Sand, Salt and Salmon

Hubby and I went to see the sand sculptures in Parksville today. Tomorrow is the last day of the exhibition, and the weather was fine, so we thought we'd  go while we had the chance. Here are some photos for those of you who couldn't make it to the event.  Enjoy!

We were greeted with a smile.

Footprints in the sand trap.

Egads!

Troll under the bridge.

If only every eagle would pose so nicely!

What's a sand sculpture competition without a sandcastle?

Or two?

Earth bender.  Got my vote!

Scaled creatures certainly seem to enjoy the sun.

After we admired the sculptures we walked the beach until we got to this point.

Seemed like a sign to head home.  We had to start thinking about dinner anyway.

We tried our newly-acquired Maple Smoked Rock Salt tonight.  Hubby rubbed organic canola oil and a scant 1/4 tsp of the salt on each side of wild Pacific sockeye salmon steaks.  He then barbequed the steaks for about 4 minutes a side.  Perfection.  I'm not ashamed to say I licked my plate clean; it was that good!  

She Scores Smoked Salt By The Sea Shore

There are many, many things I considered writing about today, but none of them excited me enough to sit down at my computer.  Instead I puttered around the house then headed off to do my grocery shopping.  

As always, my weekly excursion started at Brambles, and there it was.  Excitement in a zip-top bag for the low price of $5.95 - Maple Smoked Rock Salt. 

I first read about smoked salt over at Bryanna Grogan's blog.  She was using it as the base for homemade vegan bacon salt.  I was intrigued, but not intrigued enough to have a 25 pound bag of the stuff shipped up from Washington.  

Finding this little bag was just the incentive I needed to get me to my desk today.  It's produced by the Vancouver Island Salt Co.,and it smells delightful.  Kind of like a seaside campfire.  The few grains I tasted are smokey, but not overpowering.  I can't decide how to use it first. Oh, the possibilities!

The same company also produces Canadian Sea Salt.  According to their website the salt is "harvested from the cold Pacific waters of Vancouver Island BC".  Being from Windsor where salt is mined, I'd never thought of salt as being harvested before. Harvesting sounds much more earth-friendly and sustainable. I like that idea.  In fact, I like it so much that the sea salt is already on my grocery list for next week.