Our kids are Island kids through and through, always at the beach, going to farmer's markets, exploring the parks, and travelling the back roads. So when we told them we were going to visit another island, they were pretty ho-hum about it all.

But as we left the ferry and started driving around Saltspring Island, they got that this place is something special. It's all the things they love about the big island, but in concentrated form.

And it wasn't just the Saturday morning farmers' market, or the great kids stores; they had a blast touring the art galleries (obeying the no running, no touching rules as they went!), finding their way through one of the most unusual hardware stores you'll ever see and sipping a cool drink under the branches (literally) of the Tree House Cafe.

Then we discovered a very special way of seeing Saltspring and the surrounding islands: a sight-seeing excursion with Salt Spring Air. Now the kids love it when we occasionally take a seaplane over to Vancouver, but that's mostly water-seeing.

On this tour of Saltspring, you circle the island at low enough altitude to really take in the magnificent scenery, homes, and some of the surrounding islands.

The take-off and landing from the harbour at Ganges is great fun in itself! Our pilot Harold Kirkpatrick was really helpful (you're wearing headsets so you can easily hear) in describing what we were seeing.

The cost is quite reasonable when you can get a group of 4-6 people, and they have lots of other tours available.