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Published: March 23rd 2005
"It never rains in California..." Horse puckies. Actually it doesn't stop raining in California. Except when it's snowing! There really is something about being Canadian and having to find the snow - even in California.
I'll begin at the beginning.
Had a fabulous sunny day in Tofino, BC last Thursday. Haven't seen the sun since. We all did some beachcombing and identifying various different wee animals in intertidal pools and such. Susan says she saw a seal bob it's head out of the water offshore but the rest of us had to satisfy ourselves with various decidedly non-mammalian species. Drove back across the island in the afternoon and stayed at Duncan overnight. We did the free tour of the totem poles in town on Friday morning. The "tour" turned out to be self-guided by following the yellow footprints around town. Most were fairly short, uncolourful and unimpressive - even the 'world's widest' totem pole which looks unfinished. Funniest thing was a woman walking around town with a chagrined male companion and a lamb in her arms with a diaper on. Yes,on the animal, not the obviously crazed woman. Although she might have too, I'm not sure, come to think of it...
Drove to Victoria. Spent most of the day in the Royal BC Museum and Imax theatre. Great displays. Found my grandmother's cousin's senior's home and dropped in to say hello. A wonderful woman - still very sharp and witty at 92. The address I had for our hotel was George Road which did not exist on our map of Victoria. Had to look it up in the yellow pages and phone. Turns out it was on Gorge Road. Had a picnic supper during a momentary partial lull in the rain at Willows Beach in Oak Bay entertained by dogs tearing around the beach and adjacent park utterly ignoring their owners' calls. Saturday we toured Victoria and then braved the rain to see "Mile 0" - the westernmost end of the Trans-Canada Highway - and Beacon Hill Park. Drove out to Butchart Gardens and walked around in the rain - but they had umbrellas!! What a brilliant idea. They have stations every 500 metres or so around the gardens with piles of umbrellas that you can borrow. So we walked around all the gardens for almost 2 hours even though it poured most of the time. Splurged and had "high tea" in their dining room which was more like a greenhouse. They bring you a large pot of tea each and towers of pastries and sandwiches with the crusts cut off and all that and you pretend you are royalty at a teaparty. Renee was right in her element.
That evening we caught the ferry back to the mainland. On Sunday we met my friend Kevin Lyseng and his 4-year old daughter again and spent the afternoon at the Museum of Anthropology and adjacent grounds. Great to have our own guided tour (a real one this time - not yellow footprints on the ground) courtesy of my long-time buddy. Met his wife Shannon and their other child at supper for a last hurrah before heading back to the hotel. Monday morning we made our way to the airport and flew to San Fran. Susan's cousin Maggie Leslie picked us up and took as to their home in Mountain View. Had a great homecooked meal with them. Tuesday morning after the requisite schooling of the kids we were off with Mags to find quick-dry shorts for them. Not that it appears they are going to be able to use them until we leave California... After lunch in a cute little Meditteranean restaurant Mags dropped us at the car rental place and we drove through horrendous rain and traffic to Oakhurst near the gates of Yosemite National Park.
This morning we started to drive up into the park. The rain turned to snow. We got about 7km before being waved over and told we had to have chains on our tires to continue. Then we heard the road ahead was closed anyway and that a tractor trailer had jackknifed. So we turned around. Spent most of the day around Bass Lake just south of the park. Found one great interpretive hiking trail which was only washed out by two creeks newly carved out of the hillside this week due to the infinite rain. We blazed new trails so that we could find spots where we could jump over the creeks without getting any more wet than we already were. We have discovered over the last few days that the real beauty of quick-dry clothes is not that you can clean them in the motel room in the evening and they will dry by morning. No, the real beauty of these clothes is that even if you have hiked in the rain for hours you hop into the car or go inside and within an hour or so they are dry right on your bod. So the kids are back in the indoor pool here at the motel in Oakhurst for the second time. Me, I've had enough water. I can hear it still pouring down outside.
Forecast for tomorrow - rain - and snow. Wish us luck...
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Send the rain our way!
- Ian