Why come to Live Life InTents? For the same reason I came here and stayed here, I guess. Because there’s no place like it. Because you can pitch your tent and stare out at the vast sky until dawn. Because the river is a stones throw away and you can glide down it on a tube. Because there are towering trees and rolling mountains and ocean waves that will capture your heart and make you never want to leave.

I thought since fossil hunting is becoming more popular these days and it is a great opportunity to spend some time on the beach, I would put together some information on our local history of fossil hunting and where you can do this yourself!

In February my friend and I did a four day trek through the Rwenzori mountains that border Uganda and the Congo. For four days we did nothing but hike, laugh, eat, splash in icy rivers, stand wide eyed at the sleeping beasts of mountains around us. We were sweaty and muddy, miles away from cell service. We squatted over holes in the ground for the bathroom and warmed water over a fire for bucket showers. We stood under a sky blanketed by the brightest stars I have ever seen and we fell asleep at 9pm, laughing until we couldn’t stay awake anymore.

As a company, we love to show people the great outdoors and offer the opportunity to explore locally. The outdoors, as we know it, is a place to learn and grow, to go on wild adventures, meet new people and push outside of your comfort zone. While it’s great to talk about our side of it, we want to invite others to share their stories; why they go outside, what it has taught them, tall tales from mountaintops and riverbanks. We want to create a space for people to be raw and honest, a spot right here to share and learn. Today’s post comes from Cheryl MacLennan, someone who was raised exploring Cape Breton and carries that spirit of exploration all over the United Kingdom, where she has lived for the last 16 years.

For those who love to collect colourful sea glass, these are four beaches around our island where you can find plenty!

And then I see the woman wave her hand for her friend to join her. She’s still dancing and laughing and she’s wiggling her fingers at a friend. The friend stands up, starts dancing, makes her way toward her friend and they dance out of view. I look behind me and see that others have started to dance where they are, with their groups, in their spots. I think about how this has been such a longtime coming. We’ve been waiting for months to hug our friends and go to concerts and, my gosh, to just dance.

Sometimes it’s so easy to congratulate a benchmark in other peoples lives when that benchmark is tangible: a ring, a graduation certificate, a birthday, the purchase of a house. But it had me thinking about how many things we don’t celebrate. How many milestones are people passing every day with a Goliath-sized strength and that we don’t even applaud?

We’re coming out the other side of a long year and a half (I think I’ve been saying that for months but hey, a girl can only hope), and there are some things worth celebrating, here. Things that don’t have a nice ring on it or a piece of paper to acknowledge all of the hard work.