Honeymoon Day 8

One of many lookouts on the Lighthouse Loop

Today we got up, had breakfast in the resort's restaurant

Erin enjoying breakfast and the view

(it was a continental breakfast buffet, apparently the kitchen was down for maintenance), then headed out to hike the Lighthouse Loop of the Wild Pacific Trail.

 It was a very nice trail, wide cut with gravel. There were also a ton of lookout points, about half with benches to sit at too. We were treated to varied views of the ocean and some inlets.

At one of the lookouts we saw an eagle with a fish it had caught.

I was totally unprepared for this to happen. Too late and out of focus when examined closely

We arrived at the lighthouse shortly after that, and it wasn't exactly spectacular. The rest of the hike more than made up for it though.

The Payoff

After the lighthouse, we continued on the loop and while we were watching a deer, we heard an eagle, looked up and there was one sitting in a tree. Then while looking at the tree, noticed a nest! We sat and watched it for a while, but did not see a baby. I don't think there were eggs or a hatchling, since there was a crow hanging around and I don't think the eagles would have tolerated it if there was something to protect. Once we finished the 2.6 km trail, we headed to lunch at Ukee Dogs for some gourmet hot dogs. We both had the Ukee dog, which was chili, cheddar and onions. Erin of course had the vegetarian version, which turned out to be much much better than the Morningstar Farms abomination that they call a hot dog. The hot dogs were tasty, the fries I had with mine were great and the mac and cheese Erin had was very tasty. After we finished our meal, we headed to the Ucluelet Aquarium, which was a neat experience. It was a very small aquarium, all local lifeforms (they told us everything in it was from within about 5 km), and everything is eventually released back into the wild. They had several touch tanks, as well as a fairly large open top tank with a large diversity of life inside.

Sunflower Starfish

This halibut really wanted its picture taken

It would swim up to where a person was and slap its head against the water splashing them

This guy demanded that I take his picture

It was very small though, and didn't take long before we were ready to move on. After we finished there, we headed back to the hotel room. I had a nap while Erin occupied herself with her tablet. Then she joined me for a bit of napping herself. (a side note... ever since we arrived at our hotel we had heard this low pitched moaning noise. we finally figured out that it is a whistle buoy) We wanted to head back out to hike more of the Wild Pacific Trail but the weather was not cooperative so instead we ended up watching stormy waves break on the rocks.

Erin relaxing before dinner

Before long, it was dinner time so we headed out, did a little shopping then went to the Matterson House for dinner. Erin had a cheesedillyisious which was rotini, marinara and a LOT of cheese. I had the special, which I can't remember the name of (ocean something or other) which was rotini, halibut, and scallops, tossed in olive oil with cheese on top. For dessert we had a slice of lemon cheesecake. Another great meal. After dinner, we headed back in for the night, relaxed for a while and hit the sack.

Tim Horton's - 10