We've been camping on the beaches of the extreme West Coast of the Canadian landscape for the past couple days, so - needless to say - internet access was severely limited.
Let's roll back the calendar a few days to take you back to Vancouver, BC...
We were staying at my cousin Amanda's apartment in downtown Vancouver for a few days so we decided to take in a bunch of excellent Vancouver scenery.
Wednesday we took a water-taxi from Yaletown over to Granville Island, which is a cool little place with a bunch of markets and eateries. It was almost like the Halifax farmer's market x36 all the time on this little (sort of, but not really) island. We bought some fresh Alberta short ribs and fresh, crisp veggies to barbecue later in the evening. That afternoon, we went to Jericho Beach and got our first taste of the Pacific Ocean. Finally, it was beginning to feel like summer.
Thursday, we reserved the day for Stanley Park. For those of you who don't know, Stanley Park is a huge park in Vancouver that has over half a million trees, and is over 10% bigger than New York's Central Park. It's huge, and you can spend the whole day there with no second thought, which we did. We walked through some of the (many) trails in the park, then hit up the Vancouver Aquarium and saw some sweet turtles, sharks, fish, dolphins, etc.
That evening we had yet another BBQ (thanks again Amanda!) and settled in to watch the National Spelling Bee. The only problem was, a friggen repeat of Grey's Anatomy cut the competition off so we don't know who won! And it was getting intense! (after some research, turns out the odds-on favourite Kavya Shivashankar won with with the word laodicean).
Friday, we took a ferry over to Vancouver Island marking the furthest excursion West of our trip. We spent the weekend camping at the Pacific Rim National Park a park about a twenty-minute drive from Tofino. The campground is located - literally - just above a beach (called Long Beach) on the outer western rim of Vancouver Island. The forests in this part of the country aren't like they are back home. They are actually rain forests. There are two types of rain forests, tropical and temperate - the ones in South America etc are tropical (obviously), the ones here are called temperate. The difference lies in the temperate of the climate, and therefore there is a noticeable difference in vegetation and stuff, ie. the trees and plants are different. Anyways, it was pretty cool to say that you were camping in a rain forest for the weekend.
This was also the first night we broke in our new cast iron skillet. Traveling rather light in the Suaveo, we don't really have space for a BBQ or a stove, so we are relying on open flame and our sweet new frying pan. We made steak, potatoes, mushrooms and onions over the campfire - it was perhaps just as good, if not better, as we make at home. Maybe the moral satisfaction of cooking a meal over a cave-man flame made it taste better.
Saturday morning we took a trip up to Tofino, which was extremely hippy dippy. We're talking, if you're not interested in surfing or organic goods, it is not the place for you. Nicole and I have been talking about how beautiful BC is, and how cool it would be to live here someday - but the hippy scene is not for us. Sorry Tofino.
In the afternoon we hiked a couple of the rain forest trails and went down to the beach again. We made a campfire, toasted some hotdogs and Pop Tarts (yep, Pop Tarts) and hit the hay pretty early.
Sunday, we took off for Victoria to visit our friend Derrick. When we rolled in, we perused the gorgeous downtown, had a pint of delicious Victoria-brewed beer and met up later in the afternoon with our old Superstore pal. After a tour of the sights (we saw Mile 0 - the beginning/end of the TransCanada highway), we had a great pasta supper at The Old Spaghetti Factory and called it a night.
Today, we took a ferry from Victoria back to Vancouver and started our journey back to the East Coast. We rolled in to West Vancouver around noon and had a wonderful lunch (and a few wonderful drinks) with my cousin Caroline. Tonight, we'll be staying here and taking off for almost a week of camping throughout BC, Alberta and the US Mid-West.
So if we're not updating as much, don't be too worried. We're just sleeping in a tent and cooking delicious meals on an open fire.
Talk soon.
Love, Trevs & Nicole.
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