Oct 29

Yesterday we woke up to sun and clearing skies. The weather forecast actually predicted this, at least for today. We bid farewell to Princess and Snickers and headed towards Tofino via Coombs, Port Alberni and Ucluelet. Even though it is the West Coast of the island, the locals like to call it the Left Coast.

It would be approximately 150km’s to get to Tofino, but anything we read didn’t indicate that it was a very slow and windy road once you left Port Alberni for the remaining 110 km’s. After many speed postings of 40 km or 60 km, due to switchbacks, hill climbing or steep hills, we made it to Ucluelet by around 2:30. We stopped for lunch and then walked around a few trails near Black Rock resort and Brown’s Beach.

Over the past couple of weeks, as we have depended on heating the RV more and combined with cooking and the unit being closed up, condensation was becoming a problem. After some research, I discovered that this was also an issue for boaters, and found a small dehumidifier focused for small spaces like RV and boats. I found a marine dealer in Ucluelet that had what we needed. We set it up last night and have noticed a big difference with the condensation gone and the overall damp feeling inside, gone as well.

We then continued on to Tofino around 40 km’s north.

This area has a rugged “wild” feeling to it. It is an isolated area only served by the road we came in on, by boat or by air. It is a well known tourist area especially in the summer months for camping, hiking, surfing in the fall, whale watching, fishing and storm watching during this time of year. The two villages of Tofino and Ucluelet are quaint but have several unique stores to shop at and many eateries.

Before going to our camp which is 3 km from Tofino, we went to town for a quick orientation “drive”. There are bike trails that follow the highway, so we hope to get to town either Thursday or Friday to explore as we are here until Saturday. Rain or shine, we are either walking the beaches or biking to town these days. The camp is called Crystal Cove and it has a small RV section and several cabins for rent. It is a very well kept park and well manicured. I haven’t researched the year round weather conditions here, but there are many tropical plants around that are thriving. Yes, I said tropical. See the palm trees in front of some of the cabins. It’s strange with all the evergreens around, then seeing “island trees”.

Happy Halloween!

 

 

 

 

Oct 27-28

Being a full time tourist is a different and we continue to adapt to this new “life” style. We have to keep telling ourselves that this isn’t a vacation, but really everyday life although travelling in a motor home. Weather can certainly make you slow down on the tourist activities. Monday was more of a travel day, but with the heavy rains and expected high winds, we decided to spend 2 nights at our park in Qualicum Bay, just north of the summer community of Qualicum Beach. As a member of Passport America, a 50% off RV club, the $18/night for full hookup including cable and wi-fi made that decision easier.

Monday, we left downtown Vancouver for the ferry at Horseshoe Bay, conveniently located about 20 minutes north. We were there in lots of time for the 10:30am ferry and had some time to walk around the village of the same name. BC Ferries is a very efficient operation, and we boarded the ship at around 10:25 and it left within 10 minutes. The ship, the Spirit of Oak Bay, can handle up to 300 cars, 14 tractor trailers and almost 1,500 passengers. In just over 1 ½ hours, we arrived in Departure Bay, Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. After a stop to restock supplies, we were off to Qualicum Bay Resort. As its low season, the park was not busy. During check in, the lady told Kathy, that there are a couple ponies in the park, don’t worry about them. As we drove in, there they were, just wondering around eating the grass. Who needs goats to do this! Their names are Princess and Snickers. Temp was in the mid teens. We took a short walk along the bay but the weather was turning dreary.

Tuesday was a rain day, so catching up on banking, reading, watching a movie on Netflix, etc. where the order for the day.

Let it rain, let it rain……(maybe a good name for a song?)

October 24-27

Friday we settled into our downtown Vancouver (very close to it) RV camp around 2:30pm and by 3:30 we had had our lunch and were on the bikes climbing the Lions Gate suspension bridge which is about one mile long and links Vancouver with North and West Vancouver.

Going from our side of the bridge was the longer and steeper grade, so we biked it a bit but walk quite a bit until we reached the top, then we could coast down and where on the edge of Stanley Park. Over the next 2 ½ hours we toured around the out “sea wall” of the park which is a 9 km distance. We added some distance by sig sagging a bit once near downtown as we headed over to the convention center and Canada Place. It was getting quite dark on the way back, but we found our way. BC and Vancouver are both very cyclist friendly with bike lanes everywhere. The weather behaved that afternoon for us.

Saturday was a washout day, with a constant rainfall all day and at times heavy. This was OK, as it allowed time to catch up on laundry, combing Jazz and other domestic duties along with some future planning along our trip. Sunday was to be a dry day and it the weather man cooperated with mild temps of around 14 deg C and some sunshine. We began by taking a bus around 10:30 to the middle of downtown then waited a bit for a transfer to Granville Is. But we became impatient and decided it was a nice day, lets walk the rest of the way, which we did. At the gates of coming into Granville Is., was the brewery of the same name, first tour was at noon and its 10 minutes to, so let’s sign up. It was only is another young couple from Nanaimo. It was a short tour, as this location is only an R&D center and small batch specialty location. After sampling several specialty brands (ie: a raspberry beer and their Winter Ale – which had a strong hint of chocolate to name a couple) we headed over to the markets. The meats and vegetables where quite expensive, but displayed nicely. Other than a cinnamon record, we didn’t purchase anything else. The Is. has the Emily Carr College for design on it and several of the shops where galleries or arts related, so they didn’t really interest us.

After a short walk around we took a bus back into the down town district and getting off at Robson St. we headed over toward BC Place (BC Lions –CFL) and Rogers Arena (Canucks) then headed toward Chinatown. Maybe we found a few of the “lesser” streets in Chinatown but in general we were not impressed. We soldiered on to Gastown as we had to find the father of the city of Vancouver – “Gassy Jack”. We found his statue. His full name was Captain John Deighton and was given the name Gassy due to his trait of being very long winded. At this point we needed a pit stop and some lunch as it was 3:30pm. We found a pizza and a beer at Lamplighters Public House. From here we headed down to the north waterfront to check out Canada Place and more importantly the 2010 Winter Olympic Cauldron.

We were able to get back on a bus for home arriving shortly after 5pm. What pros on using the bus system we have become! Jazz was obviously happy to see us, but after her short walk of relief, we had to wander over to the hot tub to soak our weary bones. She wasn’t impressed, but we were only gone 20 minutes. We were hers for the rest of the night. Again the weatherman complied for our “sample tour” of Vancouver on Sunday.

Monday was more of an off day, but the travel today was comprised of a 20 minute drive to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal to head over to Vancouver Is.. We were there with lots of time to spare for a 10:30am sailing. The trip is 1 hour 40 minutes on a ferry that can handle 300 cars, 14 semi tractor trailers and almost 1,500 passengers. We pulled out of Nanaimo before 12:30 and arrive in Qualicum Bay Resort before 2. More rain …… We will likely stay here two nights as the remnants of hurricane Ana that went through Hawaii a week ago are bringing in some high wind gusts and rain, so we will wait until Wednesday to head over to Tofino. The locals call this time of year coming up “storm season” and apparently, many tourists and locals flock to the area to see the big storms, high waves and yes surfers!

Hope everyone else is staying dry.

Cheers!

Oct 24, 2014

Left Sunshine Valley on Wednesday Oct 22 in the afternoon headed for Harrison Hot Springs to visit a child hood friend and his wife that I haven’t seen in many years. Their names are Frank and Liz. Frank lived in my home town of Goderich until around age 11 then headed West to Vancouver and Hope BC with his parents. About 10 years later just as my career was beginning, I traveled for business to Vancouver and reconnected with Frank. With my career just recently ended, 33 years later I have reconnected with Frank in person. We have “skyped” off and on over the past 8-10 years from India and Germany where he was living at the time, until returning to BC in 2009. To have a bond that goes back that far is I think quite special. We spent a couple of evenings camped in their front parking area and caught up on many years of activities that we both have been involved with discussing places travelled to, scuba diving, family, politics, economics, etc..

Yesterday’s weather wasn’t too great with rains continuing, but we did get out to a fish hatchery and over to Harrison River to watch a government fisheries crew at work. This time of year is “salmon run” so the mature adults come back to the hatchery were they born 4 years prior to spawn and unfortunately die. It’s amazing they find their way back. We spoke to a girl at the hatchery as we were leaving and they were going over to the river to find some adults that were ready to spawn, so we followed them….through native land that we weren’t supposed to go in but, oh well – no signs. When we got to the river there was about a dozen fisheries staff that had set up a net corral that had lots of sockeye and Chinook salmon in it that they were measuring, weighing, tagging and keeping some that were ready to spawn. Meanwhile other staff in boats near where finding dead salmon in pooled areas that had spawned. They speared them, removed the tags for information if they had tags and cut the fish in half.

There are SO many fish spawning………It was very interesting!

Today we took a nice walk around “Harrison” without the need of an umbrella and saw a lot of the village. Take a look at one of the pictures below at a tree called a Monkey Puzzle Tree. It was very unique and not uncommon in this end of the country.

As my heading says – BC!!! British Columbia truly is a beautiful province. We left our gracious hosts with a fond farewell and promised to not let another 33 years pass until we reunited. Thanks Frank and Liz for your hospitality!

Off to Vancouver. He had not planned to spend any time really in the city, but thanks to Frank’s tip to camp at Capilano RV resort right at the base of the Lions Gate bridge, we are simply on the other side of the bridge then you are in Stanley Park. Right downtown.

There will be more squawking about this over the next few days.

 

Oct 22, 2014

We woke up in Sunshine Valley to another day of wet weather. (Ironic)Again, it was a primer for the West Coast. It really didn’t matter too much as we had a mission for the morning. Back in September I entered a hair salon in Stoney Creek where Kathy has gone for years for a “lesson”. I was the student and the teachers where Maria and Vince. What was the lesson you ask? Well I wasn’t going to learn how to cut hair, BUT every five weeks or so, Kathy has to have her hair coloured and she didn’t want to entrust this to just anyone on the road trip, so I was chosen to be the “colourist” (not sure if that’s a real word). We donned the gear and mixed up the colours and chemicals we brought along and I did my first colour job! You can see the before and after shots. Maybe for some extra beer money I’ll see it I can find some old girls in the south that need their hair coloured? NOT.