Tofino

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It's been a while since we've had a blog. Life has been fairly quiet lately and a lot of time has been spent in Vancouver. We had hoped to go to Nova Scotia at Christmas but that plan soon got squashed by over 50cm of snow falling in Vancouver which is a rarity. Add that to snow in Halifax and the fact that it's the busiest travel time of the year and you get the idea that going stand by definitely wasn't going to work. So home we stayed and enjoyed being snowed in, literally. We had a few snowy drives around Stanley Park and winter white wonderland trudges to the local pubs on Commercial Drive and that made up our holiday week. We did manage to make it out to our friend Mike and Jina's on Christmas Eve for the night, but the rest of the holidays were spent at home.

January was another quiet month but we did manage a trip away - hurrah! We used Mike's aeroplan miles that were about to expire and booked a couple of nights in Tofino. One of our favourite places and the location of our very first holiday together. Tofino is on the very West coast of Vancouver Island and is part of natural rainforest and sheer beauty. The land meets the ocean and beaches sit along side rocky crops and skyscraper trees. Peace and quiet abound and we certainly enjoyed a few days of solitude. We were even lucky with the weather. We left Vancouver on the 6:30am ferry and the drive up and over the island was great. The sun was shining and we arrived at noon. A picnic lunch in our room staved off hunger and soon Charlotte was out exploring the beach that was right on our doorstep. Mike had a quick nap. Later in the afternoon we drove into town. Tofino itself is not very large and consists of a harbour and and various shops, restaurants and hotels/motels and guesthouses. In January it is very, very quiet. A lot of the shops were closed. We drove through the residential part of town and found a trail that took us through the forest and down to a beach. It was a perfect spot for the sunset and we had a great time rummaging through the rocks looking at starfish, sea anenomes and mussels.

After the sun went down we made our way back to the car. Then it was a quick rest before heading to a restaurant which was new since our last visit to Tofino four years ago. Our early start meant we were tired and we enjoyed a good night's rest.

The next day was a little cloudier and we drove along the coast and enjoyed a great hike through the woods to another beach that we had not discovered before. The weather was a littler brisker than the day before and the wind was tossing the waves against the rocks and shoreline. Again, we enjoyed looking through the shells and objects that scattered the beach. Finding pebbles that were not made of stone, but wood! That evening we went to another pub and chilled out there and enjoyed some food before it was time for bed.

We left as early as possible the next day as it's a three to four hour drive over the island back to Nanaimo for the ferry. Unfortunately we just missed one ferry and drove another 15 minutes to another ferry terminal and were lucky enough to be the last car on. We were even more lucky as when we arrived in Vancouver there was a big delay due to a car fire on a ferry going the other way. We made it home late afternoon after enjoying a great weekend of peaceful bliss.

Hope everyone is well.

All our love xxx

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