Category: vacations

It very quickly became custom for us to take a photo of the boys at every park sign we came across. Here they are altogether but Capitol Reef is a bit of a cheat because we only really went across the top of that!

After the hiking and swimming of the previous day we had a little sleep in until just before 8am. With most of the morning and early afternoon likely to be spent in the car, we got up and went for a nice cooked breakfast in the main lodge. With stomachs full we went back to our lodge, packed our bags and loaded up the cars.

With the Lego movie playing in the back we back the four hour trip back to Salt Lake City. It was a reasonably uneventful drive up – no scary roads on this route which Tracy was happy about. We arrived at the Hotel Monaco just after 2pm and checked in. As this was a Kimpton Hotel we get to have a goldfish pet for the duration of our stay. The boys were also given a small cuddly bear each, which as you can imagine more than made Toby’s day!

Once we’d unpacked we got back in the car and drove 30 minutes up into the hills behind Salt Lake to the mountain ski resort of Park City. This was the main area for the Winter Olympics which were held in Utah in 2002. We went to the historic center and had a late lunch/early dinner because the boys were absolutely starving!

After lunch we went for a stroll up and down Main Street – it looked like a town that had a lot of money sloshing about in it. Next stop, despite lots of Toby protests was a chair lift ride up one of the mountains. Tracy and Harry went on the first chairlift and Toby and I followed in the next. The ride gave me the heebee-jeebees to begin with but as we were never too far off the ground my fears passed!

It was an interesting ride up, mainly spotting all the things that had been thrown from the chair lifts like bras, knickers, necklaces that were all hanging from the tree tops! The ride was worth it though because the view on the way back down was quite something. Once we had our feet back on terra ferma it was time for one last trip in the car for the day as we went back to Salt Lake City and our hotel.

On the way back Toby decided to showcase his song writing and singing skills by repeatedly singing the following beautiful little ditty…

“When I was a baby,
I was so cute,
Then Harry came and trod on me,
And now I’m so ugly”

After singing this about ten times he started work on the second verse, which went a little something like this …
“When I was a baby
I was so perfect…”

At this point he was told to shut up and after a little bit of back and forth he did!
Before long we were back in our hotel where Stanley the goldfish was waiting for us. He went a bit bonkers to begin with, swimming round like a crazy fish but he soon settled and enjoyed the attention from the boys.

A relaxing evening followed until at about 10:30pm it was lights out and time for our last sleep in Utah. So sad, time clearly flies when you’re having fun!

After arriving at the Lodge the day before we had spent the afternoon by, and in the pool and enjoying a meal at the restaurant. The next morning, well fed and refreshed we woke and left to hit Arches National Park just after 9am.

On arrival at the park we took the customary picture of two naughty boys posing at the side of the sign and then drove on to the visitor center. We bought our Arches National Park sticker, checked the maps and then set off on a short drive up to Balancing Rock. There were no shuttle options at this Park so it was a bit busier with cars and around car parks. Having taken a few pictures of the Balancing Rock we decided to drive up to the far end of the Park to Devils Garden. This is where we intended to take our short hike of the day and we thought it best to get to the end of the Park before everyone else made it up there and so we did our hike before it got too hot – although it was already pretty warm.

We decided on the shorter hike that took us to Landscape Arch, Tunnel Arch and Pine Arch. The route to all three was pretty well paved, with just a few inclines and declines to navigate. Landscape Arch was pretty impressive. You used to be able to walk up to and under it however a few years ago a big chunk of it fell down as people were up there and they decided to close that part of the trail. No-one was hurt when it collapsed but they did have a picture taken by a hiker who was there at the time and it was pretty impressive. The bit that fell is the rubble to the right hand side of the arch:

After Landscape, we doubled back on ourselves and went to Tunnel and Pine Arches. It was starting to get pretty hot now so frequent drink breaks in whatever shade we could find were taken. Just down the road from Devils Garden was Skyline Arch which we stopped at for another short walk – not too much complaining from Toby either! This was another arch that had fairly recently had a large boulder fall out of it! It’s clearly a bit dodgy round here!

Our next, and final stop was at Delicate Arch. After a brief assessment of the pit toilets – they didn’t pass the Tracy test – we walked along to the lower viewpoint. The best views are up the other side of the Arch from where the viewpoint is looking back to it however it was now very hot and the hike up had absolutely no shade and was across smooth rocks so we decided against it. Also slightly off putting was the fact that once you got there, there would be lots of people all around! Bloody people, didn’t they know they were ruining my photos?

 

So we went back to the car and via a few photo stops, including the petrified sand dunes, plus our first experience of a wild fire (although it was just a little one so hopefully it was contained nice and easily) before making our way to Moab for a spot of lunch. We managed to work out our list of favourite National Parks and the final list looked like this:

Zion National Park (Tracy’s favourite)
Bryce National Park (Harry’s and my favourite)
Goblin Valley State Park (Toby’s favourite)
Arches National Park (no-ones favourite)

The order of the list seemed to suggest that our holiday got progressively worse but that’s not actually the case. Arches was the one that everyone thought would be the best but maybe we’d built it up to be too much. It was still quite something to see but it is probably more of a park for hikers whereas the others could be witnessed with short hikes and had more awesomeness to them!

With lunch taken care of we did a spot of shopping and I bought the pair of shoes that I had been needing all holiday – just about better late than never because they would at least make for a comfy couple of days (my previous sandals had already ruined my heels!).

Next and final stop was back to the lodge and into the pool for another afternoon of playing and relaxing and watching the US lose to Belgium via refreshing a twitter feed every 30 seconds!

The evening was spent drinking a couple of bottles of wine made locally at the Lodge. It was a beautiful last evening sat on the deck, listening to the river, watching the stars and seeing my first two shooting stars. I’d never realised just how fast shooting stars shoot! Apparently you’re meant to make a wish when you see them but I’d forgotten that and missed out on two glorious opportunities!

All Arches pictures are here.

 

It was short and sweet in Torrey, so the car was packed and off we went to Red Cliffs Lodge via a stop off in Goblin Valley. It was another couple of hours in the car but once again the boys sat glued to their TV screens and behaved very well – we are lucky on that front.

It was another scenic drive through, yet again, a completely different landscape. Everyday has been different but each one mightily impressive. We soon arrived at Goblin Valley State Park, which had been recommended to us by one of Harry’s soccer team. First things first, we needed to do the rest room trip but as we were in the middle of nowhere it was one of those toilets that Tracy doesn’t like – a pit toilet! I’ve known Tracy hold onto a wee for a 45 mile drive while 4 months pregnant to avoid using one of these horrible smelly things! This one however, despite the heat was not quite as awful as Yosemites and we all managed to do the deed!

With that taken care of, sun cream applied, hats on and cameras loaded it was time to explore goblin valley. And what a place it was to explore! There was a trail but not very well defined which means you just walk around all over the place. Everywhere you turned were goblins! Worn down over the years by wind and water there was every type of goblin you could imagine, plus a few more, including…

Boxing goblin
Monkey goblin
Dead goblins
Growing goblins
Turtle goblins
Skull goblins
Mount Rushmore goblins
Duck goblins
Arguing goblins
Grumpy goblins
Goblin walls
Angry goblins
Whale goblins
Dinosaur goblins
Goblin butts
Caterpillar goblin

And many more that I can’t remember!

With the goblin watching complete it was time to buckle up and hit the road again. Next stop Red Cliffs Lodge and a couple of nights by the Colorado River.

All the Goblins are here…

Another day, another early (ish) start. This time we were packing up the car and leaving the beautiful Zion Mountain Ranch behind and making our way to Bryce Canyon for a few hours in the park followed by an onwards journey to Torrey, near Capitol Reef National Park.

With the car packed, we said goodbye to Itchy and set off for Bryce just after 8am. After a couple of hours we arrived at the visitor center, checked out the hikes and viewpoints, grabbed a map and decided to take the car round the park rather than the shuttle.

As Bryce Canyon was all on our right hand side as we drove down the Park, we went to our furthest point down that we wanted to go to and then worked our way back up the Park via a series of stops. First stop was Bryce Point and our first glimpse of what is a pretty bloody amazing sight! The colors, scale and amazing rock formations (know locally as hoodoos) really do have to be seen to be believed. It also managed to give Tracy the willies with a few steep drops by the side of the path.

Second stop was just a little further round the canyon rim at Inspiration Point. Again, it looked amazing but at this stop there were hundreds of little midges that kept landing all over us – apart from Tracy – so after a few photos were snapped it was back in the car and round to Sunset Point.

There was obviously an emergency of some sort kicking off here as there were medical people and all sorts buzzing around the car park. Unperturbed we set off on a hike on Navajo Loop which took us down to the canyon floor and back up again. Toby was not happy about this hike! It was too hot, too steep and too far. He was tired two minutes after we left and didn’t want to go! Despite all these protests we set off down the winding path through the stunning canyon trails.

We stopped at Thors Hammer – the most photographed feature in Bryce Canyon and carried on down the steep climb. The sun was beating down and regular drink breaks were required. After a while we reached the bottom and, as beautiful as it was, what it really needed was a nice burbling river running through the bottom of the canyon. There wasn’t one though – it is a waterless canyon.

 

 

With liquids consumed the tough ascent began! Toby instantly started falling behind until I told him that rattle snakes prey on little boys who fall behind! That did the trick and he managed to fasten his pace. The path up was pretty tough however we’d taken the clockwise route round the loop so at least there was more shade than going down. After a final few drinks breaks we made it back up and had the pleasure of washing our dirty, sandy feet under a nice cold tap! It felt lovely!

No rest for the wicked though and we were soon aback in the car heading towards a viewpoint at Fairyland Canyon. We took in the sights, took some more pictures, got buzzed by some bugs and then realised we were proper hungry so set off to Subway via a brief photo stop at the park sign.

After devouring a sandwich we loaded up the TV screens and hit the road to Torrey. The drive was pretty much two hours along Highway 12, an American Scenic Byway. It was a pretty quiet road (barely any cars on the road for 40 odd miles) but pretty darn impressive nonetheless. Although there were lots of great views the one that beat them all was the view of Million Dollar Road. The Utah red-necks that pulled up at the same time of us thought it was just “more dirt” but I think it was slightly more impressive than that!

We then drove along Million Dollar Road and wound our way up a very steep climb on the other side. At one point the road was winding its way across the top of a ridge that was literally just wide enough to fit a two lane highway on top with sheer drops drop on either side. Rest assured that Tracy was clinging to door handle for dear life and mumbling “oh my god” over and over again! To be fair, even I thought it was probably best to look at the road and not the view at this point! The road is now known as the Road of Doom, to accompany the Gap of Doom from our travels in Sydney.

Having survived the road of doom we continued to climb higher and eventually reached the summit at about 9,600ft before beginning the winding descent down to Torrey. Our hotel was just outside Torrey near Capitol Reef National Park. After checking in and unpacking there was only one thing to do and that was go to the pool. Two days in the sunshine without a pool made going into this one even nicer. It was in the high 90’s and the cool of the pool was most welcoming.

After the pool (and the hot tub for the boys) it was time for a shower and a visit to the Rim Restaurant across the road from the hotel. Food, beer, wine and puddings were demolished and then it was back to the hotel to watch the sunset and then hit the bed.

Tomorrow is a trip to Goblin Valley and then on to Moab and our final destination in the parks of Utah.

All Bryce pictures are here…

I woke up early as the sun began to shine through the crack at the side of the curtains. It was about 6:15am and I got up to snap a couple of sunrise pictures despite the fact I was nursing a slight holiday hangover. As I was awake I thought it might be a good idea if everyone was awake and so I fidgeted about in bed until Tracy woke up and made a lovely cup of coffee!!

We’d been warned the day before that we needed to be at the visitor center in Zion Canyon before 10am if we wanted to get a place to park before the crowds descended. As we were going on a hike up to the Emerald Pools we thought an early start would also be best so we weren’t slow cooked in the midday sun.

As we drove to the visitor center Harry and Toby announced that they’d been silly about not sleeping in their own lodge the night before and that tonight they would try again tonight and power through their anxiousness! After making our way through the darkest tunnels in the history of tunnels we were back at the canyon floor and parking the car just after 9am. After checking out the hiking trail guides we boarded the Zion Park shuttle. You have to take the shuttle here as the main part of the canyon is restricted access only. Our stop was the third or fourth one and before we knew it our hike up to the Lower, Middle and Upper pools was underway.

Our first sighting was a group of wild turkeys down by the river but beyond that this wasn’t really an animal related hike bar some tadpoles later on. The path up to the lower pool was quite straightforward and included a nice little walk under a small waterfall. We appreciated the waterfall a lot more on the way down though. With the lower pool taken care of it was onwards and upwards to the middle pool. It wasn’t too much further but the incline got a little steeper and the path a little more rocky. Harry and Toby tackled it like a pair of mountain goats and surprisingly there were very few complaints as they climbed!

The middle pool was reached and the sun burned brighter – it was definitely time to get a sweat on! The view was fantastic and the shade a welcome relief. Although it was only a small pool it was well stocked with some big fat tadpoles. Let’s hope the water doesn’t dry out before they turned into some big porky toads.

We hadn’t planned on going up to the Upper pool as the guides had said they were a bit tougher to reach however Harry said it was only another 0.4 miles and Toby was still in good spirits so off we went. The trail was definitely getting trickier and busier. The sweat was pouring but we made it. After relaxing in the shade for a few minutes we set off back down the trail. It was clearly much busier now so we did the right thing getting up a bit earlier. As we made it down to the lower pool we took a brief shower in the misty waterfalls before finishing off the hike and getting our feet back on the valley floor.

After a quick drink we caught the shuttle again to head back to the visitor center. On the way back we decided to stop at the Court of the Patriarchs as it was only a 100 yard round trip to the view point. Despite the fact that Toby had enjoyed his earlier hike this 100 yards was clearly too much and he descended into a mood and announced that he didn’t care about anything and everything!

A few minutes later the hike/short walk was complete and we were back on the shuttle. We continued on into Springdale to grab some lunch. A well deserved burger was devoured and then it was back on the bus to the car, which was showing a temperature of 103 degrees. Next stop was our ranch and some drinking and relaxing on the verandah in our rocking chairs. The hummingbird came back but still it avoided having its picture taken.

As the sun started to think about setting we went for a walk along to the buffaloes where Toby made friends with Itchy the buffalo. In just a few short minutes they developed a strong friendship and both were visibly upset when it was time for us to leave. After that it was back to the ranch and a well deserved collapsing into bed. Despite all the brave talk that morning, Harry and Toby decided to retire to their room upstairs rather than the lodge next door – much to Tracy’s relief!

Here are all the Zion National Park photos.

According to Apple maps it was going to take 5 hours to drive to Zion Mountain Ranch. Even though we had TV screens for the boys to watch, Harry was not happy! This was likely to be one of the worst days ever judging by how much he was talking about it.

Anyway, when faced with a long drive the best thing to do is get up and get on with it. At least it was going to be freeway most of the way which is better than getting stuck behind caravans on the A38 into Devon or the A whatever to Norfolk – although they probably don’t even have A roads there!

We left our hotel and got onto the freeway at which point the sat nav said we had to stay on this road for about the next 240 miles! It took us about 50 miles to get past what seemed like the urban sprawl of Salt Lake City – the downtown maybe be small but the ‘burbs are not! As the movies ticked by in the back of the car, so did the miles. After a brief pitstop mid morning we pulled off the freeway about 220 miles later in Cedar City. This town had been a possibility for staying in a hotel, fortunately we had found something else because there wasn’t a lot going on here. There was a Walmart however so we stocked up on beer, wine, croissants and crisps before setting off on the final leg of the journey to Zion National Park.

After another 40 or so miles we reached the Park entrance. We paid our fees to get us into all National Parks for a year and drove through Zion Canyon towards our hotel, which was just outside the other Park entrance. The canyon was quite stunning. Beautiful red rocks, covered in amazing glacial carvings and patterns from the water and wind over thousands of years. It took quite a few photo stops to make our way through it and with some very dark tunnels and sheer drops by the side of the road – Tracy did get the willies a few times!

Once out the other side of the canyon we drove another few miles before arriving at our destination – almost 6 hours after we set off – a truly dreadful day for Harry! As we pulled into the entrance of our ranch we saw the buffalo herd along with horses, rabbits, chickens and ducks – it was quite a little farmyard.

We collected our keys and drove round to our lodge, complete with its own Granny/naughty boy annex. The lodge was beautiful and the boys were very excited about having their own lodge to stay in. With everything unpacked it was time to chill on the verandah looking out for miles across the wilderness of Utah.

As we sat in our rocking chairs Tracy was visited on a fairly regular basis by a hummingbird. It obviously liked her red top because it kept coming to see her and it flew incredibly close to her. Despite its numerous visits the best photo I could manage was this – which isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken!

After a bath in the very big bath it was time to walk down to the Buffalo Grill and have dinner. It was a lovely setting to enjoy dinner of ginormous rib-eye steaks. The horses and rabbits kept running past our window and in the background the buffalo came running over for their dinner. With stomachs well and truly stuffed it was time to visit the shop and buy a cuddly horse and buffalo! Summer holiday spending money was well and truly being spent.

Then after a walk back to our lodge the boys retired to their lodge while Tracy and I sat outside watching the dark night skies come and the stars appear. With no artificial lights for as far as the eye could see it was a pretty good star watching night although they weren’t quite brith enough for Tracy’s liking.

And with that it was time for bed. Well almost. Tracy wasn’t happy about the boys being in a lodge by themselves so off I went out of our lodge over to theirs to see if they would come back to ours and sleep upstairs in the room with six beds! Toby wanted to stay in their lodge but Harry was more than happy to come back to ours – I think he had the heebee-jeebees! So eventually, at about 10:30pm we were all tucked up in bed and ready for a day in the Park tomorrow.

After 10 months, a visit to the hospital the day before and an aborted landing in Salt Lake City we finally arrived in Utah! It was only a short flight from Seattle and shortly after landing, we’d collected our car and were driving into Salt Lake City.

We checked into our lovely room at the Grand America and after a quick lie down, just to assess the quality of the bed, we set off for a mooch round downtown. It was only a couple of blocks from the hotel into the main downtown and we passed lots of old, interesting looking buildings and lots of nice looking bars and restaurants.

As we’d had such an energetic start to the day we decided to have lunch at an Italian bistro. Tracy had half a cow for her starter, the boys had pizza and we had some yummy bowls of pasta. Next stop was a quick walk round the mall to see if I could find some nice trainers to wear on my hikes round the national parks. Considering I have about fifteen pairs of trainers you would have thought I’d have packed some but I didn’t! Having failed to find any we left the lovely mall behind with its stream running through the middle of it and its Macy’s bridge and walked back to the hotel.

After another brief lie down it was down to the pool to enjoy some sunshine and have swim. The water was pretty cold but it didn’t stop us having a splash. Even though we were stuffed with food we had to order some chips and salsa just so Tracy could have a watermelon mojito and I could have a piña colada – they have some strange licensing laws in Utah!

When the pool closed at 6pm, we went upstairs and had a nice relax – it had been a tough day afterall. After watching some rubbish on the TV we went downstairs to the hotel toy shop (it was a posh hotel!) and then we had a drink in the bar. We had to order more food (this time a bowl of chips) so we could have a drink but the boys managed to dispose of them with out too many problems.

Next stop bed, so we were all ready for our drive down to Southern Utah tomorrow.

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