The next morning we ventured into Port Hardy. There wasn't much there. This is about it. Seriously.
After Port Hardy we started our drive down toward Pacific Rim National Park.
On the way we wanted to stop at Telegraph Cove. It is supposed to be a great place to potentially see whales. There were a few logging areas and this little rail car was set up to assist in that. I was interesting so I took a picture.
This is Telegraph Cove. It was a tiny little town that had some fishing/whale tour boats but we just wanted to stop in and take a peek.
There were a TON of jelly fish in this cove. This picture doesn't do it justice but I thought I'd give it a shot.
There really wasn't much to take a picture of so clouds, trees and a bit of mountains it was.
Made it to the Pacific Rim visitor center.
This is a humpback (and gray whales) "teeth". This lets all the water out and keeps all the tiny fish and stuff in.
This is the top part of a gray whale's head. Enormous!!
This is the kids frantically doing their activity book so they can get their dog tag. This guy made them finish the entire book in order to get their tags.
After that task was completed we headed to the beach.
Chuck and the kids found this big starfish in the water.
He almost fell in trying to get it because it was laying right on the edge where the ocean just drops off!
You try keeping these kids out of the ocean. They're obsessed!!
This was also a big area for surfers.
After the national park, we headed north to Tofino, which is more known for surfing, but we didn't do a whole lot. We grabbed lunch, bought some groceries for the next couple days and then headed back toward our campsite to get dirty clothes. After the kids got in the ocean we HAD to do laundry so we headed south toward Ucluelet and found a laundromat.
After the laundromat and some coffee (so we could have crappy wifi) we went further into Ucluelet and hiked on a trail for a while.
Such interesting trees on our hike!
Very random.
A lighthouse that was almost 100 years old.
Then we headed back to our campsite. I was able to head down to the ocean after dinner for some alone time with the water. So calming.
And this is our campsite. You see nothing but sky through the trees, that's the ocean.
Chuck and the kids went to the ocean while I was cooking.
We left our campsite the next day to head down to Victoria to wrap up our trip. We saw this river on our way to the ocean and just had to stop on the way back.
We found tadpoles.
Lots of fun hiking.
SO clear! This hole was probably 10-15 feet deep. It would have been great to swim in on a hot day. Cold but great.
Look at the erosion on those rocks. How cool is that?
And you can see where rushing water has gone over these rocks before. And this was about 15-20 feet higher than the river was the day we went.
Then we went to our campsite in Victoria (well, across the harbor), and then ventured into the city because we weren't sure when we would get a ferry back to the states. This building is The Empress. It's in the Fairmont line which is a very high-end and luxurious hotel chain in Canada (Lake Louise and Banff most notably). Those umbrellas belong to people that are selling things to passersby.
We decided to go to the Royal BC Museum which showcases human and natural history. I had seen they were offering a humpback whale IMAX and we wanted to see it.
That's where we ran into these people all dressed in white, carrying tables and chairs and even tablecloths and table decor. I wanted to know WHY because they were just standing around in such a random place and there just seemed to be more coming. A group of them said it was the Diner en Blanc. They dress in white, meet at a predetermined place and then from there they wait to find out where they are going for dinner. And they had to carry all this stuff around with them. All gussied up. Some of these girls had stilettos on and they had no idea how far they had to walk to get to where they were going. Very interesting.
Dîner en Blanc
Dîner en Blanc
This was down by the water.
Later, after our dinner, we ran into where all those people dressed in white were eating. Right on the harbor! It was so intriguing. I would do that if they had that here, but I'd have to find girlfriends to go with me because there's no way Chuck would go.
This is the Royal Parliament building.
This is the sunset from our campsite. It was so calm and peaceful. It was the sound so no big waves, just gentle lapping.
When we got back we found this fella.
I honestly don't know where this was...
And Mount Baker (in Washington). We couldn't get a ferry until the last ferry on Friday night, the previous 2 were sold out completely. So we pined for America sitting at our campsite, looking toward home.
More tomorrow!
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