Day 16 - Tofino

More rain is forecast so what do we wake up to? Yup, brilliant sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. Yippee!! Let's go exploring Tofino and the Pacific Rim coast.

First stop is down on our beach (Chesterman) because I want get some pics in the morning sun. I also spot the resident eagle sitting imperiously on the top of the tallest tree by the restaurant just cawing and watching for food. What a great sight.








Taking our local map, with some recommended beauty spots we head onto Hwy 4. First stop is the ranger station to purchase the park passes, then on to Radar Hill, an old Cold War Missile Early Warning station concrete bunker built on a hill. Now defunct, obviously, you can still go up to see the view and stand on top of the underground bunker. Sadly much of the view is hidden by the ever-growing trees but it's nice in the sunshine and also a pleasant and easy little walkway up there.

Next on to a quick stop to take a picture of Incinerator Rock. Just a rock in the sea on Long Beach. We then drive to the proper car park of Long Beach and take a walk along the beach, looking for flotsam, jetsam, sea shells and that really HIDEOUS seaweed that we found on our last visit. Hard to describe but a bunch of it looks like a giant's entrails. As I said, hideous!

We are feeling a tad peckish and head to Wickaninnish Beach (nowhere near the Wickaninnish Inn just to confuse things) where there is an Interpretive Centre and Cafe, both of which are shut. Not a soul in sight so bugger them, we're going to Ucluelet instead. First we decide to head down one more unexplored (for us) road. Off to Florencia Bay which is famous for a wreck of a ship in the 1800's and an amazing bit of the Temperate Rain Forest which makes up much of the Pacific Rim National Park.

On our way back, something mysterious prompts Carol to get the camera ready. 3 years ago along this stretch of the road almost we saw our very first black bear, only a baby one and too quick to hide in bushes before we could get a proper picture. Now, almost to the very day and time and about 250 metres away we turn the corner and see in the road again, yep a black bear. Larger than the tiddler we saw previously and the minute he sees us, begins to turn away. Carol clicks frantically and hopes she has the zoom at max and auto focus working. We await to see the pics later with everything crossed.

 The excitement is such that we miss the lunch break and head straight to the very end of Ucluelet where we take a 2 km walk along the Wild Pacific Trail and take hundreds of photos of the wild Pacific Ocean.

Glorious views, warm sunshine (it's finally T-shirt weather) and a nice little hike (quite challenging in places) to get back to the car. Takes us around an hour to complete it and we decided to skip any lunch and head back to the Wick Inn for Jim to have his massage with a very hot masseuse named Tara and Carol to soak in the big tub and "beautify" herself.

We dine at the Pointe Restaurant again. A new Spring menu with fabulous new dishes. Carol has smoked Arctic Char to start followed by AAA Alberta fillet steak, Jim the Crab with English Pea Panacotta and Halibut with English Peas and veg. White choc panacotta to follow, wine and coffee and brandy - all very nice.

Early bed for Jim while Carol packs. On the road again tomorrow.

Day 15 - Tofino

Carol wakes at 4.12 a.m., a pattern of early rising that she cannot seem to shake off on this holiday. All attempts to drop off again are thwarted by an overactive brain so she stays up, drinks tea, adds more notes to the blog and generally waits for Jim to wake up, who seems to be having no trouble sleeping in because he was up late due to indigestion from our rather gorgeously over-indulgent dinner the night before.

The rain it still falleth though, but undeterred by this and thanks to the Wickaninnish Inn's supply of free bright yellow waterproof jackets, waterproof trousers and wellington boots we stride out along the sand as the rain gently pitter patters down on us. A really invigorating walk, taking shots of the waves, surfers and boats and saying hello to fellow weatherproofed walkers with their dogs and sticks and all the usual accompaniments to walking along a beach. We then see a sign saying "carving come in" - so we do and meet George who carves the most fantastic feathers out of wood, boxes and other native art. He's a great Canucks fan so we talk about Friday's game and their hopes for future rounds in the playoffs, then depart with a promise to possibly come back and buy one of his stunning feathers.
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Dumping our walking wet weather gear, we don our "shopping" wet weather gear and head into Tofino. First we book at table at the Schooner Inn Bistro for tonight, we've eaten here before and enjoyed it so decided to revisit. Then it's off to the Eagle Aerie Gallery for Carol to drool over the Roy Henry Vickers paintings and prints and where she finally gets to buy a framed repro of her favourite work of his, "Capilano". Jim seems fired with enthusiam for the works of art too and we end up buying two more, hopefully to go up the stairway of the hall when we redecorate. They will contrast nicely to the 3 Bill Reid prints in the newly painted spare bedroom.

We walk around Tofino in the wet for a while, have a mocha (the coffee choice of the holiday for us both) and eat a pulled pork sandwich (yummy olive bread for Carol, but not so yummy for "olive-hater" Jim!) and then pick up our "wrapped for travel" pictures from nice Aussie in gallery and head back to the hotel for Carol to meet her deadline time for a 2.45 massage. Herein follows a couple of hours of bliss for her. Steam bath first, foot soak and finally a 90 minute deep tissue body, head and face massage from a fantastic guy called Miloz (?). A trained reflexologist he was wonderful!. Carol came away relaxed and glowing. Jim has his tomorrow.

And now for the exciting stuff. I charged the camera batteries, updated the blog, and took some pics on the beach.
At 6.30 it's time for dinner in Tofino, which doesn't disappoint. Jim has very spicy hot prawns to start and Carol grilled oysters with spinach, bacon and lemon hollandaise - still not sold on the oyster thing you know! Then for main course Carol had Halibut Bawden Bay (halibut grilled with brie, mushrooms, prawns and a fabulous sauce) served with veg and rice and Jim had a New York (Sirloin) steak, peppercorn sauce, the creamiest mash ever and veg. Wine and water to drink, but no coffee and dessert tonight. Then back out in slightly less rain than before we head home to drink a coffee in the room.

Carol crashes at just gone 9 p.m. - it's been a looong day for her - and Jim follows pretty soon after her.

Tofino, even in the pouring rain, does not disappoint. It's been well worth coming back here.

Day 14 - Vancouver to Tofino

Get up fairly early for a light breakfast and finish off the packing. Check out at 9 a.m., because we think we'll need a fair amount of time to drive to Horseshoe Bay in the remnants of rush hour traffic and get there 30 mins before our Ferry. Actual result = arriving almost an hour before sailing and having plenty of time to park up and walk into the village and buy the Starbuck's flavour of the month coffee, Dark Cherry Mocha - yum yum!!

 Ferry sailing is smooth and quiet. In fact we're so used to it by now that we don't even move out of our chairs for most of the journey, preferring to get some rest as we both woke up early and have a longish drive ahead of us. Jim buys 2 new books to read and braves the wind to take a couple of photos just as we near Departure Bay, Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

A bonus is that it is a good few degrees warmer over here than on the mainland, and to celebrate we stop almost immediately for a lunch break at the Cactus Club Cafe for a lightish lunch, just a "light" salmon sandwich and salad and a burger - although we don't eat all the bread and Jim leaves most of his fries. The pint of Coke causes major burping for the next hour of the journey but did go down well with lunch!

 We turn off Hwy 19 and onto Hwy 4 to begin the slower but prettier route - just as the rain begins, and gets worse, and gets worse and gets worse. Apologies for the terrible photos, but it didn't stop the whole way. It hasn't stopped now either. Jim stopped at Tourist Info just outside Tofino and I thought he was going to get blown all the way back to Nanaimo!!





Arrived at The Wickaninnish Inn just before 4 pm to the sight of driving rain, gale force winds and crashing waves from the Pacific Ocean. It reminds us of a stormwatch break in Cornwall but with 10 times the ferocity. Methinks we will be needing the free bright yellow waterproof jackets, matching blue storm trousers and free wellies they give out for walks along the beach while we're here.
If we never have to leave our room again, who cares, it's amazing, with every comfort you could think of, double soaker bath tub, walk-in shower, scented candles, two gas fireplaces with real flames, a KETTLE for tea! The list goes on and so does Carol, taking pictures of all these delights. Oh and there's a "turn down" service so when we get back from our meal at The Pointe Restaurant over in the other part of the hotel, we come back to one of the two CD players on and Michael Buble singing soft jazz to us. Yep they give you free CD's, there's a library of books, mags and DVD's to take out. So it's off with the Buble, on with Sarah McClachlan and fill up that tub for a soak.

 The food at the restaurant was sublime. Jim had duck breast with various accompaniments and Carol the most wonderful pork dish ever. Pork loin accompanied by a slow-roasted piece of pork belly wrapped in Proscuittio and served with prunes and vegetables. But it was the desserts that completely won us over. Jim had white chocolate panacotta with blood orange sauce and frappe drink and fresh mandarin and Carol had 4 flavours of home made ice cream and sorbet - coffee and pistachio ice cream and melon and pink lady apple sorbet. To absolutely die for! They make all ice cream, butter and the most amazing flavoured bread themselves. We are so very glad we are going back to dine there on Weds again - Carol wants that panacotta!! Or does she want the ice cream again? Decisions decisions.



But now it's bed, a great big King size one crafted from cedar. Can't beat the Canadians and their love for wood. It's not as if they don't have enough of it - lost count of the amount of logging trucks we passed on the way here!

Sweet dreams everyone!

Day 13 - Vancouver Downtown

Good morning all, I'm feeling a bit more with it today, so let's see what mischief we can get up to.

Braving the overcast skies - more rain predicted - we head on over to Ambleside Park, North Vancouver, where the actors Michael and Lexa Shanks (from Stargate SG-1) are taking part in a charity walk to help the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. We have kindly offered to take pictures for Michael's Official Website and to show our support for such a worthy cause. Michael and Lexa very kindly pose for some pictures and even agree to Carol joining them for a couple of her "holiday snaps". They also spend some time chatting to us about both official website and personal stuff. We watch them depart and then wait in the pouring rain for them to come back. This takes a tad longer than we'd expected but as the progress is slowish and the rain not helping, understandable.

As they round the home straight they spot us and wave, Michael even replying to Jim's shout of "Where'd you go? Whistler???". We say our goodbyes and Jim and I head off to the hotel to dump our wet clothes and decide what to do for the rest of the day.

Hmmm I seem to remember that the Tapenade Bistro in Steveston does a good line in mussels (they come in fresh off the boat on a Tuesday and Saterday) and fritjes, complete with garlic mayonnaise. I wonder if they'll have any in?. Only one way to find out - drive James, drive!!

Yes they do! Quite possibly the best mussels and fritjes outside of Belgium - washed down with a glass of wine they make a great lunch. And the sun has come out here, it's now up to 15 deg C and the town is quite busy with tourists enjoying the warmer weather (when in doubt head south of downtown Van, it's always fairer and drier there).




We don't stop long, we've been to Steveston more times than we can count and know it like the back of our hand, so after a quick coffee and pee break in Starbucks we drive home.

The rest of the afternoon is spent packing (we drive to Tofino tomorrow and need an early departure time) and watching the Canucks finally closing out the first round of the playoffs - there is a god! We watch them beat the LA Kings 4-2 and duly celebrate whooping and a hollering around the room waving our playoff towels. Roll on Round 2 and the next victims!.

I chat to Monica who has arrived home in Aus safely, send her our exclusive to MSOL pics of our stalwart charity walkers and head to bed.

Day 12 - Vancouver Downtown

*******STOP PRESS!!*******

WE FORGOT THE BEAR SIGHTING!!


On the way back from Whistler on Thursday we had only been on the road for about 15 mins when I spotted a gushing waterfall on the right and drew everyone's attention to it. All of a sudden Michael Anne screams BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! and we see a black bear in the field beside the road, no more than 100 metres away, munching on something. WOW awesome. We now continue with the regular programming after this newsflash.

We arrive at the Sutton Place Hotel at 9.45 to pick up Monica and take her to the airport. This feels very strange arriving at YVR but not checking into BA for our flight home. Carol is proud that she does not cry but it is very sad saying goodbye to such a dear friend who lives such a long, long way from us. We cannot wait until we all meet up again.




A sad Jim and I drive back to Vancouver and decide to treat ourselves to a slap-up lunch at Joe Fortes. We leave the car at the hotel and walk up to Thurlow Street and tuck into a wonderful meal. Clam chowder and crab cakes to start, a duo of fish with Sockeye Salmon and Halibut, veggies, creamed spinach and sweet potato fries, washed down with chilled white wine. We go the whole hog and have dessert and coffee too.

Little surprise that we spend the rest of the afternoon sleeping and recovering! AND don't eat anything in the evening. Boy I'm stuffed. In fact it is a very quiet day all round, but much needed after all our sightseeing and gallivanting everywhere. I ring my auntie and let her know when we plan to visit her in the Okanagan and then ring my cousin in Vancouver too. Then it really is bed and another early night.

Day 11 - Vancouver Downtown

Another packed day with an early start. We pick up our friends and head along Highway 1 to Langley where we visit Paul Brown of Legends Memorabilia to do some MSOL business and catch up with a fellow ex-pat Brit. We also get the chance to look around his warehouse at some of the Stargate memorabilia he has for sale and the most excellent replica work that he does.

It's a bit of a short visit because we have to be back at the Harbour Air offices by 2 pm for our 2.30 pm Floatplane flight over Vancouver and the North Shore mountains.

It's not the best day (no sun) for it but thank goodness we picked that time as no sooner have we landed than the clouds come in and down comes the rain.

 It is a larger plane than we are used to, this one holds 10 passengers, oh yes and the pilot, I nearly forgot him.






 It was a bit bumpy over the mountains but Carol loves every minute of it, thank goodness for hypnotherapy. Michael Anne is a bit edgy as she has never been up in small plane before, but hey she is a real trooper and absolutely loves it.

 

 



The trip is wonderful, the view over Downtown Vancouver stunning and the mountains, still with some snow, fantastic. We all enjoy it immensely.






 We have a 2 hour window to "relax" per se before we head towards GM Place with all the other Canuck fans to watch the 5th game in the first round Playoffs against the LA Kings. Ice Hockey of course! We hope for a win, but are not over confident. The atmosphere is noisy, fun and when we find our seats right at the very back, really really exciting!

And boy, did we strike gold!...Canucks 7, LA Kings 2!! Our towels waving constantly (a Playoff tradition) and yelling ourselves hoarse with GO CANUCKS GO!!. A simply wonderful evening enjoyed by us all, but especially Monica as it was her very first EVER hockey game and what a way to go!

Tired but happy with all the other fans on the street we walk back to our hotels where I say goodbye to one friend who will be leaving early Saturday a.m. and arrange transport for Monica who will leave a little later the same day.

Bed and two very happy Canuck fans asleep.

Day 10 - Vancouver Downtown

An early start for breakfast and then drive to the Sutton Place Hotel to pick up Mon and Cats for a drive out to Whistler. First stop, Cypress Provincial Park to see the magnificent view of Downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park from the viewing platform and then a short drive further on up to the Olympic venue for all the "cool" winter sports - snowboarding, freestyle and that lunatic event the ski/snowboard cross, where 4 guys/gals hurtle themselves down the mountain, negotiating jumps and turns and trying not to crash out! When you see steepness of the slope you get to thinking that anyone who chooses to hurtle down that can't have both paddles in the water........MAD.

A few photo ops and a snowball fight between Mon and Cats (poor luvs haven't seen much snow in their lives coming from Melbourne and Florida respectively) and it is back on the road. The first thing we do is drive through a cloud (spooky). You just don't get to do that much in Maidstone.





 
We continue along the Sea to Sky Highway in glorious sunshine until we come to Shannon Falls. The 3rd highest waterfall in BC, it is stunning at this time of year and in full glorious flow. Greatly appreciated by our companions and always a pleasure for us to revisit. And a worthwhile loo break too!

Another hour along and we reach Whistler, which is still busy with a few skiers and snowboarders enjoying the last few days of the season and the usual Snowboard Festival stuff - cool free stuff being given out, loud music and lots of guys in board gear. Could be Newquay with snow!

A lunch break at the Old Spaghetti Factory is welcomed. It's chilly in Whistler and French Onion Soup, Clam Chowder, pasta and veal goes down well. As does the Coke and free fill ups (something I LOVE in North America)





We go up the mountain and play in the snow, freeze our arses off because it's still damn cold and windy up there and take many photo ops again. Then it's back down the mountain again in the gondola and a short stroll around the shops before we get in the car and head back. Jim didn't go visit the bobsleigh site, but saw it from the mountain - somehow it's not quite the same as when it's covered in snow and ice, it just looked like a long, swirly, concrete tube.

A lovely drive back in the evening sun gave us some great photo ops along the Highway and, tired after a long day, we said goodbye to the ladies and came back to the hotel for a quiet night in. No evening meal tonight, just a few snacks, a bit of TV and an early night.

Tomorrow is another busy day. We've scored tickets for the Canucks game and a ride in a floatplane. We need our energy levels on high!