Summer Vacation 2014 -- Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Here are some more pictures of our vacation on Vancouver Island.  It is a pretty sweet spot.  I've lived in the Pacific Northwest for almost ten years (officially ten in October) and I had never been to Vancouver Island.  While I don't dispute with its loveliness, I was shocked to see so many tourists there from other parts of the world.  At our B&B in Sooke, we met people from Germany, Scotland and Poland.  French and British people were everywhere.  The Butchart Gardens hosted hundreds of tourists from Asia.  In Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Big E and I went stand up paddle boarding with a couple from Finland.  And this was a driving vacation for us -- no airfare or ocean crossing flights involved.  It was hard to believe I had never been there when it was only a ferry ride away from where I live.

Butchart Gardens.  I think my grandparents went here once.  I don't know why I think that.

We started the trip in Victoria, taking the ferry from Anacortes to Sydney.  On our first morning, we visited Beacon Hill Park.  We stopped at a grocery store, bought breakfast and ate in the park.  We found a quiet spot near a pond, which was fine until every goose in the park came and tried to eat our food.  The attack geese came in like something from The Birds.

Geese coming to eat our breakfast. I didn't get a good picture when there were several dozen nearby.  I was too busy guarding the food.

We spent five nights in Tofino, which has 1,800 year round residents.  In the summer tourist months, 30,000 people occupy the town.  One of the main activities is surfing, but we didn't try that.  I was not excited about swimming for a few hours in water so cold that I would need a super thick wetsuit.  We went kayaking and standup paddle boarding instead, which was fine with me.  I really wanted to skip the adrenaline junkie activities this vacation after last year's debacle with the Grouse Grind.

The thing that most surprised me about Tofino was the the foodie-ness of the place.  Most of the restaurants were very nice with lots of local food.  Jack and I ate oysters at every opportunity.  The few casual places featured local and organic sandwiches and muffins.  The fancy places were out of control.  SoBo, which stands for Sophisticated Bohemian, is restaurant that used to be a food truck.  They have a cookbook out with an introduction by singer Sarah McLachlan.  The main courses were mostly seafood and contained interesting concoctions.  I had scallops with pears and whipped peas or something like that.  Whatever it was, it was delicious.  The kids looked at the menu and freaked out, so they both ordered cheese pizza off the kids menu.  Neither have ordered from a kids menu in years, partly because the portion sizes are small.  Both kids only ate half of what they were given.  I took a bite of their leftovers and thought this place could be a stand alone pizzeria and I'd go there.  Rarely is something off the kids menu so memorable.

At SoBo, the Boy tried his first oyster.  I would have said "ate," had the Boy ingested it.  Jack and I ordered a half dozen.  After watching Jack and I eat them almost everyday, the Boy thought he'd give it a shot.  The slimy little mollusk slipped off the shell and into his mouth.  A half second later, the little slimy mollusk was back in its shell.  We were proud he tried it.  The concept of eating an oyster is pretty wild.  There is the old joke where someone wonders who was the first person to try an egg or an oyster.  The waiter told the Boy that this would make a great story on a date sometime when he is taking a girl out for oysters in ten years.  "I remember when I had my first oyster.  I was eleven years old and in Tofino..."

On the ferry ride home, Jack, the Boy and I were on the deck of the ferry watching the scenery.  I told the Big E she should come look at it.  Her reply: "All of these inlets look the same."  I challenged her on this.

"Really," she replied.  She got out her phone and gave me a quiz.  "Where was this picture taken?"

Ummm...  I suppose I could have cheated and looked at the order my pictures were taken, but no.  I failed, getting one out of five correct.  The only thing worse than a sassy teenager is a sassy teenager who is right.

We saw Orcas on the ferry ride to Sydney.  They were far away and I didn't get a picture.

An island that looks like Bikini Bottom.

I'd make this picture larger, but it is creepy when it get too big.  In real life, it was very cool to see a 20+ legged creature.

Cheese.  Or should I say chèvre?

The blue blobs on the shore are washed up Velella, a little floating hydrozoa with a sail.
This little piece of land becomes an island when the tide is in.

Some beautiful inlet somewhere on Vancouver Island.  (Okay, I cheated and looked it up: Beacon Hill park in Victoria.)