Day 4 - Vancouver to Tofino - Surfing in the rain?!?!?

We woke early, sad to leave Vancouver but excited to head to Vancouver Island. We were headed to Tofino, which we kept hearing from everyone was beautiful. So we were definitely looking forward to this leg of the trip!

The trip would entail a 90 minute ferry ride, as well as a 4 hour drive across the island.


It was cold on the ferry ride!


But very beautiful too!

We landed in Nanaimo and immediately found a place to get some tasty seafood chowder - topped with cheese, yum.


As usual, we took one of our customary camera-on-dashboard photos.


The photos don't do justice to the landscape - the fall colors were just beginning to show.


We stopped at a place called Cathedral Grove, which had some huge old growth trees and felt like we were back in the age of the dinosaurs.


More fungi!


I loved all of the moss hanging from the trees.


We checked into our B&B, the Harvey House, which was perfect for our stay.


We took a quick walk to the beach (in the rain) where we were SHOCKED to see about 15 people surfing! We didn't get any good photos because it was cold and RAINING!


As we walked the beach, we got really wet but still enjoyed ourselves.





Afterwards, we headed into the town of Tofino for a lovely dinner. It was too dark to take photos!

Our highlight? The surreal landscape of Cathedral Grove.


Day 5? It stops raining! Yay!

Day 3 - Vancouver - Meeting a Blogging Legend!

We started our third day by taking in some beautiful flora at the University of British Columbia's botanical garden.


We had the entire garden to ourselves (or, so it felt!) I loved all of the dampness and the mushrooms...


...and the fall berries.


Hey! Who are those people?


You can kind of see the blurry people in this photo - there was a class on tree climbing while we were there.


Oooo - pink berries!


An attempt at an artsy shot.


We went to the Nitobe Japanese Garden down the road, where we felt like we were in Japan when we saw the Japanese school group leaving right before us.


This garden is described as one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japane, and it really is.


The views are very well situated (I'm channeling my inner Austen - tee hee!)


After the gardens, we drove across town to meet... Felicia from SweetGeorgia yarns! She was so sweet to meet up with us and we went to lunch together. Her blog was one of the first ones I started reading when I first started knitting. I was so excited to meet her!

She is so pretty and super nice!

We went to her studio and saw her lovely yarn and her looms.



It was so much fun meeting her (and of course I bought some yarn!) Her restaurant/travel advice really made our trip so much more memorable.

After we left Felicia's studio, we headed to Granville Island and went to the public market. It was great to walk around the area, but Rob only took one photo.

Sometimes his love of all things industrial goes too far!

For dinner, we were slightly embarrassed to admit that we went back to the Foundation Eatery to get more nachos! We ordered the large, and the waitress said, "Have you ever ordered the large before?" Of course we hadn't, and it was even bigger than we had imagined! It was the perfect end to our short jaunt to Vancouver.


Highlights of the day? For Rob, it was the nachos!

They looked bigger in person.

For me, it was definitely meeting Felicia!

I took a blurry photo of the yarn I bought.

Thank you again Felicia! We'll have to return the favor if you ever visit good ol' So Cal!

Day 4 - we go to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to!

Day 2 - Vancouver - Biking and... eating!

We were really lucky to enjoy great weather during our trip. Cool, in the 50's and 60's, and it really only rained on our travel days. The first thing we did was to grab the mountain bikes from our B&B and ride to Stanley park.


For some reason, we woefully mispacked for this trip. I forgot a hat and proper gloves, Rob forgot good hiking shoes. Luckily I remembered my newly finished Chevron scarf and it gots lots of play during this trip!


There were lots of totem poles during our trip. I love looking at them and seeing the different personalities of the animals and artists in each piece.


Hey! That's how I hold Unki!


Rob's friend Ryan told him to look out for the big sulfur piles across the water - Rob took many, many photos of them (don't ask me why!)


There were some beautiful fall colors along the ride.


Our bike ride took a couple of hours - it was just amazing to be able to get such beautiful views along the way.


Our B&B (the West End Guest House) was a great find! There were such beautiful flowers in the front yard.


Lunch took us to another of Felicia's restaurant recommendations - Finch's Tea and Coffee House. Super fresh, super tasty baguette sandwiches right near Gastown.


Yummy prosciutto sandwich.


We walked around Gastown and Chinatown - Rob swore he took a photo next to this statue from over 20 years ago!


We are such dorks! We got so excited to see posters advertising the Canadian version of our favorite summer tv show!

For dinner, we went to number 3 of Felicia's recommendations - Chambar, a belgium restaurant specializing in mussels. This was such an amazingly tasty meal - we really, really loved this restaurant!

We had to take a photo of Rob's beer so he could remember what brand it was.


I had a beet and crabapple salad - it was so delicious.


Rob had the moroccan style lamb with couscous. Again, super yummy!

Of course we had mussels, which were the best mussels I've had in a long time. They just didn't photograph well...

So, the highlight of the day for both of us? Dinner!

And they had the best frites!

Tomorrow? Do we actually get to meet the person who is made sure we ate so well? Wait and see!

Day 1 - Seattle to Vancouver - Mexi Fries, anyone?

A couple of weeks ago Rob and I went on a trip to Vancouver and Vancouver Island. It's been a while since we took a vacation so we were both very excited! So... you'll notice that the theme of the trip was FOOD! We ate lots and ate well.

We flew into Sea-Tac and drove across the border to Vancouver. We had to stop in Seattle at Hole in the Wall BBQ for some delicious BBQ pork sandwiches.


We went here on our last trip to Seattle and luckily I remembered the name of the place!


My boss Jen told me once about the Mexi Fries at Taco Time so we had to stop and get some to sustain us on our drive.


The tastiest tater tots in town!


It didn't take us too long to get to Vancouver, where we checked into our B&B and took a walk to Stanley Park and our neighborhood (in the rain...)



Even the pigeons looked a little cold and damp.


Before we left, I had asked Felicia from Sweetgeorgia yarns for some restaurant recommendations. She gave us a list of super tasty places. That day just happened to be Canada's Thanksgiving, so we were a little worried if anyplace would be opened. Luckily, we went to the Foundation Eatery, a vegetarian place where they had the best nachos ever! We also had great entrees.


I thought I'd list the highlight of each day of our trip... and for this day? The nachos for both of us!