We go fishing every year on Vancouver Island in British Columbia in a beautiful remote spot about halfway up the island called Telegraph Cove.



















During WWII it was a telegraph station, but has since been turned into a little resort that calls to fisherman for the fantastic salmon and halibut, and whalewatchers for the pods that call Johnstone Strait their home.

Our family has been going for 18 years now and it is a revered summer tradition.




















We usually bring back several hundred pounds of fish, mostly salmon, but this year we got a lot of halibut...and a few other interesting creatures as well!




















Being remote, it’s not the place where you might see more well known folks, like in Los Angeles, say, or New York...

So I’m walking along the boardwalk and I notice this lady and the thought crosses my mind “what a beautiful black woman”. I’m not trying to sound prejudice here; I love to look at different ethnic groups, as each have their own type of beauty. The feature that caught my attention were her beautiful eyes. She’s standing about three feet away from me reading a sign on one of the cabins. She looks slightly familiar, but I can’t place her so I continue on and go into our cabin. About two minutes later my mother-in-law excitedly enters the house...


“Guess who I just said hi to?”


“Who?”


“Oprah Winfrey!”


*gasp*


“That’s who that was!”


Yes, I was three feet away from Oprah Winfrey! While I didn’t get a picture of her to prove it, here’s the yacht she was staying on…


















Apparently the man who owns this yacht owns about half of British Columbia. He likes to bring in motivational speakers for his employee meetings, the likes of George H. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Oprah Winfrey…

Her boyfriend Steadman (sp?) and some of his friends went fishing with one of the guides here, (who happens to be one of our good friends, so we got the inside scoop). They caught a couple of small pinks (a type of salmon, not the best, but the rest weren't biting yet) and were thrilled as they had never caught a salmon before. Oprah enjoyed Telegraph Cove because she could walk around with some anonymity. Apparently while she was in Campbell River (about three hours down island) she was followed around and mobbed by crowds. We’re a little more reserved here (or just brain dead when it comes to spotting celebrities, I mean there are so many of them here in this remote part of the world).

Well that was the second celebrity I’ve seen in real life. I can't remember the name of the first one, but if I could you would know who it was. It's kind of a funny story. When I was in college I worked as a window washer. My boss had a few clients in Sundance (you know, Robert Redford’s place) so we went up to wash the windows of _________The funny part of the story is, my boss’s younger brother was working with us and as we drove up to the house, _______was standing outside with (I’m assuming) his girlfriend. My boss’s brother takes one look and his jaw just drops into his lap! ___________looks at my boss’s brother and drops his jaw. Then he starts laughing! It was hilarious!

So there it is, in my spare time I rub shoulders with celebrities…ok,ok, so didn’t rub shoulders with her, but still, she was only three feet away…I could have reached out and touched her!