What is this?

This is a chance to hang out in Nova Scotia at some week long combination of friends thanksgiving, summer camp / dorm living, and family vacation - with a dash of birthday party.

More about the event

The idea was triggered by deciding it was going to work best to host Jan's 50th birthday party in the summer, and grew as we thought about all the folks we would like to share "our valley" with. As events get large there is a revelry and fun energy to them - at the same time it gets hard to visit or connect. So then it became a week long activity 🤷.

The only real theme we could think of was "people we knew and wanted to hang out with" - hence the title "You know Craig and Jan, Right?" in the sense of starting a story; and a sentence that ends with "well they have moved out no Nova Scotia..." and goes on from there. And honestly us knowing folks coming is mostly just a guideline... if you think someone might like the area or what is described bring them along.

Our experience vacationing in bigger groups suggests having flexibility and everyone sharing their thinking are important approaches to make it successful. So in the spirit of sharing thinking: the event is organized with the idea of camping for those interested (tenting or RV etc) - though there are some also some buildings on the site where we could sort out mattresses in some of the big common areas to really maximize the sleep over vibe. And then having a series of activities around the area people can join - or stay on the site and sit back for food, conversation, music, campfires, movies etc. Generally stuff happening most of the time, some of it prescheduled - but most of us need quiet recharge time on our own too - so the expectation is people will dip in and out of most of the activities and that we will all generally keep folks posted for group events. Imagining we might get to a group of 50 plus joining for parts of this and that there will be kids and dogs and auntys and more.

The most structured part of the event will be Saturday, 2026-07-18 where we will host a TaskMaster-esque set of events you can join or watch or facilitate (and ideally help us film!) as part of celebrating Jan! 2025-12-29 was Jan's 50th birthday and so we are going with the "unbirthday" theme and making the Saturday a birthday party style event.

Otherwise there is stuff going on in the summer in this area - the dates were selected so people could opt into a FODAR. Plus the Nova Scotia license plate calls us the "ocean playground" and there is a lot of nice natural spaces and outdoor activities you can join in.