Tofino Honeymoon!
August 8-13, 2006
On August 5, 2006, Kirsten and I tied the knot! Woo! On Tuesday, the 8th, we left for Tofino, BC, for our honeymoon. We drove to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, arriving about an hour before the ferry was scheduled to leave. We thought that on a Tuesday morning the ferries wouldn't be too busy, but we barely made it on, being once of the last 5 or so cars to load. We drove off the ferry in Nanaimo and started the long drive across the middle of Vancouver Island.
After about three hours we finally made it into Tofino and checked into our hotel, the Pacific Sands Resort. We got a nice, cozy lodge unit with a living room and kitchen about 100 feet from the beach. Tofino is pretty expensive. It's hard to find a meal for less than $15 per person, so we ate in for about half our meals. Tofino also is not known for having spectacular weather. It was overcast for most of our trip, which was actually really nice because allowed us to participate in lots of activities without being uncomfortably hot. On Wednesday we took surfing lessons in the afternoon. On Thursday, we had planned to rent surfing gear, but we were too sore from surfing the day before so we went for some short hikes in the rainforest.
One of the best parts about the honeymoon compared with most other forms of vacation is that you can watch lots of movies in your hotel room and not feel bad about it. Even really bad movies. On Friday, we got up and rented our surfing gear. Then we came back to the hotel room and it was really cold outside, so we watched a movie. We finally went surfing later in the morning, but after a couple hours it we got too cold and walked back to the hotel room to warm up and watch another movie. Then in the afternoon we went surfing again.
Saturday we went kayaking in Clayoquet Sound. Our guide, Nick, took us to an island filled with ancient rainforest. The island was the site of huge logging protests in the 80's and 90's and there were some pretty incredible trees, including one in particular known as the Hanging Garden Tree because it had it's on ecosystem growing on it, including other trees. On the way back we paddling across a strong current. As we were going by a small whirlpool, the two French-Canadians in our group, bumped the rear of our kayak with their bow. The impact pushed the left side of our boat down and the current almost grabbed it and pulled it under. Fortunately we stayed upright. The French-Candadians however, weren't as lucky. Their kayak also started to tip and the current dragged the side of their boat and pulled it under. I turned back just in time to watch them go in, but they were able to rip off their spray skirts quickly and get out. After several minutes of effort by Nick and them, they managed to get out of the freezing water and back into the kayak.
After more movies Saturday night, we had to get up Sunday morning and prepare to head home. Our magical two weeks of getting married on Orcas Island and honeymooning in Tofino was over and it would soon be time to rejoin the real world. Everything was all so fun and exciting and relaxing -- a perfect way to unwind and enjoy our first week of marriage.
