I have to give credit to Mary Letson for putting the words “The Best of Bowen” in my ear. It has such a ring to it, that I just can’t get it out of my head, and I know that every week I will encounter at least one story on this island and think, “Now that is the best of Bowen.”
Two weeks ago when I met and spoke with our young student athletes, those words were ringing in my ear. I was buoyed by their energy. No doubt, the same can be said for all the graduates who made an appearance in the same issue.
And it’s taken a while to come down from the weekend of June 14th. If you weren’t here, or if you happened to have stayed hidden away in your own little world (which can be wonderful too, especially your own little Bowen world) you will have missed feeling the energy of this place on that weekend. Sleepy little town? Think again. Bowen came alive. We hosted, I am sure, hundreds of visitors.
Let’s just look at the numbers: at least 130 boats sailed in the Round Bowen Race; the Taste of Bowen sold out, with more than half of tickets going to people from off-Island, and I don’t have a number but I know there were a fleet of visitors for the Round Bowen Challenge on the Sunday. The Nature Dive brought in a legion of volunteers, many of them marine biology graduate students from UBC who, I’m told, relished the opportunity to share their passion with the curious participants at the event. And let’s not leave out the five who came for my birthday.
I’m ready to move on from that weekend now that I’ve squeezed in the quick recap but I thought it was worth noting as part of the best of Bowen. One of the stand-up paddle boarders who participated in the Round Bowen Challenge says the race has brought him to Bowen three years in a row now and will continue to do so. In the meantime he’s contemplating a paddle over from Vancouver with friends to stay the weekend.
“I don’t get why more people don’t go to Bowen,” Harry Saini told me. “It’s an Island and it is RIGHT THERE. You don’t even need a car.”
Once someone gets a taste of the Best of Bowen, they’ll keep coming back. Sometimes they’ll even stay (like I did.)
