Leaving the Island “Fishing” Paradise

 

Our time on Vancouver Island was coming to an end as we had our freezer full of fish, the golfing accomplished, and touring under our belts. We said our good-byes to the folks at the Seven Hills Golf Club, including Izzy’s buddy Harley. Steve connected with Jim one more time to say adios, eh and of course scratch Scooter behind his ears.

We pulled out August 12^th and headed down the road. We stopped at Qualicum Beach for a couple of nights as Pete and Gail said this was a place to see, especially the sand sculpting competition. We said why not!

Parksville is next to Qualicum Beach and was the host of the 31^st annual Canadian Open Sand Sculpting Competition. SIT ventured to the park to take in the sculptures. Little did we know they would be life-size or larger, and reminded me of the McCall Winter Carnival Ice Sculptures.  Well you get what I am trying to say.

We wandered around and were simply amazed at all of the sculptures, but mostly of the detail that went into each one.  They establish a theme each year for the competition and this year it is fairy tales.

The Theme for the Competition

 

You have the opportunity to vote for the people’s choice which was actually pretty darn tough.  It was truly hard to narrow it down to just one that you liked the best as so many of them were wonderful.

 

A True Sand Castle

 

This Will Make You Smile

 

A Magic Wall

The competition starts July 13 with them having to complete their sculpture by July 14^th. They are judged then and are on display through August 17^th. They are allowed to spray them with a solution to help with preventing erosion but they are not allowed to touch them up at all once completed.  We hit the park at the tail end of the competition but you didn’t really know it to look at the sculptures.

Made With Great Detail

 

The park is a great place to bring kids to cool off on a warm summer day. They have inner-woven water features with playground equipment. Pretty fun and it was all I could do to hold back both Izzy and Steve! They also have a beautiful bouquet of flowers!

Steve and Izzy bummed that they can't go play in the water

 

We managed to play a round of golf at the end of our sculpting adventure. The next day (August 14)we headed for the ferry and spent that night in Delta BC. From there our sites were set on Vancouver!