Category: vacations

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!

Last summer holidays Tracy and the boys came down to San Diego with me and had such a nice time that we decided to do it again! With an alarm clock waking us all up at 4am it was time to spring into action. Bags had been pretty much packed the night before so it was just up to us to throw some clothes on and jump in the car, which we did. With the car parked we arrived in a chaotic terminal, dropped our bag and went through security. Breakfast was purchased on the way to the gate and then we say waiting to board. As we waited there was an announcement saying that our flight had some free space in first class. As one of us boys had ever flown in anything higher than premium economy we decided that we deserved to upgrade!! A handful of dollars later and we were in first class with amazing perks like a bigger chair and a free breakfast!! How exciting!

To be fair, once we had boarded the seats in first were actually pretty comfy – better than anything I’d sat in on a plane before anyway. Just after take-off at about 7:30am we were being served our second breakfast of the day!! Pretty impressive! The flight was pretty uneventful other than an amazing view of Mt Rainier and just after 9am we were touching down in San Diego.

We collected our bags and, after reading some reviews of where we were about to rent a car from we decided to forget that reservation and go get a car from somewhere else! Once in the car we drove across to our hotel to see if our room was ready. as it was still mid-morning it wasn’t so we went for a brief drive along Mission and Pacific Beach and then decided as we’d only had two breakfasts we should go to Old Town and get ourselves some yummy Mexican! Lots of other people clearly decided to do the same thing and even though it was only midday it was chaos in all the restaurants.

We got a table at our restaurant of choice and ordered drinks and food including a giant margarita for Tracy and a diet coke for Toby which he promptly knocked all over the table and chair! After stuffing ourselves with all the tortilla chips and salsa our giant meals came out and before long out stomachs were all in pain from eating too much! We left the restaurant with out bellies aching and went back to the hotel to get into our room and unpack. After some relaxation in the room we went over to the pool in the evening to watch the movie – it wasn’t a late night though as we were all tired from our early start.

On Sunday we decided to take a trip to down town San Diego as we’d never been there before. We went to the Gaslamp district, parked the car and started to explore. It had a very familiar feel to the UK – lots of bars, pubs and drinking! Toby and Harry saw the outside of the San Diego Padres baseball stadium and that got them asking about going to a game. They certainly know how to get something they want – just ask and ask and ask! Anyway now wasn’t the time for baseball matches as we walked down to the marina front and then along to Seaport Village which was an area with lots and lots of shops – much to the delight of the boys.

After mooching around here for a while we went back to car and then back to the hotel again for a play by the pool, a few drinks and watching the movie by the pool again.

On Monday we decided to go to Seaworld as the boys both wanted to go there and we had managed to last time. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel so we set off just after 10am to check out Shamu and friends at Seaworld. As we walked across to the park the sun came out and we baked in the sunshine as we stood for a long time in the queue. It was hot, hot, hot! We got into the park at just after 11 and speed walked across to Shamu stadium to watch the killer whales doing their stuff.

httpv://youtu.be/MDRi6Jk95zs

After their show was over we watched them under water and then walked off checking out all the other weird and wonderful creatures including some ugly looking spitty turtles! Next up was the sea lion and otter show which had the boys laughing away and then onto polar bears, beluga whales and dolphins.

With the animals watched it was time for some rides. The park had a lot of rides in it and Harry was feeling in the mood for a roller coaster! After a few minutes consideration Harry decided to go on a whirly gig thing followed by the journey to Atlantis. Toby was not so keen on these rides so I took him to get a cuddly toy and then we were back just in time to see the adventurous ones on their way to Atlantis:

httpv://youtu.be/_yUp2Wj7QnQ

This ride was enough for Harry and we decided to head back to the hotel to relax for a while before we headed back to downtown San Diego and the Padres baseball match. At 6:30pm, my San Diego friend Norman picked us up and off we went to the game. The Padres were on a 10 game losing run but we were sure that tonight was the night that the winning streak would start. It didn’t! The Colorado Rockies gave them a beating but it was ok because Tracy and I discovered a buffalo chicken wing flavoured pizza which was yummy!

The next day poor old me had to go to work. Going to work meant walking about 50 yards to a meeting room in the hotel so it wasn’t too stressful! Tracy and the boys spent the day relaxing at the cinema and playing in the pool – very nice too. On Tuesday night I’d been out for a meal with my team and got back to the hotel room room just after 10pm. On my return, Tracy was snoring away in bed while the children were in bed playing on their PS Vitas! Apparently “mummy said we could stay up playing as long as we like”, so they had! Miserable Daddy came home though and told them to go to bed!!

On Wednesday, while I was still working very hard Tracy and the boys went to the beach but it was covered with seaweed and flies so they didn’t stay too long. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the pool while I was working really, really hard (although I will admit the team did go to the zoo and have a nice dinner there but it was very tough!).

Thursday was our final day. Work in the morning again for me and some pool time for the boys. After lunch we packed the car and took it back to the rental place and then it was back to the airport. There was no first class on the flight home as the plane was packed so we had to slum it! So there we go, another summer break in San Diego and good fun was had by all. Toby has already requested that we go back again and stay in the same hotel. Maybe next summer, maybe!

As well as watching wildlife and taking a city tour we also put some hard work in relaxing by the pool. Each morning we realized that Americans like to get their towels on a lounger even more than the Germans do. If you weren’t careful and spent too much time in bed in the morning all the best locations by the pool were gone! Fortunately Tracy is an expert at getting up and claiming what is rightfully hers so we managed to bag loungers by the pool bar and on the last morning in the pool:

Each morning began with plenty of breakfast, although the buffet style approach caused Tracy many problems as there was too much food and she couldn’t focus on what to eat. Fortunately about half way through our stay she managed to get her focus and structure her meals in a way that meant she didn’t spend 10 minutes walking around aimlessly!

After breakfast it was a covering in sun lotion and straight into the pool for the boys:

And once in position on a lounger that was our day pretty much taken care of! There were occasional dips in the pool, sitting at the pool bar having a drink, going for some lunch and listening to all sorts of 80’s music and annoying people but all in all it was very relaxing doing nothing in the lovely warm sunshine.

This was our apartment block – we were up on the top floor:

 

This was the view from our room:

This was the view from our pool side loungers by the banana bar:

This is the banana bar with the swim up bar:

 

This is the view across the pools and out to sea:

 

On the first night at the hotel after we’d been for dinner we went upstairs to the Premium Club area which we had access to and Toby decided he was hungry! He’d already had pasta, fruit, cakes and then a second plate of pasta (yes, in that order) but that clearly wasn’t enough – melt in your mouth steak, with some Egyptian dance moves thrown in were required:

 

We also went to a nice Japanese restaurant while we were there and enjoyed more lovely food. For this meal we had to sit on the floor and our legs then went down under the table. It was very comfortable but it must be said that Tracy did have issues getting up which, if you click the link to the photo’s below you will see one of her being hauled up by Harry and Toby!

And that was that. Just a quite few days relaxing by the pool. None of us had been to Mexico before so we can cross that off our list and I think there is a chance we may be back – it’s definitely a good place to go to get some sunshine while the cloud and rain is around in the Pacific North West!

More hotel highlights available here!

As part of the almost free vacation we got a complementary Deluxe City Tour which we decided to take on the Tuesday. The downside of the tour was that we had to get up very early as the mini bus was picking us up from the hotel at 8am! The first few stops were at other hotels to collect other guests and then we went across to Cabo San Lucas – about 25 minutes across from San Jose del Cabo which is where we were staying.

The first part of the tour was meant to be a trip on a glass bottom boat our from the marina to the main “thing” that Cabo is famous for – it’s iconic lands end rock formation. However when we arrived at the marina, we met big Lenny our tour guide and he told us that the boat tours were cancelled because the harbor authorities had closed the marina due to high winds. With this being one of the main highlights of the tour this was a rather disappointing turn of events which being told we could spend 30 minutes looking round some shops full of Mexican tat couldn’t compensate for! We looked briefly round the tat but spent most of our time looking at the pelicans that were chilling out by the water. I don’t know what it is about pelicans but I like them – I think I’d like to come back as a pelican!

After boarding the bus we set off back out of Cabo towards San Jose to a place called Chileno Beach. This beach is one of the few along this stretch of coastline where you can swim in the sea – most areas are too dangerous due to the currents that exist between the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. Chileno beach is also very popular because it is home of a large area of coral reef. This makes it a very popular location for scuba divers but it was only a paddle for us! The water was warm crystal clear and considering the benefits it offers it was surprisingly quiet – mainly because tourists don’t often know about it. The locals obviously do though because there were security guards up in the car park to make sure people weren’t pinching the coral!

 

As we boarded the bus to leave the beach, big Lenny informed us that the harbor had been opened again and we could go back and take our boat ride if we wanted to, which of course we all did! Back on the bus, we set off back from where we had just come and on to the boat. On the way back to the marina Harry and Toby were trying to get their heads round glass bottom boats. They couldn’t quite understand what the would look like and why they didn’t sink – because glass sinks.

 

As we went out of the harbor we saw lots of California sea lions flooping about and then as we got further out we started to see fishes appearing under our glass bottom. There were some parrot fishes, yellow fin something or others and many other multi-colored fishes. We then went on to the famous rock formation at lands end (the end of the Baja peninsula). Although there were lots of other boats around it was actually a pretty impressive formation/sight with lots of small beaches all around – all of which are only accessible via the boats. 

 

The rock formation, if you have an imagination is meant to look like a dinosaur putting its head down into the water to take a drink:

 

With the boat trip over it was back into the bus, with beers and sodas provided for all (apart from the driver) and we set off in the direction of San Jose del Cabo again. Next stop was a glass blowing factory where we watched the professionals creating an attractive/ugly glass fish and then we watched a couple of slightly less professional glass blowers creating something which resembled more of a big bubbly mess until they blew so much that they exploded (the glass bubbles not the blowers)!

After leaving the glass blowing we walked round the corner to a local, traditional Mexican restaurant. We all sat down at the table and the owner kept plying us with glasses of tequila – hoping that we would buy some later! I wasn’t overly interested in the samples however the host was most insistent and wouldn’t let anyone (apart from the boys) not drink it! It was much smoother than tequila we have tried in the past and then there were probably 6 or 7 other flavors to sample including apple, pear, mango and coffee which were actually quite nice – although slightly sickly after the first 4 or 5!

With lunch finished there was just time for a short walk around some of the town and then it was back in the bus and a return to the hotel. It had been an eventful morning and it was good to have taken the tour and seen some of the Mexico outside of the hotel but it was also nice to escape the heat and get into a nice refreshing pool! What a tough old day!

The rest of the pictures can be seen here.

What we had expected on our vacation was sunshine and some relaxation time by the pool. What we hadn’t expected was a bonanza of wild and marine life. If only I’d bought the camera with the big lens! Nevermind.

First of all it has to be said that not all creatures were captured on camera however all were witnessed by everyone so there is no disputing their existence!

As we were still in north America our first sighting was an eagle as we drove from the airport to San Jose del Cabo. They were everywhere throughout our stay and, according to our cab driver, it was a fish eagle. Although we saw plenty of these across our few days this particular creature was one that did escape the camera. We’re also not 100% sure it was a fish eagle but we have no other suspects so we will run with that.

We also saw a large number of another odd shaped soaring bird which looked like this:

We’ve no clue what it is but we will rely on Russell to let us know! There were plenty of them though.

Other birds that were not particularly rare but sighted by us included the pelican (one of my own personal favorites):

And the woodpecker, who we saw at the beautiful Chileno beach:

Also at Chileno we saw a lizard of some sort:

We wouldn’t make very good wildlife commentators because, again, we have no idea what it was, other than our tour guide said it was a lizard and we agree with him!

Off the land and into the water, we saw another collection of interesting things!

The biggest sighting was one that we have no photographic evidence of as we had just gone for a walk a long the beach and didn’t take the camera, however it was, until the last morning, the most spectacular. We stood on the beach going “oooo” and “aaaahhhh” as if we were watching a July 4th firework display. What we were in fact watching, out on the horizon, was at least one and maybe several grey whales leaping out the water and crashing back in with a massive splash. It was pure chance that we had seen them – we first spotted what we thought was the blow of air shooting into the air – but then after watching a bit longer and moving a bit higher up the sandy beach we saw the whales leaping and saw lots of whale watching boats zooming towards them. Even with my best lense I’m not sure we would have got a great picture but it was amazing to see nonetheless!

Moving on to somewhat smaller aquatic life we did get a slightly imperfect picture, on our boat trip, of some “yellow fin fishes”! I’m sure they have another name but I’m not sure what it is! Here they are though:

Also on our boat trip we saw Californian sea lions a-plenty both swimming in the water and being pretty stinky on some rocks:

Away from our boat trip and on walks along the beach in the morning from the hotel we had spotted manta rays leaping out the water. They seemed to congregate each morning along the beach from our hotel and for some reason they would just leap clean out the water, do a little spin and then flop back into the water. We had initially thought they were fish but as they did their spin, mid flight we saw their flappy wings. It was very entertaining but again we managed to get no photographic evidence of the leaping. We did however get evidence of the rays and pretty spectacular (and lucky) it was too!

On our last morning we had claimed our sun loungers in the pool and while Tracy and I lay in the sun Harry and Toby went to the beach to play volleyball. After a while Tracy went to check they were ok before arriving back to tell me that there were rays in the sea playing in the waves. Harry and Toby had seen these and decided that although numerous people were watching this event it wasn’t worthy of telling their parents – they’d just carried on playing.

When Tracy and I got down to the beach we saw the amazing sight for ourselves – and it was so good that it was the single best moment of the holiday! With the waves crashing onto the beach the sun was still at a low enough angle that the light was shining clear through the waves as they rose from the sea. As it did there were tens (if not hundreds at times) of rays playing in the water and surfing their way into shore right in the middle of the wave.

Although I have used the word several times already it really was amazing to see and even more amazing was the fact that I managed to get some pictures! Because the sun was still at a fairly low angle I couldn’t see a thing on the camera screen so I just pointed at the water and kept on taking pictures! Here are a couple but there are more available here:

So there we go! That was our wildlife extravaganza! The only other creature we should mention was a nasty little wasp that lay on the beach and stung Toby when he trod on it. It was a whooper of a sting but it came out nicely although it did reduce our big brave Toby to heap of tears. Fortunately we weren’t far from the hotel so we went to the pool bar and got him a kids Pina Colada and everything in the world improved!

 

Leading up to our Mexico vacation we had watched a UK TV series that tracked the migration of the Grey whale from the Baja peninsula to northern Alaska. Inspired by the fact that we now found ourselves at the base of the Baja peninsula Harry decided to perfect the art of being a grey whale.

After some hard graft in the pool I think you will all agree that for a casual observer he could easily be confused with a whale:

httpv://youtu.be/kpW3RWMgEpc

Toby wasn’t as keen on being a whale – he much prefers talking to them (and is very good at that) – so he just decided to spend some quality time on a body board that some random person had given to the boys as they left:

httpv://youtu.be/XERuWta0xgg

Toby’s smooth moves on his body board caught the eye of a drunk American lady (term used loosely) in a bright yellow bikini who decided to join him as he went up and down the pool. He seemed very pleased with himself although we’re not sure this bodes well for later in life!

Harry also took a selection of pictures to accompany the holiday journal that his teacher had asked him to write. The journal may make it onto the site one day but for now, we will all have to make do with this wonderful selection of photo’s (with the full set here):

As Harry takes such a good photo he’s been given one of our other cameras to use now so expect bigger and better photographic treats from him in the future!