Welcome to my World on the Sunshine Coast in Beautiful British Columbia. This is a little gallery I made up of a Day on the Drive. Now, if you’re a Vancouver reader, you probably think The Drive is referring to Commercial Drive…and you’d be half-right.

But here in Sechelt, for those of us living on Stalashen Drive, this too, is The Drive. You might have guessed we’re being a tad ironic, what with Stalashen Drive being a short little dead end beach road.  But it seems to me that it embodies much of what I appreciate on Commercial Drive, that is, the richness of  diverse and interesting people  and…okay… that’s all we have. No shops, no shoe stores, no commercial stuff, just the beach and trees and eagles and snorking sea lions.

Wait! There is a fantastic exception to this list. There’s the wonderful rolling truck bistro in Davis Bay, which is a close enough walk that we can loosely call it part of The Drive.

But before I wax on about why you MUST eat at the Feastro Truck on Davis Bay, I’ll tell you what usually happens on Friday around here.

Friday is Trail Therapy day. This means that we leave The Drive about 8:30-ish and at least two, sometimes four, though yesterday, it was five of us will drive up to the Triangle Lake Trailhead where we might meet one, or two, or sometimes, three more hikers. We hike at a very decent pace to the top where we can look out over the little prehistoric marshy lake below and then we blast back.

It is an explosion of green on this well-worn trail. There are luminous mosses, unfurling ferns, sometimes a little bear scat and we’ve even crossed paths with a cougar.

But mostly it’s just a type of oxygen that feels like the molecules must be super-saturated with freshness and all that rampant photosynthesizing. And depending on the group dynamic that day, the talk can be nothing but a bit of a panting chat, a belly-shaking bunch of laughs or it can be ephiphanous and therapeutic.  But I know that it’s all really good. There is a special exhaustion and restorative effect going on when you’re with friends and working your way through the natural world.

In fact, the studies support this. If you want to read more about why you should get out and become intimate with Mama Nature, check this link out. Or this great piece from one of my favourite blogs, The Frontal Cortex…

Which brings us to the panko-crusted Fanny Bay oysters served on the bed of Henry Reed organic greens and garnished with truck-made cocktail sauce. You knew I’d get back to that bistro truck eventually right?

I’ve declared this our new Friday tradition for dinner. We’ve eaten three different times at this feast on wheels. Everytime we try to find new superlatives to describe the experience.  The food is exceptional, but there is also different joy afoot in the instant community that is created as people sit on the steps to the beach or driftwood logs or the park benches and tuck into crinkly sweet potatoe fries with chipotle aioli. Or like we did last night; Bonzai prawns sauteed in white wine, garlic, tomatoes, lemon and served on basmatic rice with black oats and barley grains thrown in for an added crunchy and exquisite surprise.  

I hereby declare that if yesterday had been my last day on the planet, it would have been a fitting and fabulous ending. But check it out! I’m still alive.