Adventures of Michaelea & Jon

Monday, September 22, 2008

Vancouver Island Adventure Day 3

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Vancouver Island Day 3:
We woke up in the morning and needed to be down for breakfast at 7:30am. It was a continental breakfast style with Yogurt, fruit, berries, cereal, granola, baked goods, and juices, coffee, and teas. Everyone was happy with the selection. We were the only ones eating at this time. After breakfast we packed up and checked out.

This day we headed out toward Ucluelet and Tofino. We stopped in at the information centre at the beginning of the park and got our park pass as well as making a pit stop. The facilities were beautiful. The drive to Uquilet was beautiful, but was very windy and the road was in bad condition. We passed this one lake and I asked Dave to stop to take photos. It was glass smooth and I was not feeling so good being in the back seat on a windy road. Even Jon said he was starting to feel the effects so it was a good thing we stopped. There was still dew on the petals of the wild roses at the side. We could see minnows in the shallows of the lake. It was quiet and peaceful.

For the remainder of the ride Laura let me take the front seat. I felt much better. We stopped in at the Rain Forest and walked along the trails. It was a beautiful sunny day. We decided to take one trail and it lead us to the Coast Guard base where the Army guys were doing some exercises. We quickly got off the property and onto the road back to the parking lots. It was a long walk, but it was beautiful.

Back in the car we headed towards our camp site which was 0.5km from being the exact centre point between Ucluelet and Tofino. We set up camp and headed to the beach. It was long and white. There were quite a few people there with their families and dogs. We walked along the shore and pulled up our pant legs to keep them from getting wet. We walked over to some rocks to see if there was any life on them. Not much there, but tomorrow we would check out another spot. We found crab parts, feathers and baby jelly fish on the shore.

After our walk we jumped into the car and headed into Tofino in search of dinner. There was a place on the outskirts that looked like it might be good. It wasn't the place we thought it was. We went inside and the decor was directly from the 1970's and hadn't been touched since. We were greeted by this real character of a person. He told us to sit at any of the tables except the front one near the TV. The pop machine didn't have any pop in it, instead the canned Co-op brand pop was stored in the milk dispensor. The water was okay in colour, but a little weird in flavour. The greeter turned into our waiter and took our orders. He didn't have some of the stuff on the menu but recommended a couple of the fish meals since he caught it fresh that morning, so he says. We place our orders, why not this could be entertaining and give us something to tell stories about. Next our waiter turns into the cook and goes into the back to prepare our orders. Poor Jon but this guy decided to pick on him because he ordered pizza and not fish like the rest of us. The guy even pulled the 'look you have a spot on your shirt' and bopped Jon on the nose. Talk about invading personal space. After dinner, we decided we should have all ordered pizza. The fish was good, but I felt it was over done. Laura liked it that way though. There was some coslaw looking thing that none of us touched and I didn't like the look of my garnish so I didn't eat that either. We paid for dinner, a decent price considering and headed back to our campsite.

Earlier we had purchased the makings for smores and decided tonight was the night to make them. The fire pit was built perfectly with a platform on top to place your cracker with the chocolate on it in order for it to melt some before making your sandwich out of it. We had the perfect fire built and lots of good coals for toasting. Now that we are adults we had a little more patience to nicely toast the marshmellow and not just burn it. We enjoyed the fire and then made sure it was out before retiring for the night. It was so dark and quiet in the campground that Jon woke up at one point and had a panic attack thinking he had gone blind.

Vancouver Island Adventure Day 2

Vancouver Island Day 2:

We woke up and went on a search for breakfast. Had a hard time finding a Tim Horton's, but we prevailed. Now we really had to hurry up so that we could get a spot in line for the ferry over to Salt Spring Island. Well I guess we didn't need to hurry too much as we spent a lot of time waiting for the Ferry. We were able to walk around and visit some of the artist vendors set up at the Ferry terminal. There was some really nice stuff there.

Finally on the Ferry to Salt Spring. We had the best seat in the house. It was an open air Ferry and only one deck. We stayed with the car for some of the trip and stood in front of it for some as we were right at the front of the boat. Surprisingly enough there wasn't much in the way of wind at that location. It was really neat to stand on the front of the ship.

We parked near a laundry mat and walked around main street. Saw some really neat stuff in the stores. We stopped in at a little deli for lunch and then walked over to the bakery, then back to the car. We wished we had a little more time to explore, but the mighty Ferry calls and we must go and wait for it.

We took the Ferry over to Chemainus and stopped in to see Harry and his wife. It was supposed to be a quick trip. The guys got talked into going to see the train as it came through... They were kidnapped and forced to chase the train all the way back to Duncan.... Two hours later they returned. We now had no more time to visit and had to get on the road to Port Alberni for the night.

In Port Alberni we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast for the night and they recommend a couple of restaurants we could have dinner at. This was almost 8pm at night. We went to a Schnitzel House for dinner. The food was good and the atmosphere was definately German. After dinner we headed back to the B&B unloaded the car and headed to bed.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Vancouver Island Adventure Day 1

Starting out in Surrey, BC we did our shopping at Art Knapp's and then headed to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal to catch our Ferry. We arrived in plenty of time. We hung out, went shopping, had lunch and transferred our luggage that we need while on the island to Dave and Laura's Murano as we would be parking our car in Nanaimo at my Aunt's parking lot. The majority of the time on the island we were in one vehicle. We were on the last crossing of the Ferry as the new one would be taking over it's route. Something we wished we knew ahead of time. The Ferry crossing was fairly uneventful we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, excluding sea gulls. We found out our Ferry was going to be delayed in docking and unloading. Not good. Jon and Dave had tickets on the train and we couldn't afford the extra hour that we were delayed on getting off the ferry. We had to wait until the new Ferry loaded and took off before our Ferry could even get into the terminal in order to unload. With that news we were trying to find out if the train was running on schedule. If it was late it would be a good thing. No luck. Michaelea and Laura had planned a girls day out visiting gardens, driving along the coast, and shopping. This threw a wrench in the gears. So we dropped the car off and ended up watching a boat being taken out of the water. After about an hour it was mostly out, but we decided to hit the road. We drove to the Gold Stream Campground just outside of Victoria. There we set up camp and enjoyed the rest of the evening as we had an early start the next morning.

Chilliwack Interchange: The Show

Chilliwack Interchange was a weekend long Model Railway Convention in Chilliwack, BC. Most of us headed out on Wednesday to arrive late on Thursday and setup on Friday. There was a small amount of Calgary Free-mo Members there and we all had a great time. During the convention Jon was busy at the layout so Laura and I went exploring on Saturday and Sunday. We got our nails done and did some shopping.

We also went to the Blue Heron Nature Reserve. It was a beautiful park with plenty of plants and animals. We saw a bunny and ducks, blue herons and cedar waxwings. We also saw giant slugs, or at least that's what they looked like. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

On Sunday I had one of my migraines and headed to the hotel to take a nap. By the time I was feeling better the group was half way through tear down and pack up, so Jon let me stay at the hotel until they were heading for dinner. We went to Mr. Mikes Steakhouse for dinner. It was really good. I wish we had one here, or maybe not.

After dinner we all headed back to our hotels and bright and early Monday morning they headed back to Calgary, while Jon and I headed to Surrey, BC to meet Dave and Laura at Art Knapp's Garden Centre. The Surrey location is also the only one to sell G-Scale Model railway stuff. Jon and I are putting one in our back yard and Dave and Laura haven't decided where theirs is going yet. There are actually quite a few of us HO-Scalers that also have G-Scale in our yards.

Misson BC

I picked Jon up in Mission BC after he got back from Vancouver. We headed over to the VIA station if that's what you can call it, as there is no building just a platform and an electrical box. We could have spent the entire evening there if we stayed to take pictures of all the trains coming through. There were lots. We stayed for three of them including the 'Canadian'. After we were done railfanning we headed back to Chilliwack in search of dinner.