Nanaimo & Caving

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Yesterday Danielle and I went in search of a new down-jacket in downtown Victoria (failed) and had a look around the city. It was semi good weather (not raining and around 7 degrees) so it was a pretty good day, minus the parking ticket.
This morning I woke up and Danielle and I headed to Nanaimo, Parksville (around 2 1/2 hours away on the east coast of the island) and then some caves along a 12km gravel road. We had a picnic lunch (inside the car with the heat roaring) before hiring some helmets with lights and then hiked to the caves. It was quite different from Victoria as the snow was still covering the ground, more like what I became used to in Aspen. The cave entrance was really small. Danielle and I both tested the lights before we went in, mine failed but it was a long way back so we just decided we would cope. We went in about 20m, climbed around a little and then got semi-lost before retracing our steps. There were proper tours in other caves but this 'self guided' tour was free so we had decided to do it. We enjoyed the experience but failed to get a refund on the failed light. We stopped a few times on the way home for Starbucks (on every 2nd corner here) and photos I decided needed to be taken. The weather was pretty hideous today, around freezing at the caves and dangerously foggy on the way there and home.
We plan to go to an African restauraunt for dinner tomorrow night but other than that don't have a lot planned until next week.
Hopefully on Monday- Wednesday next week we are going to take the ferry to Seattle and be in the USA for Obama's inauguration. Nothing is booked yet but it would be really cool if we could organise it all in time.
We also plan to go on a trip to Tofino, around five hours away from here. It's on my travel list so would be really good if we could tick it off, apparently the storms there are very impressive at this time of year. I'm not sure when this would happen yet.
Keep safe
Katherine

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