed at Long Harbour.

Once on Saltspring, we had some time to kill so we wandered around Ganges for a bit, picking up essentials for our stay: beer, wine, something wussy that I could drink, and a few groceries. We got to the resort early, but were able to check in anyway. The place is amazing; there’s a fireplace and the freezer was stocked with ice cubes and the mineral tub is incredible. I was delighted to see that the hairy man with the receding hairline was not in fact standard; he was nowhere to be seen in our chalet. Excellent.

For dinner last night we decided to check out a place in Ganges that had caught Ed’s eye called Oystercatchers. They don’t seem to have a website, but I assure you the restaurant is fully modernized with plumbing and everything. It was cozy and warm inside, and the food was both okay and incredible – our meals (various surf n’ turf-esq platters) were passable, but the appetizers were fucking amazing. We shared some freshly shucked oysters (because you can’t go to a place called Oystercatchers and not catch some oysters in your gullet) which were really really really good, and then there was this soup – some sort of whiskey crab soup that was in all honesty the best soup I’d ever tasted. I’d go back there in a heartbeat just for the soup alone. It was even better than the previous holder of the Awesomest Soup Ever title; the Crab and Guinness soup found at St. James Gate in Banff, Alberta. SO GOOD. O man. Might have to return and have it again. Yum.

We headed back to our chalet afterward to check out the tub, play with the fireplace, get drunk off wine (Ed), drink lots of Diet Coke out of a wine glass and pretend to be high society (me), and watch the first 3 episodes of Clone High on DVD. Also, there was humping. It too was excellent.

Today, Ed gets a hot stone massage at the spa – my surprise for him on this, our actual anniversary. I might partake of some sort of spa service myself, if they have an opening. There’s a beach across the street we want to check out, and if we’re feeling brave we might take a boat out on the water and see what happens.

So far, our trip has been great. I wish I could relax a little more; it’s very hard for me to forget that today is the day my Ominous Government Paperwork should be landing at my former Space Station and I expect the fallout to be mighty and far reaching. Maybe I can forget about it for a while if I take a mud bath. I like bathing; I like mud – what’s not to love?

Story of the ring coming soon, I promise!