Ella Rose learns the marimba from Fahlon

We love the Craig Street Market in Parksville. So many great things to see, buy and eat! Also hear. We fell in love with the local youth group Kumbana Marimba, led by sisters Fahlon and Jasmine Smith from Errington. They play traditional African music along with some South American tunes for a fresh, upbeat, world music sound.

The group formed in 2009 and has an energetic group of young people playing. The not only perform around BC, but they also teach classes. Ella Rose, 7, wanted to try it out and Fahlon was a fantastic teacher. We got some good sounds coming from the various sized marimbas.

Fahlon encourages all ages to check it marimbas – and she has private sessions. Prices are not crazy (group class is like five bucks). The kids were having such fun playing music and talking about how to make the song complete. You can see the excitement in their eyes and hear it in the music. Phone Fahlon at 250-951-9886 to get your marimba on!

And it wasn’t just the Saturday morning farmer’s market, or the great kids stores – they had a blast touring the art galleries (obeying the no running, no touching rules as they went!), finding their way through one of the most unusual hardware stores you’ll ever see and sipping a cool drink under the branches (literally) of the Tree House Cafe.

Then we discovered a very special way of seeing Salt Spring and the surrounding islands – a sight-seeing excursion with Salt Spring Air.  Now the kids love it when we occasionally take a seaplane over to Vancouver, but that’s mostly water-seeing.  On this tour of Salt Spring, you circle the island at low enough altitude to really take in the magnificent scenery, homes, and some of the surrounding islands.  The take-off and landing from the harbour at Ganges is great fun in itself!  Our pilot Harold Kirkpatrick was really helpful (you’re wearing headsets so you can easily hear) in describing what we were seeing.  The cost is quite reasonable when you can get a group of 4 to 6 people, and they have lots of other tours available as well.

After the girls went gah-gah over Emilee’s goo-goo’s it was time to explore.  That meant the concession stand first because a morning of marketing requires fueling up on popsicles and giant cookies.  I went for one of the cinammon buns that every other person seemed to be eating (now I know why!)  David – who’s two – tested the 10 second rule a couple of times with his popsicle, and Ella was happy to pick it up and brush it off for him (for a child who’s very particular, she’s never been very particular about food on the ground).

Errington has plenty of space in the field next to the market, so you can lay down a couple of blankets (I chose to lay down with them) and enjoy the great music from their fab new bandshell while the kids run around and burn off their treats.  I suggested a bandshell for our backyard, but before George could suggest anything back, Grace pointed out that we didn’t need one because it’s easy to drive to Errington.  Bless her young, irony-free heart.

Then it was off to the market stalls.  I suspect there may be some magpie somewhere in George’s family tree because our girls flitted from shiny object to shiny object at the jewellery tables.  There was a wide range of styles and one table in particular featured some amazing pieces by two young girls.  Then there were the hats, and of course the baking.  None of this was impressing David, until he pointed to the brightly-coloured hoola-hoops.  We’re not talking about the plastic kind the girls have had in the past, but properly weighted, hand-made hoola-hoops.  The moment she tried one, Grace could tell she’d never really been hoola-hooping before.  We’ll take two, I said.

A few plants, vegetables, and another cinammon bun later and we were ready to head home, but we’ll be sure to head back to Errington the next chance we get.  It’s not very far, as Grace says.