Honeymoon Day 5

Very Tall Trees

Finally got to see a bit of sunrise. It was (kind of) over the mountains in the harbor. I just happened to wake up in time to see the end of it. I woke Erin up so she could see it then we went back to sleep. After a couple hours we got up and got our stuff together and checked out of the hotel. We headed to lunch at New York Style Pizza but it wasn't open yet, so we wandered around for a bit then headed back for lunch. Erin had cheese and I had their Italy pizza. After that we hit the road, heading toward Tofino. We stopped at Coombs Country Market to check out their goats on the roof and wandered around the market for a while then got some ice cream (Nanaimo Bar for Erin, Spumante for me).

"Escape!"

We saw this bunny on the way out.

Next stop was Cathedral Grove to view some huge and very old Douglas fir and red cedar trees. I apparently had a lot of trouble with the photos here, some are blurry, all are washed out. I think I should have brought a tripod and maybe exposure bracketed and tried to HDR them. Or maybe I'm missing an easier solution, I dunno. Anyway after walking around there for a while we headed out to continue our journey to Tofino.

Erin admiring the Douglas fir trees

About the tree

Erin and the largest tree in the park

Erin and a red cedar

Erin and a fallen red cedar

We stopped in Port Alberni for a quick Wal Mart run as well as some gas. We needed another suitcase to fit some of our shopping booty in! Also got some more drinks and other miscellaneous supplies. Port Alberni was our final stop before Tofino. Many twisting, turning, up and down the mountain kilometers later we finally arrived in Tofino. Some of the sights that I could catch a glimpse of (I was driving) through the mountains were simply spectacular. There were a few stopping off points, but I never seemed to be able to decide to stop in time for any of them. We decided to try to catch them on the return journey. After we arrived in Tofino we checked into our hotel, we had a very nice ocean view suite at the Pacific Sands Beach Resort. We settled in for a bit, ordered breakfast to be delivered to our door the next morning then headed out for dinner at Sobo. The food there was excellent (I had Halibut and Shrimp with potato gnocchi, asparagus and a carrot orange emulsion as the sauce, Erin had soup and corn fritters), the service left a little something to be desired. It took around 10 minutes after we were sat for our server to stop by the table. After that, everything was ok but it's really annoying to have to wait like that. After dinner we headed back to our room, changed clothes and walked the beach for a while. Then we headed back in, hit the showers and relaxed for a bit before calling it a night.

Tim Horton's count - 10

Honeymoon Day 4

Paddlin' Hard (Photo by David)

This one's picture heavy.

Day 4 started with a quick breakfast, then we got dressed to go kayaking in Ladysmith. We did a 2 hour wildlife tour with Sealegs Kayaking. It was our first time kayaking (we went out in a 2 person sea kayak). Our tour guide David was great, quite knowledgeable about the local wildlife and always on the lookout for creatures to show us. We saw several varieties of starfish,

Sunflower Starfish

Leather Starfish

Ocher Starfish

several herons, a few bald eagles (we heard a lot more), some seals and I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting. The 2 hour trip was just about right, we were quite exhausted by the end.

We had great views

Shouldn't she be paddling?

After that we headed back to the hotel for our traditional post activity relaxation. We woke up from our nap and headed to dinner. We had planned on dinner at Asteras, a Mediterranean place, but they were super busy and we were hungry so we headed back to the wharf area and decided to try The Lighthouse Bistro. It turned out to be an excellent choice, their Bruschetta was amazing. Erin had a tasty veggie burger and I had fish and chips. The fry cook there was great at their job, the food was well cooked, crunchy and not at all greasy. Perfection.

Erin at dinner

Me at dinner (Photo by Erin)

We found a different gelato shop after dinner (Nanaimo Bar for Erin, Banana for me) then headed back to the pier to see if we could spot another eagle.

The crowd was even larger tonight

On the way down, we heard people gasping at the moon, turned around and saw that it was low in the sky, looking gigantic next to a hotel. Spectacular timing.

Supermoon

Our trip down to the pier turned out to be a very good idea.

Staring Me Down

The above was taken from the end of the pier. I turned around to take a picture of a lovely building, which turned out to be condos.

The Beacon

Erin then started going "baby baby baby" trying to get my attention, I turned and found...

Majestic

This guy was looking for handouts.

Harbor (Harbour?) Seal

I also got some crab shots, as well as some pictures of some people crabbing. One guy crabbing was particularly hilarious, he had some difficulties throwing the small ones back. One was really wrapped up in his basket and he was yelling at it quite a bit. "Get out of there", "Let go ya bonehead!" etc. I think he may have been a little drunk.

"Let Go!"

Mr. Crab Finally Listened

"Run Away!"

We left the pier after a little bit and headed a bit further up the shore, and sat for a while to finish watching the last of the sunlight. Then we headed back, did a little bit of laundry and called it a night.

A few more pictures from today.

Photo by Erin

Tim Horton's count - 7

Honeymoon Day 3

Goodbye Victoria. Goodbye Beautiful View.

I tried for the sunrise again, but the clouds weren't havin' any of it. I went back to sleep a couple of hours, then we woke up, had breakfast on the balcony again, then we had to pack up and check out. While we were having breakfast a gull decided to stop by and hang out on the ledge of the balcony.

Glaucous-winged Gull