Vancouver Island!

We're back from Vancouver Island! What a beautiful place! We took the bus and ferry to Victoria and checked in to the Hosteling International Victoria. They had some coed dorms, so Nicole and I could actually sleep on the same bunk. Then we walked around town for a while, visiting the Wax Museum, and figuring out how we wanted to transport to Tofino. The wax museum was pretty well done. It has one of the most historic displays of any wax museum. Lots of well known figures such as the royal family, the leaders of the world, scientific greats, sports heroes, and even a display on historic torture methods. Pretty cool.
Victoria is quite a nice little city. Much like Ottawa, but even smaller. Very pretty. Turns out that renting a car for a couple of days was practically the same amount as taking the buses where we needed to go, so the following morning, we rented a Subaru Impreza, and got on our way to Tofino. We were finally able to get our Tim Hortons fix on the way. :)

The drive from Nanaimo to Tofino was beautiful. Lots of mountains and nice little towns. Even some peaks with traces of snow on them! The sun was shining and there were not many clouds.We drove straight through Pacific Rim National Park to Tofino. By the time we reached Tofino, it had mostly clouded over. We drove around town (which didn't take long) and then walked around town. Took some pictures of the sound and the hills rising out of it to the east of Tofino and visited many of the shops. Nice little town.

Then we went back to the Park and set up camp at our reserved site at the Green Point campground. Took a walk down from the campsite to Long Beach and walked on some rocks to look beyond to Combers Beach at sunset. Not much of a sunset, but still nice.Then back into town where we could only find expensive restaurants. So we went to the Schooner Restaurant and finally celebrated our 3-year. Jason had steak and Nicole had a curry and seafood dish. Both delicious. And our waitress was very nice, from Toronto gone surfer, and she knew Nicole's cousin, Jordan.

By the time we returned to the tent, it was raining. It rained much of the night. And all of the next day. We went to Surf Sister to see Jordan and had a nice chat. Then we went back through Pacific Rim to the little town of Ucluelet where we went on a short hike along the coast to see a lighthouse. Then a brief stop at Florencia Bay beach before heading back to Tofino. We picked up some pizza slices for dinner and then went back to the camp site. Still pouring with rain... We took down the tent and made a comfy sleeping area in the car with the back seats folded down. Worked out quite well but the tent was absolutely soaked...

Up at 4am to head back to Victoria. We wanted to get back to Vancouver in good time. So we packed up, left by 5, and drove through the pouring rain for 4 hours. On the winding roads, there were mini waterfalls all over the place pouring off the roadside cliffs into ditches, and several falling branches on the road. Crazy. But by the time we reached Nanaimo, the rain lessened and it was nice by the time we reached Victoria at 9.

Took the bus and ferry back to Vancouver and we were back at Melanie's by 2. We just had a mini Thanksgiving dinner with Melanie at Swiss Chalet! Followed by a movie (In the Valley of Elah) which was quite good. One last night with Melanie tonight and then we're heading back to Seattle and the rest of the mountainous USA. Our Chinese visas were sent in the mail while we were on the island, so we're good to go for China now. Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Victoria Pics | Tofino & Pacific Rim Pics