On Saturday morning, we left Whistler on the reverse Sky-to-Sea Hwy towards Nainaimo Bay to take the ferry across to Vancouver Island. It was an easy experience and quite nice to have the option to wait in the car during some of the ride – using our airplane neck pillows to catch some wink eye since we had to wake up at 6am, on a Saturday, while on vacation.
Once we unloaded from the ferry, we headed to Ucleulet on the West Coast, but not without the obligatory random detour to Coombs, famous for goats on the roof of the market (unconfirmed – no goats) and weird wood/stone carvings of sea creatures, dogs driving cars & lots of buddha.
As for how to say “Ucluelet,” good luck on that. We’ve been told by multiple people, in different ways, how to prounce it; anywhere from “U kewl it” to “Euque let.” You can tell why I’m confused. For basic geography, we’re on the West Coast of Van Isle (as the locals truck have emblazened on them) in a place called Long Beach. And the more bougie upscale sister city of Tofino is just a 45 minute drive away. Our lodging for this part of the stay is a lakeside home on the bottom floor of an older lady’s house. Although her place smelled a little musty (pets and damp laundry), she had amazing wild berries and a hot tub on property. We might try the lodge next time… especially since a large spider crawled up from the couch next to my head. Ugh.
A short walk from Marilyn’s place is Little Beach where we found starfish
We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and enjoying our last full weekend in Canada. It’s been interesting being this side of the border as news broke of the trade deal disaster with the USA. I can’t tell if people are not very friendly because they are tired of tourists or if something about us screams American/Enemy. So when we are asked where we’re from, we say California. And to that local dude in the souvenir shop who said Vancouver Island is like California wasn’t wrong at all. It has mountains and a strong surf culture.
We explored their version of tall trees in the Ancient Cedars loop. Very peaceful & worth a visit. Next time we need to be better prepared to hike to the shore for views.
No trip to the True North would be complete without a whale watching tour so on Monday we went to Jaime’s Whaling Station for a 3-hour water excursion. I’m happy to report that my self-proclaimed title of whale whisperer is now recognized in Canada – even getting a pat on the back from a Canadian lady on the tour with her 2 kids. She gave them some Dramamine (aka Gravol) and they certainly nodded off mid boat ride.
Total counts of animals seen:
- 3 humpback whales – Confirmed sighting of Props who is named for her vertical scars from a propeller (humans suck 😢)
- 2 sea otters
- 2 bald eagles
- 1 bear – that looked like a spec of dirt
Today we’re driving across the island to the other side. The weather is really nice here but I suspect this is a fluke and it could get quite cold, quite fast. As I write this, we’re traveling blindly through the forest to Lake Konichiwa (not the real name but also something I can’t spell or pronounce) since our GPS went out somewhere at the pretty lake viewpoint along the Pacific Rim Hwy. Don’t worry, it’s only one way to go and we are certain GPS will kick back on as we near civilization again.
Post update note: it kicked back on and led us to our B&B in Lake Cowichan, run by a strange Canadian lady. I got the creeps from her – David thinks she’s a witch & I think she was more like Kathy Bates in Psycho. But either way, we falsified some onward travel plans to escape before having to eat breakfast there. All complicated by the fact that she was storing our perishable food items requiring us to engage with her one more time before leaving [escaping]. Or else we’d sneak out. Except she probably would chased David down (she already followed him on Facebook). I think Psycho fits.
Scenes from around creepy BnB
There She Goes... 