Tofino: making lemonade

Leah and I ventured across the water to Tofino this past long weekend, with an eye for some much needed R&R. Sadly, however, the trip was not devoid of obstacles, although we managed to overcome them and ended up having a splendid trip indeed. Photos will be forthcoming, but in the meanwhile, read on…

The troubles started on Thursday night, before we left. We had an ultimate game (which we lost, but that’s no big surprise). After the game, the team went out to Sausi’s on Broadway for some food & drinks. We were both hungry and went too, thinking to stay only for a short while, as we still had to pack, and then get up early. It turned out that Sausi’s has just about the world’s slowest service (especially given how empty it was) and it took ages to get served. So we finally get home at around midnight, and realize then that we’ve yet to give my keys to Guy & Jess so that they can come and feed our cats while we’re away. So after much handwringing, we figure out a plan to leave the keys at my office the next morning on our way to the ferry, for Guy to pick them up there.

So we spend the next few hours prepping & packing & cooking, getting to bed by 2AM. The alarm was set for 4:30AM. This got us out of the house at 5:40, which I thought was plenty of time for us to get to Horshoe Bay by the time our reservation expired at 6:30. Except for one problem: our Ferry was at 6:30, our reservation expired at 6am. So but of course we missed our reseveration. And thus the ferry, as we had to wait for the 8:30 am ferry. But we had a nice breakfast while waiting.

So we then, much later that day, get to Tofino, and our campsite. The campgrounds are fantastic, well-maintained with excellent amenities (free coffee in the morning! free firewood!) and right on the beach. Of course, we had just about the worst campsite in the place. It was tiny, as far from the beach as you could be and amazingly, didn’t get any light at all, being totally covered by evil, sap-dripping trees. In addition, we shared an entranceway with our neighbours on the right, which made it quite tricky to get in and out for both of us.

During the course of unpacking it became apparent that I had forgotten to pack my sleeping bag. Which sucked, as I know from experience that no matter how warm the day, the nights in the wild are chilly. We also forgot a second towel. However, all was not lost as we were able to rent me a sleeping bag for the weekend & then buy a pair of dirt-cheap towels from the co-op. We also signed up to do a four-hour kayaking trip on Sunday, although we were momentarily flummoxed there too, as of course, I’ve recently injured my shoulder, which isn’t so great for kayaking, but the guide cleared us to go.

Thusly settled in, we ate dinner, then went for a nice long walk upon the beach that evening. In the morning, we got up, and wandered down to Surf Sister to sign up for a 2-hour suf lesson. I wasn’t originally going to participate, but I decided in the end to do so. We then had a morning to kill, so we threw the disc around on the beach (it was quite cold, as it took until 4 or 5 in the afternoon for the fog to burn off each day), then headed back to Surf Sister for our noon-time lesson

Celebrity Sighting time! We saw Eliza Dushku, of Buffy fame at SS — apparently, she wanted surfing lessons too. She gets bonus points for not being all diva-like, and showing up in a beater-looking old VW Jetta with some friends. Leah got to say “I don’t think so” to her (not sarcastically)

So the surfing was fun and excellent except that Leah first got conked on the head by her board, and then came down awkwardly on her ankle, deeply bruising it. We, of course, not being doctors, didn’t know this, and so hurried to the hospital, where we waited around for a few hours for the various people to wander in from their homes in the village and treat her. So that took up the rest of Saturday afternoon. Leah got some spanky crutches in the deal.

Sunday Morning, we got up nice and early and headed down to Remote Passages, who were to be our sea-kayaking guides for the day. Because of the various other misadventures on this trip, I decided to leave the digital camera in the car, rather than risking it in the dry-bag. This kayaking trip was excellent. Nothing went wrong, we saw seals, went for a walk on Meares Island to see some famous old trees (I think one of them was 1200 years old, or somesuch).