Yesterday I took a ridiculous number of photos so it took a bit to sift through them.
When we got up in the morning and perused the weather forecast, things looked to be heading towards something along the lines of “icky” come late afternoon. We had intended to visit Tofino Wednesday, but given incoming snow, we opted for Tuesday instead. But it was difficult to believe that things could possibly be heading for a winter storm given the fact that the day dawned beautifully.
It did snow overnight, but the sky was bright and blue; the day crisp and the wind cold. The wind had woken me up early int he morning, i’d thought an earthquake was shaking the Island, nope, just the wind battering our little cabin.
The road was a sheet of ice and there was at least one casualty, a minivan launched itself over a curb and broke its wheel; it sat abandoned just out of our drive. Not far along the road, things improved, at least in our lane/direction. It appears that more people were travelling from Ucluelet to Tofino that morning compared to the reverse.
Tofino was gorgeous….nippy, but gorgeous. And I’m not going to complain about the winter wind when I have friends suffering in -41C at the moment.
This totem stand near the waterfront in Tofino and in the distance behind it lie a number of islands, one of which is Meares Island. It’s been a long time since I heard that name, but it brought back memories of the battles over old growth logging and First Nations land rights back in the 80’s. They won their battle and set the stage for many more; it was the first time that the courts overruled the province on a land claims issue. I remember cheering.
We visited Roy Henry Vickers’ gallery in Tofino, we hadn’t been there since sometime around 1989…about 30 years ago. If I had a bottomless bank account I’d have come home with a dozen prints.
We visited a few shops before deciding to head for the beaches back along the highway in the direction of our temporary home base.
Chesterman Beach, Long Beach, Combers Beach, Wickaninish Beach….they were all quiet, only one or two people/coples out braving the cold wind.
Oh, and a couple of surfers! Women, seriously dedicated to their sport.
Our final stop before heading to our cozy cabin on Terrace Beach was a short section of the Wild Pacific Trail to see what the wind might have whipped up along the rocky coastline section. It didn’t disappoint. It’s such a spectacular trail. But the farther we walked the more we recognized the change in the sky; it was becoming more and more steel coloured, and flatter and flatter….and hten the snow began. Time to go.
We decided to go out for dinner instead of cook in, but it took a bit to find something open. While we knew coming here would be quieter a couple of weeks into the new year, we’d not realized that this quiet period is also when many of the local establishments shut down for a few weeks to give themselves a break. We did find an exceptional place to eat that didn’t disappoint; halibut wrapped in prosciutto on a bed of risotto with roasted vegetables. Delicious. And we were two of only four patrons (the other two eating early and leaving shortly after our arrival) braving the weather to go out for dinner, so we definitely had an intimate dinner and the complete attention of the chef and the hostess.
