How to end up with five Kiwi dinner guests you've never met before - in 8 simple steps

1. Have mutual friends (Megan and Justin) provide you and Guests 1 and 2 (Kelvin and Cynthia, from NZ; Kelvin is Justin's brother) with each others' contact details.

2. Make arrangements via email with Guests 1 and 2 for them to come and stay while passing through Vancouver.

3. Recall that another recently-met friend (Ruth from Gabriola Island weekend) mentioned having met Guests 1 and 2 in Vietnam 2.5 years ago. Invite her to dinner.

4. Receive phone call from friend saying that she will not be able to make it in time for dinner, but will pop in later. However, she has another friend (Lois, NZ-born local) who also met Guests 1 and 2 in Vietnam. Ask friend (Ruth) to extend invitation to her friend (Lois).

5. Receive phone call from friend of friend (Lois) accepting invitation, and mentioning that she has another couple (Eldon and Lauren, from NZ) boarding with her, and that they would also like to catch up with Guests 1 and 2 (Kelvin and Cynthia) at some stage. Ask friend of friend (Lois) to extend invitation to her boarders (Eldon and Lauren). Also learn at this stage that friend of friend (Lois) and her boarders (Eldon and Lauren) were all at recent Downunder BBQ, so despite complete non-recollection of this until they arrived in person for dinner, have in fact technically "met" them before, despite title of this blog post.

6. Receive phone call from friend of friend's boarders (Eldon and Lauren) accepting invitation.

7. Welcome five guests at various times leading up to dinner - Kelvin and Cynthia, then Eldon and Lauren, then Lois. Chat. Eat dinner. Chat. Eat dessert. Chat. Laugh. Enjoy company of new friends. Take photos. Lois leaves. Ruth arrives. Chat. Laugh. Take photos. All but Kelvin and Cynthia leave. Kelvin and Cynthia stay two nights and their company is throroughly enjoyed!

8. Ponder fantastically wonderful opportunity of meeting and making friends in this manner!!!!!

Our Kiwi dinner party, L-R: Lois, Cynthia, Kelvin, Eldon, Lauren, and Ben...



(Note inclusion of Kiwi fruit in dessert options - purchased before we even knew about the dinner party!)

Awesome!

Canadian Thanksgiving

Monday 12th October was a holiday for Canadian Thanksgiving. We were invited to the home of Doug and Loretta and their two daughters, Alana and Carla - along with Loretta's parents, Juanita (Loretta's sister), Shonna, Andrew, Ken, Janelle and Gerard. Celebrations started at 1pm and we didn't go home until about 9 hours later!

Table settings (placecards by Alana and Carla)...







Thanksgiving food (including the traditional turkey, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie!)...







Tucking in...



Post-dinner neighbourhood stroll...











Post-stroll leisure activites...







Needless to say, we throroughly enjoyed our first Thanksgiving!!

(American Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November - and we've been lucky enough to be invited to join in on that one, too!!)

Fall colours

This is what it looks like here at the moment...

And this is a cute car Ben saw whilst out taking the first few photos above...

Gabriola Island weekend, Part 3: Sunday

On Sunday, our three carloads headed from Gabriola Island back to Vancouver Island for the morning meeting, and then had lunch at Lorne and Michelle's home (Lorne is an Aussie; Michelle is Canadian). We were quite impressed that they invited ten people over for Sunday lunch when their third child was only four weeks old!!! We had a lovely time with them and their extremely cute kids...









Ruth, Ben and I were the last carload to head back to the mainland - on the 7pm ferry - and we spent some time wandering around at Pipers Point while we waited...

What a beautiful part of the world!

Gabriola Island weekend, Part 2: Beaches

After our kayaking expedition finished unexpectedly early on the Saturday we spent on Gabriola Island, the ten of us squeezed into John and Helene's 7-seater SUV and drove to Drumbeg Provincial Park on the south end of the island. This was a very pretty, deserted, rocky beach with purple starfish galore (and a few pink ones). I thought it was funny that Drumbeg Park was named after "the Scottish home of the land's former owner, Neil Stalker" - yep, definitely a wise marketing decision to NOT name it Stalker Park!!!

L-R below: Ben, me, Connie, Ruth, Heidi, Helene, John (seated), Stuart, Rosanne, Juanita...

L-R: Ruth, Connie, Heidi, me...

After a coffee break, we squeezed our group of 10 back into the available 7 seats and headed to another beach to watch the sun set. The view out to a little rocky island with a lighthouse and red and white buildings was simply adorable, but the wind was pretty nippy by that time so we were happy to head back to the B&B and whip up a feast for supper (Canadian meaning - i.e. tea/dinner) - lasagna, salads, and garlic bread!















And that was our introduction to Gabriola Island!

**To see lots more photos from our Gabriola Island weekend, please click here or on the link under "Our photo albums" (above right).**