Update on my Summer holiday challenge.

Back home from our wonderful trip to Canada. 

We all had such a great time, and I really fell in love with the country. I have so many lovely memories and lots and lots of photo's to remind me of our time away. Since we have been back we've been busy doing all those horrible jobs that must be done on return from vacation - like washing all the clothes, cutting the grass (I've left the flower boarders for now), re-stocking the cupboards etc. There were also some nice things like going to collect our dog 'Beanie' from my brother and sister in law who had been looking after him. They enjoy having him to stay, and have since said how much they miss him as he was so well behaved and so loveable :-). It was also great to catch up with friends, both local and in blogland.

Anyway, I thought I should report on how my holiday task went. Well, we were so busy having a great time that I only managed to sneek a little time to work on C's hat. I managed to knit the cuff and start the first few rounds of the cable 

and make the first colour change from blue to grey, but that was it!

Almost a complete break from crafty things, and it is taking me a while to get going again, but I've had a wonderfully inspiring time away and I'm sure this will feed through in time.

Postcard home (part 3)

On the road again....

This time leaving beautiful Quadra Island and heading south to the city of Victoria.

Day 10 to 14: Right in the heart of the city this time staying in a modern condo. We spent a couple of days just exploring the city, it was so easy to walk everywhere as Victoria is quite a compact. We walked down to the water front, via City Hall into China Town, passed the amazing Johnson Street Bridge (the blue bridge), through the market and along to the harbour passing the very grand Empress Hotel to the Parliament Building. We then visited the Royal BC Museum spending the whole afternoon in this fascinating museum. There are excellent First Nation exhibitions with a reconstruction of a pithouse, there are masks and totem poles and also displays telling the story of European and Asian settlers.

China Town

Johnson Street Bridge with water plane and water taxi in the foreground

Parliament Building during the day...

... and lit up at night

Empress Hotel

Another time we walked around the bay area to Fisherman's Wharf, here there are beautiful float homes as well as a commercial fishing boats and other tourist attractions. I just loved these quirky homes, with the beautiful soft colours.

Then a little bit of adventure, we travelled to Sooke for an afternoon of zipline treking with a company called Adrenaline Adventure Tours. It was great fun ('awesome') zipping down the hillside through the rainforest. There are 7 runs of varying length and height from the floor and a couple of suspension bridges, the longest run being about 1000 feet and 150 feet above the ground. After getting kitted out with our harness and hard hat, and having a training run on a short zipline we were driven along an old logging track to the start of the trek in a 4 wheel drive truck - I think this was the scariest part of the afternoon! Our guides Ryan and Alicia were very professional and we all felt very comfortable with them. One hooked us up and set us off at the top, and the other used a braking system at the bottom of each zipline so we didn't go crashing into the tree.  The views were amazing, from the highest point we could see the Olympic Mountains in America across the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Awesome day!

Day 14 to 19: We left Victoria and headed to Tofino on the Pacific coast. On the way we stopped for a lunch break at Cathedral Grove, a beautiful area of old growth trees in MacMillan Provincial Park. A network of short trails leads through hugh towering Douglas Firs, some of which are over 800 years old.

This is the largest measuring over  9 meters in circumference! 

Just love this 'old mans beard'

The drive through the Mountains was quite spectacular, passing massive lakes and travelling through miles of forests. The road at times quite narrow as we twisted through the mountains down to the coast. We spotted so many eagles and other birds of prey in the air during the journey, it was truly amazing. 

We stayed in Tofino and had a fantastic relaxing few days here by the sea. Originally a timber and fishing town, it must have been very isolated once as a gravel road was only put through in 1959, now it is a vacation destination as there are miles of sandy beaches with good surfing on the Pacific side and beautiful forested islands in Clayocuot Sound, with opportunities for sea kayaking, whale and bear watching and hot springs.

Sunset at MacKenzie beach on our first evening

Having fun

collecting little olive shells (Baetic Olive)

Bear watching - so exciting to see a black bear in the wild.
This one was on the shore feeding, we saw another along a road side eating berries!

As well as relaxing on the beach, we visited the beautiful Botanical Gardens at Tofino. Only 12 acres in size, but such a lovely place with gardens, coastline and rain forest linked by a network of paths and boardwalks. Around each turn there was something fascinating - beautiful sculptures, instillations, quirky wooden carvings, and small pocket gardens in clearings. The gardens are a non-profit charity which operate educational programmes and provide information about temperate rainforest conservation. 

Quirky wooden crocodile sculpture in the pond!

The best compost bin ever!

Looking out into Clayocuot Sound and the Tofino Mudflats Wildlife Management area

Gathering by Michael Dennis.
'These figures are created by selecting cedar trunks which by their twist and curve carry some implication of humanity'

It was really laid back for a botanical garden, with chickens wandering around pecking and taking dust baths. There was also the wonderful 'Darwins Cafe' with delicious home baked cakes and gorgeous salads - and our entry fee allowed us to go back again over the next few days! We loved it!

On our last day in this area we visited the town of Ucluelet further along the coast. Here we made a short circular walk, part of which was on the Wild Pacific Trail, to Amphitrite Lighthouse with views over Barclay Sound and the open Pacific Ocean. However, as we were walking a sea fret came in and our views were somewhat limited and it was quite eerie walking through the swirling mist. 

But all good things have to come to an end and the next day we were on the road again heading back to Vancouver for the last few days of our holiday.

Postcard home (part 2)

Continuing the journey

Day 6: This was a traveling day as we were moving from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. We took the ferry to Nanaimo and then drove north up the Island to Campbell River and took a second much shorter ferry to Quadra Island. The weather was really wet, so good that we were travelling rather than wanting to be out doing something!

Day 7: As the tide was out we walked around the shore line from where we were staying in Heron Bay to Rebecca Spit. Rebecca Spit is a Marine Provincial Park area which is 2km long with lovely sandy beaches on both sides. The beaches are covered with drift wood - well logs - which have fallen into the sea from the logging industry and wash up on the shore. The weather was still a little overcast, but did brighten up. We had taken a picnic lunch with us - and had plenty of choice over where to sit!

The narrowest part of the spit  - just a path way in width 

Looking back across the bay 

Day 8: A bit of a quiet day, we just visited a local farmers market and craft market in Quathaiski Cove and spent time relaxing back at our accommodation at Taku resort. In the evening we had a BBQ

Day 9: Canada Day!

A much brighter day! We had planned to go Kayaking for the day. We met with our guide Tony and got kitted out,  and because we had all done some kayaking before we were able to get going fairly quickly. It was a really lovely relaxed day, paddling and enjoying the great outdoors. We went across to Rebecca Spit, around the Breton Islands, then across Open Bay where we had lunch, around Heriot Island and across Heriot Bay and back home.

We saw a whole host of wildlife - seals, bald eagles, sea otters, deer and lots of sea creatures along the exposed rocky intertidal shores. In particular there were loads of these purple starfish (Pisaster Ochraceus) commonly known as Ochre Star.

Lunch stop Open Bay

Lovely lunch laid out on a log!

Getting going again 

In the evening we walked to Herriot Bay Inn and had fantastic salmon burgers. Then watched the Canada Day firework celebrations across the bay on Rebecca Spit.

Day 10: Travel day again, leaving Taku on Quadra Island, back to Vancouver Island and the journey south to Victoria.

Postcard home (part 1)

Having a fab first week on our holiday.  This is just a quick record of what we have been doing, really to remind me.

I just had to add this view of a glacier and the pack ice from the aeroplane window as we were flying over Greenland on our way to...

... Canada!

More specifically to Vancouver.

This very misty view of the city was taken on the first morning, in fact very early in the morning as my body clock was very mixed up!

Day 1: We had a very easy day, just getting our bearings and recovering from the journey. We were staying, for this part of our trip, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and this was the view of the city from our 17th floor apartment.

C and I wandered around the campus and went to the University Botanic gardens which were fabulous, mainly temperate forest plants of British Columbia and eastern north America and Asia set in beautiful woodland gardens. In the Vegetable garden we particularly liked the way the apple trees had been made in the shape of UBC!

Day 2: We all went in the centre of Vancouver to meet a friend who I used to work with who now lives in the city. It was lovely to see her as she has been moved away nearly two years now. We met at 'Greek Day' in Kitsilano area, wandered the street and had lovely Greek food. Then went on to Granville Island and the lovely public market and artisan galleries and workshops.

Day 3: We had a great walk around the sea wall in Stanley Park and then through the centre of the park in the woodland and onto the Vancouver Aquarium.

Day 4: We went our separate ways, M and H went bouldering at an indoor climbing wall in the city,  C and I went to the Museum of Vancouver and then walked along the sea wall to Granville Island again. J met up with an old friend who lives here. 

Museum of Vancouver with crab sculpture

Day 5: All back together.  Today we did another Vancouver tourist hotspot and went to the Capilano Suspension bridge. It was really difficult to get an impression of the height and wobbliness of the bridge, but it was quite spectacular.

In the evening we went to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, which was excellent, there was so much to see that we could have spent far longer looking around - may be on our way back through Vancouver on route to the airport.

This was one amazing piece from the museum called the 'Raven and the First Men', a three dimensional carving from one huge cube of red cedar wood planks of a raven standing on top of a partially opened clamshell with human figures emerging, carved by Bill Reid.

Day 6: Today we moved on, took the ferry to Vancouver Island and have now arrived at Quadra Island. Soon we will be kayaking....... watch this space!