Month: August 2013

After a few days of waking up early, we were all ready for a nice long sleep and waking up late. Typically we woke up early. Tracy’s ankle was getting worse so it was straight into the hot tub to see if that helped. The boys also had a quick splash when they woke up and then it was time for breakfast. As we left the restaurant one of the waiters suggested we should go down to the clinic in Tofino to see what they had to say about the ankle.

I went and got the car and after a bit of protesting from the patient off we went to the clinic. The clinic was fully booked but for a modest fee of $65 we could have a walk-up patient appointment. We hadn’t thought about getting travel insurance for this holiday, what a silly mistake that was turning into! After waiting a while I took the boys to a nearby park to play on the swings as the waiting room wasn’t the most child friendly place!

The wait was probably about 90 minutes and then Tracy was seen by the Doctor, who happened to be English, working out here for the summer. After a bit of prodding, it was a trip over the road to Tofino general hospital for an x-ray. The x-ray was taken care of pretty quickly but then the real waiting began. First it was for the Doctor to come over the road from the clinic to the hospital (they work in both apparently), then for the radiologist to review the x-ray and finally for the computer system to reboot because it all crashed!

The upshot of all the waiting is that Tracy had fractured a bone in her ankle. The first stage of treatment was to put the foot in an air support shoe and have a pair of crutches – little did we know that there were plenty more weeks and stages in the recovery process to follow. The already expensive surfing lesson was was slowly but surely getting even more expensive – with the first round of costs racking up another one thousand dollars! Ah well, at least Harry had a good time!

With the clock now ticking close to 3pm and the children thoroughly bored, we got back in the car and went back to the lodge. They jumped into their wetsuits and we all went down to the beach. Tracy plonked herself in a chair and I took the boys body boarding. The tide was still quite high and the waves were fun. The sun was shining and the water was freezing but we thought we ought to make the most of it as it will probably be our last body boarding for some time.

As the fog rolled in once more it was time to head back to the lodge for a hot tub and shower before getting dressed for dinner. Tracy was starting to come out of her trauma and stress of the day and chose a top that matched her new boot! We drove down to Tofino and decided to eat at a waterside restaurant called Jacks. It was a beautiful setting with a lovely view, and if that wasn’t enough we saw two eagles as we ate! The first one flew straight past our window and I think counts as our closest ever encounter with the bald eagle – needless to say I didn’t have my camera to hand. The second sighting was another eagle swooping down into the water, catching a fish and then flying off to the top of a tree to eat it. Once again, my camera was still in its case and there were no photos! Will I ever get “that” eagle shot!?

After dinner it was back to the lodge and time to start packing. Tomorrow we leave the lodge and say farewell to beautiful Tofino. Hopefully we will be back again but probably without the surfing next time!

Once again the alarm went off early, early for a vacation day at least. Today was a whale adventure day and we were up and at them at 7am. The whale tour left Ucluelet at 9am so there was just enough time to have breakfast and drive the 30kms or so to catch the boat.

As it turned out there was no need to get up early at all. As we arrived in Jaime’s Whale office just after 8:30am the lady kindly pointed out that the whale tour didn’t depart until 10am. With Tracy still hobbling about there was nothing for us to do really other than sit in the car, yawn, play I-spy and watch a seagull attempt to eat a sea star.

After an hour ticked round we hobbled back to the office and then down the plank to the boat. With seats secured inside for Tracy, Harry and Toby and outside for me, the boat was off and we were off to find whales! A short while after leaving Ucluelet harbour and we were in amongst some rocky islands where the gray and humpback whales like to feed. It wasn’t long before the boat engines slowed and we had our first sighting. A gray whale by all accounts. It was also at this point that Harry appeared outside on the upper deck in a flood of tears. “Are you Harry’s dad?” asked the crew member who had bought him up (Tracy couldn’t move down below). “Yes” I replied. “He feels sick” they said. “Ok” I said.

Harry sat down next to me with a blanket round him and a sick bag in hand. Tears, snot and snuffling were a plenty too. We were probably about just over half an hour into a three hour tour. “I want to go back” stuttered Harry between the tears and the dramatic breaths. “You can’t” I said. The dramatic breaths increased and the crying increased as the swell did. Meanwhile the whales were probably doing leaps, twirls and dances to the side of the boat!

“Look at the horizon and you’ll start feeling better” I told Harry. Harry said “ok” and then looked at the floor. “Look at the horizon” I repeated. “Ok” he said. Then he looked down the steps to the lower floor. “Harry. Stop looking at the floor. Do you know what the horizon is?”. “Yes”. “Then look at it”. You can’t accuse me of being unsympathetic! The swell swelled and the tears increased. “Come on Harry, pull yourself together!”. I think that did the trick or it was the magic ginger chewy sweets that one of the crew gave him. I’m not sure how ginger does it, or how they found out that ginger had magic sea sickness super powers, but they did and it does. Slowly but surely Harry began to feel better. We were circling round a small island and Harry kept his eyes firmly fixed on it. The tears stopped and the talking slowly came back.

All this time the whales had been swimming round the boat, splashing their tales and putting on a show for the boats that were out there. Harry even managed to take his eyes off the island filled with stinky sea lions and sea the whales. Tracy managed to hobble her way up from below for a short while and Toby decided to stay below and have a little snooze! It turns out Toby prefers whales that jump out the water!

With one more sighting of a humpback in the bag it was time to head back into Ucluelet. We passed some eagles and sea lions on the way and saw some beautiful views as the fog lifted for a while and let the sun come through.

Back on dry land Hrry and Toby spent their holiday money on a cuddly humpback whale and walrus. Toby christened the humpback “nitternats” and Harry the walrus “stinky”. After a brief pitstop at Barry’s Drugstore for ice packs, bandages and magic healing gel, it was time to get lunch! The perfect cure for almost having sea sickness is a burger and fries, and that’s what we devoured at Black Rock, a beautiful resort/restaurant tucked away just outside Ucluelet.

And after all that it was time to go and relax at home. There’s only so much excitement we can take in one day!

As usual, there are lots more pictures here!

With Tracy finally out the hot tub and her ankle looking like an elephants we had to make careful plans for the afternoon based on her new found disabilities. The plan took the shape of lunch and stocking up on wine.

We decided to head in to Tofino for lunch but didn’t quite make it as we stopped at the Wickinannish Inn. We had thought about staying here but it was very expensive, so to make up for that just stopped for lunch instead! The restaurant had a stunning location overlooking the sea and to make things even better the waitress told us how a bald eagle had spent the whole day yesterday fishing from the rock right outside our window. How cool! With my camera on the table I sat looking out the window at the rock just waiting for the eagle to appear and start fishing. What a photo I was going to get, the ultimate eagle picture!

With plate after plate of lovely food coming out, the sea reached high tide and waves crashed over the rocks. No eagle yet though but I was sure it would appear. The waitress kept checking in and asking if we’d seen the eagle yet. We hadn’t. For the first time since arriving in Tofino I managed to not eat a dessert! I used to struggle with losing my appetite on holidays, I’ve well and truly overcome that issue!

I dragged the meal out with a couple of cups of coffee but still no eagle. In the end I had to admit defeat and we left the restaurant. Tracy and the boys waited outside the restaurant while I went to get the car – the ankle was causing a lot of pain. From the Inn we went I to Tofino and stocked up on bread, tuna and crunchier bars! Next stop the liquor store and some wine. I also took the opportunity to take a few pictures as for a brief moment the fog had lifted and it looked stunning!

Because the fog had lifted I thought we should take the chance to go up Radar Hill which is meant to provide the best view of the area. We drove up there and then Tracy hobbled the 100 metres from car park to view point. Although the sun was still out there was still a lot of fog in the area so the view was good but not quite as good as we wanted. It’s going to be tricky getting the timing right but as the view point is not far from the lodge I hope to get another chance to get the photo. We’ll have to see.

After Radar Hill it was back to the lodge and into our wetsuits. We hobbled our way down to the beach and put Tracy in a chair with a book while the rest of us hit the sea. With another 90 or so minutes of body boarding under our belts it was back to the lodge and into the hot tub to warm up and ease ankles. Then it was a lazy evening in our lodge and getting our stuff ready for yet another early morning tomorrow because it’s time to go whale watching again! Let’s hope we can find some through the fog.

To an untrained eye like mine, the previous days body boarding from Harry suggested he was going to be a natural at the surfing lesson today. We’d signed Tracy, Harry and Toby up for a 2.5 hour lesson yesterday morning, I was the designated photographer so I couldn’t surf, otherwise I’d have loved to! After the alarm had woken us again this morning, (what kind of holiday is this with all these early mornings?), Toby announced that he didn’t want to go surfing afterall. He’d thought about it over night and he didn’t fancy the falling off part that much.

At quarter to nine Tracy and Harry were slipping into some pretty tight wetsuits and making their way to the beach where their audience were waiting patiently in the fog. it really was Fogust in Tofino. While the surfers warmed up and practiced their moves on the beach Toby and I played soccer. It wasn’t long though and they were going out into the water and the surfing began!

Harry went first and he was up and off! It looks like my prediction was right, he was going to be a natural! He kept going and in amongst a few falls and splashes there were some good moves. Tracy was also showing her moves and although she was whizzing into shore pretty well she preferred to stay on her knees! As she pointed out later she would have been a pretty awesome knee surfer by the end of the lesson if disaster hadn’t struck. But disaster did strike although in a slightly different way to how it appeared behind the safety of a camera lens.

Tracy came in to shore, on her knees, and fell off the board. She then did a Neil and flolloped about in the water for a bit – we suspected that she may have been taking a quick wee, but as it turns out she wasn’t! As she sat in the water Harry came flying in on his board and it appeared that he crashed straight into Tracy! As this all played out in front of us the instructor came over to survey the scene. Tracy was up and limping out of the water, had Harry’s board whacked her leg? As it turns out, as she fell from the board she twisted her ankle and fortunately Harry didn’t crash into his mum as she flopped about trying to get out the water!

On the positive side I caught all of this on camera!! So we start with Tracy coming in on her board:

And there she was gone:

Here she is flooping about like I do:

Here comes Harry showing no signs of mercy as he points his board straight at his helpless mum:

And wipeout!

Eventually Tracy made it to shore and lay on her board in pain. Poor Tracy. After a few minutes we hobbled very slowly back to our lodge as Harry kept on surfing.

It took some time to get back to the lodge but we made it in the end and then made the ankle even worse by pulling a skin tight wetsuit off over the top of it. At just after 10am Tracy gingerly climbed into the hot tub, took two pain killers and had a glass of wine! She didn’t care how early it was, she needed wine.

With Tracy and Toby settled in the hot tub I went back down to the beach to see how Harry was progressing. The first thing I saw on my return was Harry surfing in to shore and doing a 180 degree jump on his board! He really was a natural! What a smile he had on his face. As much fun as he was having he looked pretty exhausted by the time his 2.5 hours were up – as good as it is surfing in, I guess it’s pretty exhausting carrying your board back out again.

Back on the beach for the final time, his instructor confirmed that he was in fact a natural, much to Harry’s delight! All that was left to do was carry the board back and then jump into the hot tub with his mum (who’d just had her second medicinal glass of wine and quite a few Pringles!!). Poor Tracy, happy Harry!

And just in case this isn’t enough, there are more pictures here and the following are some surf dude videos:

httpv://youtu.be/xThMJVjBXdo

httpv://youtu.be/-MIEKgIKCbE

httpv://youtu.be/toGmFEFpVQI

After the excitement of the morning it was time to relax our way through the afternoon. And what better way to relax than on the beach and in some ice cold sea? We grabbed our wetsuits, chairs, soccer balls and body boards and off we went down to Cox beach which is out the front of our hotel. This time we also remembered to take our sea shoes and what a difference that made. Instead of walking into the water and thinking our feet had turned to ice we could actually just walk straight in. And with that the body boarding began.

Toby was practising in the shallower water and quickly got the hang of it as he zoomed into shore. Harry was further out in the larger waves and also doing very well riding the waves right in to the beach. I flolloped about as best I could trying to keep up with the boys but I’m starting to fight a losing battle on that front, maybe another couple of years before they’re beating me!

It was amazing what difference those sea shoes (not sure of their technical name) make. The water at times almost felt warm, although the fact that the sun was out and beating down didn’t hurt. After a while Toby did get cold so he went up to build sand castles with Tracy while Harry and I stayed in the water waiting for the perfect wave. Harry was getting very confident and was starting to push himself up on his board as if he was preparing for his surf lesson tomorrow. Eventually, after a couple of hours or more we got out as well, pretty much exhausted!

The only thing to do after being in the cold sea is to get in a warm hot tub and that’s exactly what we did. With our bodies warmed the next most important thing was to stuff them full of food! We showered, got dressed, jumped in the car and went into Tofino. We found a very nice restaurant called Shelter and had some fantastic halibut, salmon and grilled cheese (not all on the same plate), plus some truffles and apple and cherry crumble, all washed down with local beer and wine.

It’s a tough life!

What a dreadful night. I think I was so worried about the alarm not going off in the morning that I woke up every half hour. The alarm was required because someone wanted to go bear watching and that meant getting on board a boat that was leaving Tofino harbour at 6:30am, which meant alarms set for 5:30am.

There was no need to worry about the alarm, it went off as required and within moments I’d woken Tracy and the boys and we were dressed in our warm layers. We got to Jaime’s Whale Tours just after 6am, grabbed a coffee, took a quick photo of an eagle in a tree and boarded the boat. Tracy and the boys went, sensibly, and sat in the warm inside. I sat outside in the cold fog (because I’d had a lot of garlic in my dinner last night and Tracy wasn’t keen on sitting anywhere near me!), with a blanket and a camera poised just in case something appeared. All sorts of things probably did appear but the fog was so thick we wouldn’t have seen them anyway!

After a while the engine noise slowed, my finger twitched on the camera but there was no need, we were just passing some mud flats that had some important thing about them but I couldn’t hear because I was sat right by the engines! Anyway, it wasn’t a bear so we kept going. Before long the engine slowed again, bears perhaps? Nope. Sea stars. Lots of them and they were impressive but I feel like I’ve seen enough of them after our morning on Alki Beach. I wanted bears!

Another few minutes and the engines slowed again. Third time lucky perhaps? Hell yeah! A bear! There on the beach, lifting rocks to find his (or her) breakfast was a black bear! My first real life wild bear, apart from the dead baby one we saw when we drove over the mountains in Yosemite but I don’t feel like that really counts, plus I didn’t stop to take a picture. I was taking pictures this time though and plenty of them. I had my best lens on the camera but I could have done with the boat being a bit closer so I could get a really nice photo!

After watching this bear eating its breakfast we were soon off to another beach and more bears! And this time there was a bonus bear, mother and baby. It was a this year baby and he was just running around following his mum before disappearing off into the woods. Apparently the most common cause of death for baby bears is nothing like evil wolves or other predators, it’s falling out of trees! They like climbing trees but it sounds like they’re not so good at getting down again.

As a couple more boats turned up we moved on to yet another beach. There were bears everywhere. Or at least there were another two anyway. We couldn’t get too close though and the pictures weren’t great. It was amazing seeing bears but I just wanted to get closer but not too close obviously. As we left this beach we went round the tip of an island and at the end of it was a bear. It was close, this was it. Or at least it was going to be until it walked behind a big rock. What was wrong with these bears? Didn’t they understand I’d come a long way to see them and I wanted a picture. Eventually he did come out from behind the rock and walked straight at us. He kept stopping to roll stones over looking for crabs and other goodies for breakfast. He obviously found something tasty under one rock, a crab I think, and as I watched him chewing through the camera lens I could actually hear him crunching through the shell – that’s how close we were! Harry and Toby were there snapping away on their cameras complaining that they couldn’t zoom in close enough but it didn’t stop them.

After a while, we set off again towards a small island where harbour seals hangout. You have to feel sorry for the seals. Firstly, whenever you go on a whale or bear watching cruise you always get to see seals but no-one is really interested. And secondly, in this particular instance, the seals were balancing on a small rock and then the wake from our boat came along a knocked them off. A couple managed to hold on but then another wave came and wiped them out too! Poor seals.

With the seals photographed it was time for us to head back to Tofino. There were no more bears but we did get to see a few more bald eagles although none were close enough to get a truly awesome picture but there’s still more time to get one!

The main mission of the morning was to see bears and we managed that. Hopefully some of these pictures will do the bear justice otherwise we’re going to have to come back again!

Although I was already dozing at 6:12am this morning something starting banging about on the roof. It soon stopped so I started to doze off again until the banging on the patio started. It was so loud it managed to wake Tracy and judging by the snores that was no mean feat! I peered out the window just in time to see a blue jay flying off into the trees. It had clearly been smashing a snail on the roof, patio and possibly the wall as well, judging by the noise it made. Anyway, Tracy went back to snoring while I caught up on all the latest English transfer gossip!

Just after 8am, the boys started yapping away above us and eventually Tracy stirred. As I had been for a run for the last couple of mornings, and I’d eaten a lot, I felt a bit guilty and decided to go for a run along the cycle path towards Tofino. On the way I saw some fat yellow slugs with brown splodges which are banana slugs. I will have to bring the boys up here to see them one morning because they are quite interesting! As I plodded my way 3 miles towards Tofino and back again Tracy had a nice cup of tea in the hot tub which with hindsight seems a much more sensible thing to do. The only downside was that two naked boys appeared and hopped in the tub (Harry and Toby, just to clarify!).

After a quick shower it was time to go to the hotel part of the hotel and have breakfast. Double helpings of granola, cinnamon rolls, fruit, yoghurt and stuff was all washed down with orange, water and coffee and before you know it it’s 11am and time for the day to really start.

Having dipped our toes in the sea yesterday we knew Harry needed a wetsuit to have any chance of playing in the water and surviving! Everybody else had one but he’d grown too much since our holiday in Pembrokeshire about 6 years ago. So with this purchase in mind we set off down the road to Ucluelet (pronounced you-clue-let). I had secret high hopes about Ucluelet and getting some awesome eagle photos, but I shouldn’t have got my hopes up as I didn’t see any just a few deer walking around through peoples gardens.

We did however take the chance to book our bear watching tour for tomorrow morning and we found Harry a nice full length wet suit.

Next stop was a beach. We’re pretty spoilt for choice here, there appear to be fab beaches everywhere, even though today they were covered in fog. We plumped for North Chesterman beach, parked the car and took all our gear down to the beach. The boys put their wet suits on and started playing soccer! After a while they got their new skim board out and decided to give the skim boarding a go. It wasn’t quite as easy as they thought and it mostly ended with one or other of them rolling around in the shallows. It also included weeing in their wetsuits in various poses!

httpv://youtu.be/8UhFuNFwioU

Soon after it was time to get the body boards out and hit the surf. I got into my wetsuit and went down to supervise. I thought it would be cold but nothing prepared me for how cold it really was! It was like getting into what I imagine an ice bath is like, only colder! I’ve never been in sea as cold as that, wowsers! However with a some time the acclimatisation process kicked in and before we knew it the three of us were splashing about surfing in to shore on the waves. Toby was practising, as it was his first time, and he was perfecting the art of timing his dive onto the wave, and was getting pretty good at it.

We kept picking our waves and zooming into shore and every now and then it almost felt like the water had a few warm bits in it! That feeling didn’t last long though and it soon returned to cold, cold water!! After an hour or so it was time to return back to the beach and warm up, in the fog! All those times we’ve laughed at people sitting on the beach in the fog and now here we were doing the same thing and commenting on how pleasant and warm it felt!!

As the fog started to get really thick and the clock ticked round to 4pm we decided to head back home and de-sand ourselves. After showers and baths, we had a drink, some crisps (long lost smokey bacon flavour) and nuts before heading down to the hotel restaurant for some well deserved food. Halibut, prawns, pasta and fries were all washed down with some Canadian wine, some ice wine, ice-cream, truffles and a giant slice of humble berry pie and then, all stuffed, we walked down to the beach, in the fog, so Toby could make his driftwood sculpture and take a photo of it. Then it was back to the cottage, for a nice dip in the hot tub before settling down to the final episode of the Bachelorette.

Day one in Tofino, done. Today was the coldest sea ever. Tomorrow could be bears! Fingers crossed.

After the early morning of the previous day, today we had a nice sleep through to 8am. We had to be out of the Beach Club by 11am so after a bit of a tidy up, a nibble on cookies for breakfast and a shower or two, we decided to take a short walk along the boardwalk to see the sand sculptures in the daylight. The theme of all the sculptures were fairy tales and it has to be said that they were very impressive. By making a donation of $10 we were allowed to walk round and put a coin in the box next to the sculpture we thought was best. After much deliberation I voted for Jack and the Beanstalk. Toby went next and voted for Snow White because of a very impressive apple carving. Tracy decided next and went for a shock vote for Hans Christian Anderson, which was very controversial as all indications had been a vote for Thumberlina. Then we all waited for Harry to make his choice. There was a lot of deliberating! It got to the point that we had to remind Harry we had to check out the hotel by 11 and he needed to hurry up! He was torn between Humpty Dumped Me and the Fairy Castle. Finally, with the pressure really on, Harry plumped Humpty. We’re all convinced our choices will win so we’re going to check the website when we get home and see who won.

With our expert judging complete, we checked out of the hotel, loaded the car, topped up the gas, turned on the movie screens, started the GPS and we were off. Next stop Port Alberni, about 50kms across the Island towards Tofino. After about an hour of going up and over hills and through valleys we reached Port Alberni. I’d read in a brochure that walking along the harborside was a good place to see bears on the the other side of the river. You would need some pretty impressive binoculars though because the other side of the river was a long way away! The bear hunt goes on. We had a short stroll around in the very warm sunshine and then Toby announced that “we are hungry”. Turns out the “we” was in fact “he” but nonetheless we saw a nice looking Mexican restaurant with a good list of specials on the board and so in we went.

Half an hour later we were all happily stuffed having munched our way through breakfast burritos, fish and beef tacos and some quesadillas. Feeling pleasantly stuffed the next logical place to stop was the shop selling the “best donuts on Vancouver Island”, well it would have been rude not too!

Having packed a way a donut each, we got back in the car, restarted the movies, set the GPS and off we went. Next stop Tofino! The drive was a lovely one. Mountains, although not very big ones, lakes, rivers, narrow twisty roads and unfortunately still no bears! I am going to be very disappointed if I don’t see a bear this holiday! It was only a couple of hours to our hotel/cottage and as we drove the sun shone brightly. However, just after hitting the Pacific Rim highway, on the final few kilometres before arrival, we hit a big bank of fog! The sunshine went and the temperatures dropped. We started getting worried, this was not how it was meant to be. A few kilometres on though and the blue sky and sunshine were back. What a relief, but not for long. As we got just 5 minutes from our hotel we plunged into another bank of fog. Darn it! We parked the car and checked in. Reception told us that the fog had been behaving rather oddly for the last few days which was no consolation. before heading to our cottage we checked the beach out. It was foggy. There were lots of people surfing, playing and doing beach stuff; it was all very normal apart from they were just doing it in the fog!

With the car unloaded into our rather lovely cottage (with under floor heating and outdoor hot tub) we decided to take advantage of the fog and head to Tofino itself. It’s only 10 minutes up the road but it was bathed in sunshine – looks like our hotel is located in its very own fog bank! We parked the car and started mooching. Tofino is clearly a draw for the hippie community as well as the surfing community. We checked a few shops out to try and find Harry a wetsuit but with no luck, they were all too big. Enquiries were also made about bear and whale watching tours. It looks like it will be an early start for the bears with the boat leaving at about 6:30am! Final stops in Tofino were the supermarket and liquor store to stock up for the week.

When we returned to our cottage the fog had gone and we were in sunshine again. In case the next bank of fog was on its way we quickly got changed into our shorts and went down to the beach. It has a slight chill to it with the wind whipping off the sea but it is a lovely sandy beach. The boys checked the water temperature and it was cold! This is definitely Canadian sea! It was low tide so we checked a couple of rock pools and found sea stars like the ones on Alki and plenty of anemones. A bit further round the beach we also found two anemones eating the leg of a sea star which was rather unpleasant.

With the tide starting to turn we came back to our cottage and the boys were excited to go into the hot tub so in we all went. It was lovely! The jets were on, the water was 105 degrees (fahrenheit), the sun was out and the beer was cold! Perfect! After the hot tub it was time to sit down and watch some Canadian TV – which is basically American TV – it is identical. They may have their own TV channels but they are certainly hidden away somewhere. After a late tea, Toby and I went down to the beach again to see the sunset. It wasn’t as spectacular as Parksville but I think we just need to find the right location. Toby took some time post sunset to refine his sand sculpture from earlier. He was very proud of his totem pole creation, and rightly so!

And with that it was time for bed. The early start the day before had caught up with us (and the fresh sea air) and we were all in bed just after 9. It’s a good job we were too because a bird smashing a snail on our back patio would be waking us up at just after 6am tomorrow morning!

Pictures are here!

The excitement of the holiday began early. It started months ago for me but for everyone else in the house it started when the alarm went off at 4:30am. With everything packed the day before all that remained was to load the car and off we went on our summer holiday! It could be argued that this was our second holiday of the summer, after San Diego, but we won’t count that as i had to work. It’s also worth noting that the second/third summer holiday is also planned for just a few weeks time.

We drove up the I5 enjoying typical holiday weather – pouring rain – but my app had said the weather would be good this week so I kept believing. Although only 5 in the morning we munched away on breakfast bars, diet coke, Pringles, bananas and iced coffees! The further north we got the better the weather, which was a relief. We’d packed the boys in car entertainment system but as it was so early they’d been told they couldn’t watch it on this stretch of the journey which meant we were once again subjected to the Harry in car entertainment system, which basically consists of noise. Lots of it. Non-stop and completely irrelevant to anything that is gong on or requested. He’s like this every time he gets in a car. I’m not sure what happens to him but every time, without fail, noise and nonsense erupts.

Apart from telling Harry to be quiet, it was a pretty uneventful journey and we arrived at the Anacortes ferry terminal at about 6:45am. The road that leads to the terminal has some lovely houses along it which would make for the ideal place for us to live. I could sit on the deck staring out at the San Juans and Tracy could sit watching the ferries all day long. Perfect.

We parked the car and went for a short walk to stretch our legs. Since treading on a giant slug down the side of the garage a couple of weeks ago, it’s fair to say that Toby is somewhat traumatised by the sight of slugs. As we watched ferries arrive down by the dock he saw lots of big fat horrible slugs. A this point he lost the ability to put one foot in front of the other and just asked to be picked up! What a big brave boy!

At just before 8am our ferry started to board. With a few shouts from the bossy ferry parking assistant we were in place and off. With hot chocolates in hand we sat watching the islands go by until we turned to go pick up some more travellers at Friday Harbor. Toby clearly has happy memories of San Juan island because he wants to go back there, and fortunately for him it won’t be long until we do, when Aunty A comes for her next visit.

The best thing about the ferry trip across, apart from some distant eagle and seal sightings was the fact that one of the cars we picked up at Friday Harbor had a New Hampshire licence plate. Nothing very exciting about that you may think but actually this was the last state licence plate they needed to see to compete their board that they got for Christmas. It took us just over 8 months but we got there in the end.

Just after 11am the ferry docked at Sidney. We drove off, got our passports stamped and set off towards Parksville with a planned detour for lunch at Merrivale Cidery. The GPS didn’t want to cooperate to begin with but eventually it ended its funny turn and took us to lunch. I had been following Merrivale Cidery on twitter for a few months and read lots of tweets about the lovely food they were making and serving so I thought we ought to find out. It was somewhat off the beaten track but it clearly has a good reputation as there were lots of people there. The Cidery was in a beautiful setting and we had some lovely food overlooking the orchard. With food, cider and fresh apple juice consumed we were soon on our way again.

The drive up to Parksville had lots of views, lakes and swooping eagles. It was just a couple of hours up from Sidney but by the time we reached our hotel (the Beach Club Resort) we had all had enough of being in the car. After checking into our beach front room and unpacking enough to get us through one night, we got into our swimming gear and went to the pool and hot tub for a bit of exercise and a refresh. After a swim it was back to the room for a relax in the sunshine and some playing on the PS Vitas before heading a couple of miles down the road to play a round of crazy golf.

There were two courses to choose from, Lagoon or Mountain, and the boys went for lagoon. The Lagoon course has, obviously, water running all around it and with his very first shot Toby managed to hit his ball straight into the water. We feared the worst at this point, as we had to go and ask for another ball, but fortunately he got better and we didn’t lose any more. Golf turned out to be three competing boys trying hard to win while Tracy went quietly about her business of sinking every putt. There was clearly only going to be one winner but that didn’t stop competitive boys enjoying each others mistakes! Toby turned out to be the king of the hole in one but on the last hole Harry and I both managed a hole in one and that meant we got a voucher each for another round of golf. So off Harry and Toby went round the mountain course. Without the calming influence of their parents playing they went to pieces and were atrocious – particularly Toby who did the first 18 holes in 72 shots and the second 18 in one hundred and something!

With golf complete we went back to the hotel, parked the car and set off in search of a late evening snack. We found one restaurant that had good reviews online but when we walked in they seemed a little unsure as to whether they had any food left – minor detail for a restaurant! I think they were newly opened but I feel like having food could be the key to their success. As it turned out they had most things apart from vegetables! To be fair they didn’t appear overly offended when we declined to stay and in fact they were nice enough to recommend a fish a chip restaurant just over the road which we went to and it turned out to be very good. In fact it was so good that Toby said it was the best fish and chips he’s ever had (he can’t remember any English fish and chips) and Tracy said it was the best she’s had since leaving the UK.

We left the restaurant just before 9pm ad walked down to the beach because I wanted to take pictures of the sunset. And what a sunset it was too. I don’t remember a more stunning sunset – the sky was beautiful and the water was dead calm. After lots of pictures we went for a short stroll along the boardwalk until we reached what turned out to be the Parksville sand sculpture competition but more about that tomorrow.

And with that a long, eventful day was over. All that was left was to crash into bed and call fast asleep!

All the pictures are here!