Weekend in Tofino

In early January we headed for Vancouver Island to visit my sister Dorothea and our friend Janet, out for a month from Quebec and to meet her friend Rod, also visiting from Quebec.  Along with Dorothea's friend Richard we all rented a beach house for the weekend on Chesterman Beach near Tofino.

Leo and I had not been to Tofino in 35 years since the mid 80s.

On our drive out we did the obligatory stop at Cathedral Grove.  There was a big windfall here in the mid-90s so i'ts changed a lot. The canopy is more open and most of the remaining trees have their tops broken off.

Though the open canopy makes for better photo

Our beachhouse was located at the prime spot on the beach,  right where North and South Chesterman Beach meet, 

with views to the north and south and right across from Frank Island.  At low tide we could walk out to the Island. There's 2 houses (turns out you can rent one!) on the island and we watched a couple who'd waited a little too long head over to the island as the tide was coming in with their supplies in a wagon.  They ended up wading almost to their knees!

We got there in time for a walk on the beach before he sun set.  Don't get the wrong impression from these photos. It was actually pretty busy with people walking along the beach all day and lots of surfers along the beach.

Dorothea visits Tofino twice a year so she made an excellent tour guide, showing us all the good trails and beaches.  On Saturday we visited Pacific Rim National Park and Long Beach and walked the trail that cconnects several beaches.  The trails were officially closed after December's big storm that brought trees down but everyone was easily bypassing the yellow tape and going around the deadfalls and damaged stairways.

On Sunday we walked a fabulous trail along the cliffs near Ucluelet with lots of views of crashing waves.

We came expecting to spend the weekend stormwatching from our beachhouse, but as you can see the weather was pretty great and unseasonably warm with only a few hours of rain on Saturday afternoon.

Dorothea put on her wetsuit and did a little boogie boarding, but we confined ourselves to the hot tub on the deck.

The house was built in the 1970s and designed by Ronald Thom, the architect who designed the Pearson College of the Pacific.

Great views from the living room

It has some wierd idiosyncracies, like really narrow doorways and hallways, and some very 70's decor, like extensive use of harvest gold ceramic tiles.

70's splendor in the tiny kitchen

Last morning on Chesterman Beach

On Monday we visited one last beach then drove back to Victoria where we overnighted before taking the ferry back to the Mainland.  Fabulous Weekend!