Fogust

It was gray and foggy today. In fact, we learned that the month of August is so typically foggy in Tofino that they call it “Fogust” here. But we still had a great time.

Our day began the the Tofino Botanical Gardens. Yesterday we had seen a sign in a storefront window about a free mudflat interpretive walk there this morning.  It sounded interesting, and the gardens are only a short distance from our condo, so we decided to go. It was a great decision! The Tofino Botanical Garden features plants from this area and from other temperate rain forest environments around the world. The cultivated areas fit perfectly into the existing landscape. Plants are nicely labeled.  Bits of sculpture are scattered around the garden.

Despite an official no dogs policy, our canines were in fact quite welcome and Edie even found Petie, the resident dog, to be a wonderful playmate.

Our tour group was quite large today. There is a “field station” in the garden. This is kind of a hostel for visiting groups. This weekend there was a large group of international students who are studying English in Victoria for the summer at the hostel and they joined us for the tour. Our guide was Josie. A Vancouver Island native, she was very knowledgeable about everything connected to the natural environment of this area. She also had an instinctive sense of how to speak to kids and particularly to kids who are still learning the language. She began by showing us just how extensive these mudflats are on the map.

 

We then moved down to the shore where she pointed out some of the birds. During March and April hundreds of thousands of migrating birds visit the mudflats. There are not many there in July or August, however. She then went out on the mud and began to dig, showing us that the mudflats are filled with the most delicious things to eat – at least if you’re a bird.

 

There are lots and lots of shrimp and crabs in the mud. These are not as big as the ones that humans like to eat, but if you are a bird they are definitely bite-sized.

She invited anybody who wanted to explore the mudflats to go out and take a look. Most of the visiting students were Asian, and they just stood on the rocky shore. But a group of intrepid Mexican students kicked off their shoes and starting digging in the mud themselves.

 

I figured there was no reason why I shouldn’t join them, and the dogs were quite happy to get muddy paws. It was mucky, though surprisingly warm. At points I sank up to my knees. The dogs, with weight distributed over four legs, found it pretty easy to move on the mud.

 

After the students left, we stayed around a bit to talk to Josie. She told us a little more about the geological history of the area, particularly the earthquakes and tsunamis which have shaped the land. She gave us some tips about places to go with the dogs and places to eat. She said that the Wickaninnish Inn, the most expensive place to stay in Tofino, does indeed have a fantastic restaurant, but that it was pretty reasonable for breakfast or lunch. We decided that we would eat our lunch there.

There were not that many people there, so we had a prime table by the window overlooking the beach. The food was great! John’s Crabcakes Benedict was a delight not only to the mouth but also to the eye.

 

The dogs had to stay in the car while we had lunch, but they were able to get out and romp on Chesterman Beach right next to the hotel. This is not the biggest beach in the area. That would be Long Beach in the nearby Pacific Rim National Park. Josie warned us that the rangers the the park were pretty strict about the leash requirement there, but that Chesterman was where all the locals took their dogs. And our pups loved it there!

 

Once again we were surprised by how relatively warm the water was. The sand was particularly fine and soft on bare feet. In the picture below, you can see the restaurant on the left side of the building. The picture does not really capture, however, just how big and broad the beach is.

 

After a couple hours at the beach, we went back into town. We somehow lost one of the leashes on the beach, so we had to pick up another one. Like so many things in Canada, it cost way more than the equivalent item back in the States. But we were amused to find in addition to the coop shops this store. We had noticed that the animosity to Los Angeles, so typical of northern California, is not shared north of the 49th parallel.

 

There was also a gallery called the Eagle Aerie which was showing the prints of a local native artist. The gallery is so well-known that it is even the subject of local painting!

In the evening, we finally watched Twilight. We figured that since we will be in Forks, Washington next week we might as well know something about this cultural phenomenon. I’ll leave the reviews to others.

Tofino

This morning we packed the car, seriously wondering why we had brought everything into the hotel in the first place. We walked across the street to the Friday morning farmer’s market. It was not much:  far more crafts than food. There was one booth where a couple of very serious looking people were hawking some kind of book about talking to your children about Santa Claus. I had a feeling they did not approve of the old gent.

One of the things we bought at the market was a jar of strawberry preserves sold by the ladies of Saint Paul’s Anglican Church. Since the church was right next to the hotel, we decided to just stick our heads in and take a picture. As I was leaving I was pleased to see the poster for the parish EFM program!

 

We left Nanaimo on the main highway once again passing an almost unbelievable number of strip malls. Fortunately, there were fewer billboards to mar the view. Our guide on the little ferry boat last night had told us we should stop in Parksville on the way up because it was a great beach for dogs. It was wonderful advice. It is a huge, flat beach and the water is surprisingly warm.

 

Edie and Eli found some playmates. When other dogs were not around, Eli chased his tennis ball into the water.

 

It is not altogether easy to see in the picture below, but we found the most fantastic little hotel there. You can see the turrets of the castle there behind the RV’s and there is a real snow-covered mountain in the background. It must be just like being at Disneyland for a whole lot less money.

 

Edie half-heartedly chased a few birds, but this flock of Canada Geese paid little attention to her.

 

The road from Parksville to Port Alberni is pretty straight and fast. But after Port Alberni towns vanish and the road become incredibly winding. It’s just gorgeous as you drive past groves of giant cedar and dark fjords with glaciers looming in the distance. But at no point do you ever take your eyes off the road particularly as you try to shoot past the RVs when there is the occasional broken line on the pavement. We will have to take this road back, so perhaps we will stop and take a picture then.

We came into Tofino a little after three in the afternoon and found our condo without any problem. But we were not supposed to check in until four, and the cleaner was busy using the wireless internet connection and not inclined to let us in until he was done. So we went into the village and talked to the woman at the tourist information office. She suggested we take the dogs to the nearest town beach, Tonquin Park. It was a great place to pass an hour. You have to walk down a wooden boardwalk and stairs to reach the beach.

Once there, the dogs romped around and got their feet a little wet.

 

Once it was past four, we went back to the condo. It is right on the water overlooking Tofino Harbor and the islands of Clayoquot Sound.

We learned that the development is called Eik Landing after the Eik cedar tree shown in the picture below. This is possibly the oldest tree in the area. It started to grow sometime around 1200 AD! It was sacred to the First Nations people who lived here. Unfortunately, the trunk has become so weak with age that the city was about to have to cut it down to prevent an accident. Residents decided instead to create a system of supports to keep the tree alive for as long as possible.

This is maybe the nicest place we have stayed on the trip so far – except, of course, for Mike and Ellen’s house – and the best feature of the place is the balcony with its views of the water. John found his way there right after we were finished packing, and he soon had some company as well.

 

Here is what you see from right outside our living room.

  

After soaking in the view for a while, we walked into the village with the dogs. Tofino is about a far west and you can go in British Columbia, other, I suppose than the Queen Charlotte Islands.

 

As we walked around, we watched fingers of fog go in and out of the inlets and island of the Sound.

We stopped by the grocery store and picked up some salmon and chicken which we cooked on the grill for dinner. We spent the night watching all the episodes of Summer Heights High on cable.

Tomorrow, we’ll explore more of the beaches of this area.

Go Nanaimo

When we woke up this morning, it was cool and gray. We decided that we had done most of what we intended to do in Victoria and we were ready to move on to our next destination, Nanaimo. We packed the car up and headed out of town. Along the way, we stopped near some of the grand houses in the Uplands area of the city and looked at some of them from the beach. Many, like the one below, reminded me a lot of Maine.

We glanced at the Abkhazi Garden which had been planted and tended by some expatriate royalty from somewhere or other. Nobody was twisting our arm for the admission fee of 10 dollars, so we just took a quick look and left. After the Butchart Gardens, it seemed like a really good back yard.

We were driving past the converted church where we saw Billy Bishop last night, so we stopped and took a snapshot.

Once we reached the unattractive outskirts of Victoria, the fog lifted and it became warm again. Traffic was bad on the Trans-Canada, but not as awful as it had been yesterday afternoon. British Columbia seems to have missed out on Lady Bird Johnson’s campaign against roadside billboards, and it is depressing to drive past ugly advertisements on the highway. And that’s after you’ve driven through the endless strip mall developments. These folks really need somebody to help them with urban planning.

We pulled off the highway to go to the town of Chemainus. We were here years ago. This is an old logging town which has tried to reinvent itself as an arts center. There is a big theater which for Broadway musical revivals – Guys and Dolls is being mounted now – and and just about every large wall in town they have painted murals illustrating the history of the area.

 

The dogs were indifferent to the art generally, unless some other dog had apparently done some art appreciation there previously….

Our final stop for the day was the city of Nanaimo. At one point, this was one of the most important cities in Canada. It was here that Robert Dunsmuir had his coal mining operations, and there were also extensive sandstone quarries operating here. The San Francisco Mint – the old one down on Fifth Street, not the new one near the Church Street Safeway – is made of sandstone quarried from Nanaimo. Logging later became a major industry in the area, but by the last 1970’s that had also disappeared and the town was in serious decline. They have tried to redevelop the old harbor area to made it attractive for tourists and retirees, and to some degree this has been successful.

We arrived in the late afternoon to our downtown Best Western, and our plan for the evening was to take a little ferry from the waterfront to Newcastle Island. This was once a resort run by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, but was acquired by the Province as a park. The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful couple hours walking around the island.

Our ferry operator was a retired teacher. He did not seem to miss it….

As evening fell we walked around the city. John snapped this picture of the waterfront. He’s getting pretty good with that new camera, don’t you think?

Our dinner was at the Modern Cafe. The decor was great, the food mediocre, but it was pleasant to sit on the sidewalk and watch evening fade into night.

Tomorrow, we leave to adventures on the west coast of the island.

Very British British Columbia

We actually had an early start to our day. Our big adventure, as I mentioned yesterday, was to go to Butchart Gardens. We have both been there several times before and we know how crowded it can get. So we decided to get there just about at the moment it opened.

Here are a couple shots of our place. There is a nice deck which we can use if we want, though it really belongs to the main house. It does have a view of the ocean.

In the back there is a little sauna. Since there is not all the much privacy in this back yard, I am not sure how practical this is.

 

After stopping at Starbucks for some coffee, we made a quick trip to Butchart Gardens. Robert, the English voice on our GPS, insisted on calling it “butch art” gardens – which it really isn’t. Butchart Gardens is surprisingly dog-friendly. Canine have to be on leases, of course, and they cannot be in the buildings, but there are dog water fountains throughout the grounds and the folks in the information booths have an amply supply of dog biscuits to hand out as treats.  

Robert Butchart was a successful cement manufacturer. After he had extracted all the commercial-grade limestone from his quarry on the Saanich peninsula, he and his wife Jenny decided to turn this industrial waste area into their home and garden. I suppose today we would think of this as an example of brownfield redevelopment. You can still see evidence of the old quarry in the “sunken garden”.

The deepest portion of the quarry was just turned into a lake. The fountain was added much later, but it is a nice touch.

One of the first things that Robert and Jenny planted was the Japanese Garden. Japanese gardens were the rage in British Columbia in the teens and twenties. Ironically, this was also the time that the Provincial Legislature successfully outlawed all immigration from Asia.

We talked to a tour guide who had the strongest Canadian accent John thought he had ever heard. It turned out she was from Minnesota! She was funny and offered to take our picture.

Besides the sunken garden and the Japanese garden, there is a rose garden and an “Italianate” garden which really did not remind me of anything I had ever seen in Italy.

     

After a couple hours, it started to get more crowded and a little warmer. The dogs were ready to go home. They had been real celebrities during their time in the garden in which at least two dozen people stopped us to pet them or even get their pictures taken with them. I have no idea how often I had to answer the question, “What kind of dog is that?” I was surprised, though, that many people accurately identified Edie as a Bouvier des Flandres despite her Giant Schnauzer haircut. 

We stopped at a farm market along the way, and returned home briefly to have lunch and pick up a couple things. We then set out for Craigdarroch Castle, probably Victoria’s second most famous tourist attraction. We had never gone here on previous trips to Victoria because it seemed just so “touristy”. But there is often a reason why things are popular, and Craigdarroch Castle proved to be an interesting excursion. It is a particularly garish bit of late Victorian architecture as you can see in this picture, nicked from the British Columbia tourism website.

The interpretive leaflet we received with our admission referred to it as “bonanza” architecture, typical of the kinds of homes constructed by self-made industrialists in the late nineteenth century. John struck a pose which certainly seemed to capture the larger-than-life sensibilities of these robber barons.

This particular robber baron was named Robert Dunsmuir. A Scot, he emigrated to Vancouver Island in the mid-nineteenth century. Starting out as a miner, he managed to become owner of the largest coal mines on the Pacific coast. He sold much of this coal to the Southern Pacific railroad and a plaque in front of the house notes their connection to the Big Four.

The house has amazing woodwork inside, particularly the grand central staircase.

Although some of the rooms have yet to be restored – it was used as a military hospital and a school after the family sold it – the main rooms are set up in the style of the “mauve decade” of the 1890’s.

 

There is some lovely stained art here.

There is also a lot of really, really ugly Victoria kitsch as well. This, of course, is a little more fun than the tasteful stuff.

The smoking room, with its picture of Sir Walter Raleigh, may suggest why Robert Dunsmuir never actually lived long enough to move into this house. Just as  guess….

 

After this, we traveled a couple of block to the Lieutenant Governor residence. Canada is nominally a monarchy, although a recent poll showed than less than 5 percent of Canadians knew that the Queen was Head of State. In each province, the Queen is represented by a Lieutenant (pronounced lef-TEN-ant if you’re a royalist) Governor. The residence is modern and frankly as ugly as any seaside hotel in England, but the grounds are interesting. They show some of the last remaining stands of Garry Oak in Vancouver Island. This was once the predominant ecosystem on the south and east coasts of the island.

The parts of the grounds that are not wooded and rocky have some pretty flower beds.

 

After our visit here, we tried to go to a provincial park on the other side of town that came highly recommended in some guide. But the traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway was as bad as any I have ever seen in Los Angeles, so we gave up and went to the sweet little beach by our house.

In the evening, we went to Billy Bishop Goes to War. This is a revival of what is considered the most successful Canadian musical of all time. It deals with the exploits of Billy Bishop, a loser from Owen Sound, Ontario – oddly enough, also the birthplace of Robert Butchart – who somehow became the most celebrated fighter pilot of World War I. Originally written in the 1970’s, this two man show is really an anti-war piece. But it is a brilliant showpiece for the lead actor. In this production that role was taken by the immensely talented Ryan Beil.

The play was performed in an old church in an interesting central Victoria neighborhood. The set design and lighting were perfect.

Tomorrow, we leave Victoria and head off to Nanaimo.