Hey, chaos can be relaxing.!

So... Saturday, we missed the ferry. We were there on time, but there were many more cars ahead of us than we anticipated so we missed the 9 a.m. by about 10 vehicles. No worries... next ferry was at 11:45 and we had books to read, a kids' play area for the kiddo and it wasn't raining.

Got to the campsite and found that the air mattress had no plug. Air goes in - air comes out. The giant tent we borrowed had no instructions in the bag and we hadn't done a dry run; the extra blankets I had pulled out to make up for the lack of one sleeping bag were still on the bed at home and there were a few other things missing due to lack of coordination (I thought you grabbed that...). Aside from venting some anger on tent pegs (since we chose to park in an RV spot, the ground was HARD) we just rolled with it, pitched the tent and headed into Ganges to the market.

Unexpected road work meant the short route from the campground to Ganges was closed, so we had to take the long way. This, plus the missed ferry and monster tent meant that we arrived at the market just as vendors were starting to pack up for the day. A quick hustle through the stalls netted us some sharp feta-like hard cheese (White Grace from Moonstruck Organic), two jars of amazing spice blends (Moroccan and Ethiopian from Monsoon Coast), two end-cuts of soap (in a grab bag from (I think) Kama Natural Soap -- they did not stamp or mark their bag or give me a receipt or card), some pickles (sorry, missed the vendor), and some very yummy Rainbow Potstickers for us and a blackberry-yogurt Island Fruitsicle for the kiddo.

From there it was back to the van where we found a cute little apology under our wiper. Hubby had parked between the lines but that meant parking reaaaaaalllly close to the bumper of the car angled into the spot on the driver's side. After depositing the goodies, we headed down to Thrifty Foods for some groceries to augment what we packed then opted to buy a replacement plug and cap for the air mattress and a new sleeping bag for the kid at the hardware store.

Back at camp, we settled in and started on dinner. Hubby whipped together some wonderful veggie-stuffed grilled peppers (secret ingredient: V-8 juice!) to accompany standard camp fare of hotdogs and not-so-standard pita with red-pepper dip and tzatziki.

After dinner we roasted marshmallows. Mmmmmmm.

An after-dinner walk along some of the rustic trails brought us to the edge of the island with a view of the ferries traversing the strait. Then it was back to the tent to read and drift off to sleep, early. It took a while to get comfortable but we awoke well-rested around 6:30 a.m. We had eaten and packed up camp by 8 a.m. and were able to take the short route into Ganges for coffeeeeeee, then on to Vesuvius for the ferry back through Crofton. Two more stops -- Russel Farm Market outside Crofton and fuel in Duncan, and we arrived home before luch.