Flying to Victoria

So this weekend, a few friends and I decided to take a day trip to Victoria. The twist was that we’d fly there. It’d be quick and pretty cheap, and (to me) a new experience. Plus, I hadn’t been to Victoria in a while.

Our Seaplane

So this weekend, a few friends and I decided to take a day trip to Victoria. The twist was that we’d fly there. It’d be quick and pretty cheap, and (to me) a new experience. Plus, I hadn’t been to Victoria in a while. The upside: it really was quick, just around half an hour from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria, and I got to take some killer photos on the way. The downside: those little planes felt really rickety, and we hit a bit of turbulence over the Gulf Islands. Not a lot—I didn’t get sick, though I made sure an air sickness bag was available—but enough to make me nervous. Did I mention I’m afraid of heights? Because I am.

Active Pass, Sturdies Bay

We spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Victoria, and then we took the ferry back like normal people. Oh, and on the way back I used the Canada Line SkyTrain for the first time (from 49th Ave Station to downtown).

A Wedding in Sooke

For the second time in three weeks I was on the Island; not in Tofino but the little town of Sooke, for my friend Nathan’s wedding. It was a very nice ceremony, nothing fancy, with Sooke Harbour as a gorgeous backdrop. Which became a grey and rainy backdrop the following day, so we really lucked out.

For the second time in three weeks I was on the Island; not in Tofino but the little town of Sooke, for my friend Nathan’s wedding. It was a very nice ceremony, nothing fancy, with Sooke Harbour as a gorgeous backdrop. Which became a grey and rainy backdrop the following day, so we really lucked out.

Sooke Harbour

Les and Suzanne

View

Ring Exchange, 2

Five of us stayed in a lovely bed & breakfast for the weekend. The scenery was beautiful, the amenities spotless, the breakfasts yummy beyond description. The only irritant was one of the owners, who turned out to be a hardcore evangelical Christian. I only found this out the evening after Nathan’s wedding, when we’d all gone back to the B&B to relax, and he struck up a conversation with Jon, one of our friends who I knew was also a devout Xian (but, to his credit, had never preached to me). I was upstairs, trying to lose myself in Stephen Baxter’s excellent Exultant but I couldn’t tune out the harsh dogma, talk of “church-planting” and other bizarre jargon. Finally I couldn’t take any more, and went for a walk. I headed down the Galloping Goose trail, got bored by the lack of scenery, so I decided to explore a trail following Ayum Creek down to the water. That was a lot more interesting, and washed away the unpleasant taste of dogmatism. Plus, it gave me some very nice pictures.

Red and Black

Ayum Creek

Cooper's Cove

Things got sour again the next morning as we were heading out. Sandra, an elementary school teacher and very politically active, got into an argument with the aforementioned Xian about the upcoming strike vote and teacher’s demands. He was absolutely opposed to the strike action (and, it seemed, pretty much any social activism), self-righteously accused the teachers of being greedy, and other equally insulting arguments. Sandra held her own but was getting visibly upset by the guy’s assholish attitude, so I stepped in. Partly out of chivalry, partly because I agreed with Sandra’s position, and partly because I enjoy a good argument every now and then. But it’s a good thing we were on our way out.

To be fair: we didn’t see much of him until our last morning, and his wife was extremely nice. Still, there’s no way I’m staying there again.)

Some more pictures over here!

Tofino and Back

Last week I had friends visit from Ottawa (not just to see me, tho: they’ve gone on an Alaskan cruise) and we spent a few days in Tofino. I picked them up at the airport Monday evening, and we headed down to Tsawwassen to take the Victoria ferry. We spent most of Tuesday traveling across the island; we could have done it in a few hours, but why rush? There was so much to see on the way.

Last week I had friends visit from Ottawa (not just to see me, tho: they’ve gone on an Alaskan cruise) and we spent a few days in Tofino. I picked them up at the airport Monday evening, and we headed down to Tsawwassen to take the Victoria ferry. We spent most of Tuesday traveling across the island; we could have done it in a few hours, but why rush? There was so much to see on the way.

Saanich Inlet

In Duncan, we stopped at the Quw’utsun’ Cultural Centre, where we looked at some totem poles and watched an interesting short film on the Cowichan people’s history and culture. Petroglyph Park was a bit of a disappointment, though—maybe I didn’t look in the right places, but the glyphs just weren’t that visible. it’s possible I was expecting big showy art like Cro-Magnon cave paintings. Oh, well; maybe I’ll give it (or other petroglyph sites on Vancouver Island) another go if I’m ever in the area again. Everything else about our trip across the island was stunning, though, from the big mountains to the serene lakes to the little creeks bubbling merrily by the highway.

Wally Creek

We stayed at the Pacific Sands resort, right by Cox Bay Beach. I took a walk on the beach that night, away from the resort, and was struck by the dizzying and awesome sight of the night sky crowded with stars. Equally awesome: the roaring blackness that was the Pacific, broken only by the foam on top of the waves, faintly reflecting the light from the resort. Having lived in cities all my life, I found such complete darkness disorienting and more than a little scary.

On Wednesday morning we took a walk on the beach at low tide and goggled at the stunning critters we found. There were big gorgeous starfish, several kinds of sea anemones, mussels, barnacles and more. I’d only thought about tides in the abstract, caused by the motion of the sun and the moon, but here it was real: there was the intertidal zone, covered in barnacles and mussels. This was nature, not in a zoo; powerful, untamed, dangerous and fascinating.

Pretty Starfish

Then, whale watching! We’d heard that gray whales had been sighted feeding in the area, so decided it was worth the risk of seasickness. I took lots of pictures of the nearby islands as we went past them, for reference. I think in the back of my mind I wanted to piece together a map of the area, and match island names with their actual appearance. But when I sorted through the pictures later, they pretty much all looked like nondescript rocks rising from the sea. Oh well. I did get a couple of pretty good shots of a gray whale. I was lucky to even get those, because as big as those creatures are (up to 15m), they’re very small compared to the very big Pacific Ocean. Most of the time all I could see was their spout in the distance.

Gray Whale

The best part was, I didn’t get seasick (though I got pretty worried the first time we cut engines to watch for whales). The credit goes to the two Gravols I took, and also to my always being on my feet and adjusting for the motion of the boat. In fact, I deliberately tried to imagine I was the one controlling the rocking, which I think helped even more. On the way back, the wind picked up and the waves got even worse. But I stayed abovedecks, even though I wore only a t-shirt and light jacket, because I knew if I went below I’d have a much better chance of being sick. I preferred to freeze, endure the wind and the spray (like needles on my face, it was!), than share my lunch with the fishes.

More Pounding Waves

Before docking we passed by a bald eagle’s nest on one of the little islands between Tofino and Meares Island, but it was too far for me to get a clear picture. That’s okay, though: I saw lots of bald eagles (another first for me) soaring majestically around the area.

We started back on Thursday, stopping to explore a couple of trails south of Long Beach, ending up in a little sheltered cove. My inner scientist perked right up, because it made an interesting contrast with Cox Bay Beach. Now, Cox Bay is a sandy beach, very exposed, with no (or very few) off-shore rocks. It has life, but only the kind of life that can hang on to bare rock and endure the strong tides: barnacles, mussels, anemones, starfish. This little cove, on the other hand, was a gravelly beach, and turned out to have much richer life in its tide pools: everything we saw on Cox Bay, plus little fishies, tiny little crabs, more kinds of seaweed and shellfish. They don’t have to fight the ebb and flow so much. I picked up a few seashell fragments, polished by the waves and bleached by the sun, and that was another difference: would shells survive on Cox Beach long enough to be bleached white before being swept out to sea or smashed against the rocks?

Cove

And that was it. I regret that this is only the second time I’ve been out to Tofino in almost ten years of living in Vancouver. It’s a different place, more relaxed, closer to nature. I’m not sure I could live there long-term, but I treasure the brief times I stayed. And I like to think I’ve brough something back besides souvenirs: in addition to some extra knowledge about the creatures I’ve encountered, I have a greater respect for the vast, uncaring (yet complex and endlessly fascinating) web of relationships that connect them, and me, together.