On the 26th of August 2022, Erin and I decided that we would finally have a date day. It has been months (11) to be exact, that we’ve been able to go with just ourselves and do something fun for an afternoon. Erins mother (Janice) has been absolutely incredible since Caspian has been born. Taking Caspian on short notice, calling to see how he’s doing almost daily, showing up at our house just for a visit. And generally just being an incredible Grandmother. Genuinely loves Caspian and has taken a roll in his life that I could have only wished for. Janice relieved us of parental duties for a few hours.

I feel I need to also mention Rob Berry, Janice’s partner. Rob has taken on a roll of Caspian’s Grandfather . He is also amazing with our little man. He lights up with genuine excitement when Caspian is around. Rob takes Caspian all around the house up and down stairs, holds him on his lap, makes faces, tells stories, explains fishing TV shows. And gets down on the floor to play with him. Both Janice and Rob have been amazing for Caspian and I’m so happy they are in his life.

Since I have recently picked up the new to me hobby of metal detecting,, & I just received my new Vanquish 540 which I was dying to use over my 1 day off I asked Erin If she would be interested in doing a little beach combing.

To my surprise Se said “yes” She even asked her mom if she would take Caspian for a few hours while we went to a beach?

The plan came together and we decided to meet up with Erins mom for breakfast in Kingston so we would go to the beach with full stomachs. If your in the area. Eggsqui in Kingston is another great breakfast spot to try out.

Accueil

Ok after Breakfast Erins Mom and Caspian went their separate ways and Erin and I headed to Amherst Island to a beach on the west end of the island. The day had been forecasted to rain most of the day, but when I looked at the satellite forecast, it looked as if all the rain may just miss the beach we wanted to hit up. So we decided to give it a try anyway and when we got there, we pretty much had the entire beach to ourselves.

We had been to this beach before on a sunny day and it was absolutely jammed packed with beach goers. Being that I had been to this beach before I knew that it was also a very clean beach, so any targets we would be looking for, would be fairly close to the surface.

This was Erins first detecting outing so we took a few minutes to go over some basics. Then we spread out a bit and started our search for buried treasures. Both of our machines were going crazy right off the bat, and we had our shovels working hard, only to get a pull-tab and a bottle cap and they were hiding deep to.

It didn’t take long for Erin to realize that metal detecting, for the most part, is all about cleaning up the beach lol.

I could see some frustration in her eyes but I also knew that if she does find something interesting that all her initial thoughts would be wiped clean and she would start enjoying the hunt.

The first hour passed, we could see the rain off in the distance hitting the main land but we were to the south and had sunny skies. We decided to take a 5 minute break before we were back at it. I was getting anxious for her as I knew if this was going to be something Erin would want to do again that she would need to find some treasure and fast as we would need to leave in the next hour to go for dinner at grandmas and collect our son.

So it may not be the most romantic date to have after almost a year of never being able to just enjoy one another’s company alone, without child, but it is certainly something new, a hobby we might enjoy together. At least this was my thinking. Now only if Erin could find that special something that would get her hooked? I had only dug 2 coins and some garbage items that day.

Time pressed on and we were talking about heading back to the car shortly when Erin stopped dead in her tracks. She was swinging her coil meticulously and had a look of, “I havnt seen this number on the machine yet”

She slowly bent down and moved the sand around and as I walked over to her I said What is it? And she gave a yelp. “THERE IT IS” she said loudly.

As she bent down to pick up the item I saw a quick glimmer and she grabbed it up quickly with a huge smile on her face. It was a nice little silver chain and pendant.

We spent another couple minutes combing that part of the beach and then headed back to the car to catch the next ferry back to the main land.

Erin had had her first real experience metal detecting and it payed off with a nice find. Now she says she would definitely go again and we have a new hobby we can both enjoy together. All in all I would call that a very successful date day.