Where the mountains meet the sea

We just got back from a great trip to Tofino, British Columbia. It's about a 4 hour drive and 2 hour ferry ride to Vancouver Island from here. We packed up the cars and hit the road with our skiing friends, Becky, Kevin, & Brody, and Jill and Paul. Corbin wanted to drive the boat while we were on the ferry.

The lady at the border said "did you bring your rain coats? Tofino gets about 10 hours of sun a year." She hadn't checked the weather forecast. 60 degrees and sunny! And it was! We could not have asked for better weather. They said it was the best weather they have had all year! I even broke out my Chacos and showed my bare toes. It was heaven! We arrived after a long and windy drive to the west coast of Vancouver Island, hopped out of the cars, figured out how to arrange the rooms to be baby sleep friendly (moving furniture & curtains to create barriers and transferring one bathroom into a pack and play room) and hit the beach.

Becky of course, had done another wonderful job of finding us an awesome place to stay! This house had amazing views! And a hot tub. And a block away from town and the grocery store. Everything we needed at our finger tips!

The views from our deck.

The next day turned out even nicer! After trying to get Corbin to sleep for his morning nap and not being successful, we decided to pack a lunch and hit the beach. Tofino is known for it's long stretches of beaches, some of the longest on Vancouver Island, which make for great surfing. Although we didn't surf, we did rent a couple of beach bikes and found a cozy wind protected patch of sand and let the sun soak into our winter bodies.

Corbin was ready for some sun tanning, but we told him he had to keep his clothes on.

It was Corbin's first experience with sand. He was a little afraid of it. Which was kinda funny because he wouldn't leave the blanket we had set down. Brody on the other hand had some beach experience a couple of weeks ago in Florida and was a sand monster! It was a total role reversal, Corbin stayed put and Brody explored everything. Even how the sand tasted. And how the rocks and seaweed felt. I wish I had gotten a picture of what Brody looked like afterward. He was one sandy little boy :-)

We are pretty lucky to have such great friends who put up with our kids! Auntie Jill and Uncle Paul (or Ruepaul) are awesome!!

After another great night of good food, hot tubing, game playing, and sleeping we decided to spend the next day going on a boat to some hot springs up the coast. So we packed some lunch, our suits, sunscreen, and many layers for the babies and jumped aboard the "Missbehavin" with Captain Ron. Adam decided to stay behind to catch up on some alone time and save us some money. Corbin was super excited. This was both he and Brody's first boat trip. It was sunny in town but once we got out in the water, it was super foggy. While trying to feed Corbin and look out the window for whales, I got a little bit sea sick. I was turning green and had to just feed Corbin cheerios while I looked at the horizon to try to not lose my breakfast. We didn't see any whales on the way out but did see a sea otter floating on his back. Once we got to the hot springs cove, we walked about 2 km along a board walk through the rain forest. It was pretty cool. The hot springs were right next to the ocean in this little gorge/creek. While eating lunch, Corbin decided to do some rock climbing. Notice his very colorful mismatched outfit! He was rockin the style!

Because Adam was not with me to switch off and the water was too hot for Corbin, I changed into my suit, put the Beco on, Corbin was bundled up in his hat, sock mittens, leg warmers, jammies and vest, while I was in my suit and I stuck my feet in the springs. It was quite the site but I didn't have my camera. It was a narrow little gorge, so I couldn't even really set him somewhere for me to dip in. I thought about trying to hang him like they used to do with babies on the boards or little papoos but decided against it :-) It was nice to just stick my feet in. Corbin fell asleep on the hike back and slept for about half of the boat ride back. By this time the sun was in full force and we decided to take another try to see if we could spot any whales. Corbin woke up just in time! We saw 3 Grey whales! It was pretty cool. We followed alongside of them for a while and then once we saw a tail flap, we headed back. This was the view heading back to Tofino.

A few giant sea lions along the way too. And some seals.

Corbin and Brody did great on the whole 7 hour trip! They were ready to get off the boat and move around by the end, but I was super impressed!

Tofino is a must see! It was a pretty amazing place to visit! The next day it started raining, just as we were getting ready to leave! Perfect timing. Kevin, Becky, and Brody stayed another night but the rest of us headed back to the States. Who knows were our next Adventure will lead us? North Carolina is coming up for sure real soon!