Tofino

We're on the last day of a two-week stay in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This is our 17th year staying at Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast. When we first came in 1995, it was a back-up plan to an earlier attempt to stay in another Vancouver Island town. We were looking for a remote ocean-side area, and it looked like somewhere around Barkley Sound would be ideal. Looking through Northwest Best Places (no internet searches or Trip Advisor then!), we saw an interesting lodge in Bamfield, on the south side of Barkley Sound. I tried calling a few times and got no response. Finally, shortly after Christmas, we got a call from the new owners of the place. He said that he and his partner had just bought it, they were doing some remodeling, and they hoped to be up and running by summer. And they were pretty sure they'd have food. Well, if you take a look at where Bamfield is - here's a link to a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl - we thought we might want to try something a little more secure in the food area. So, going back to Northwest Best Places, we checked out the other options. We read about Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast and thought it sounded pretty good. We called and made a reservation. For these 17 years now it has been our ideal vacation place.

This is the first B and B on Chesterman Beach. The original owner, Joan Dublanko, came to Tofino with a backpack from her home in Michigan in 1972 and stayed. She had various jobs, including commercial fishing. She was briefly married and had a daughter, Angela. She bought this property on Chesterman Beach - miles of beautiful, sandy beach - and first built a small house. This is now the Garden Cottage, and is where we are staying on this visit. She then built a house nearer the beach, eventually turning that into another guest accommodation (Ocean Breeze) and building on top of it for her own residence. In 1984 she started her B and B business. She added another building, a garage with another smaller accommodation off the top floor of the house. That's Lookout, and is the place where we normally stay. Lookout doesn't have a kitchen, so when we stay longer than a week we rent the cottage with a full kitchen.

In 2003 Joan sold the business to a couple from San Francisco, Todd Byrnes and Lynda Kaye. We were worried when Joan told us she would sell, fearing the place would change too much under new owners. But they have been just perfect, updating the facilities in character with the whole place. From the get-go they have been active and supportive members of the Tofino community, which we greatly appreciate. So it is still a delight to come here year after year.

This year Larry has been writing a book about the history of the Environmental Test Labs at Boeing where he worked for his career. We usually bring work and projects, and find this to be a fine place to do focused things like write. This trip I've been doing computer file clean-up (ugh) and totally immersing myself in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins novels. (See previous post.) Very dangerous books if you want to accomplish anything else!

We enjoy Tofino for still being a small fishing/timber/First Nations town, and the way those things have accommodated a burgeoning tourist industry. And there are lots of lovely places to eat - there is great cooking in Tofino! We always eat once at The Pointe, an excellent place at the upscale Wickanninish Inn. This year we've enjoyed Spotted Bear for breakfast, the really good food at the take-out Wildside Grill (owned and run by the two guys that catch the fish!), and the new Red Can Gourmet which has fab pizza and the best Nanaimo bars I've ever eaten! We collect Northwest Native art, and Tofino (especially the House of Himwitsa) has been a wonderful source for our collection.

Most times we've done hiking and kayaking and a boat trip or two, and sometimes golf at the Long Beach Golf Course with its deer and bear rules! We enjoy watching the loads of surfers on the beach (this is big surfing territory), and every day has at least one beach walk, whatever the weather. Sometimes we've coordinated our stay with the tide table to make sure we're here for very low tides so we can really explore the ocean life. We haven't been able to do that this year (one low tide was +6 feet!) but we enjoy the beach every day. Here's a beach sunset picture Larry took on this trip:

Starting Again

Well, it always seems as if I'm starting again on writing this blog. I promised myself I would do it on 1 September, and I'm glad to keep that promise, at least to myself!

I'll have to work backwards through the summer, with many things that made the season interesting: people, books, travel. This last Sunday night and Monday we were with our friends the Steebers at the home they are building in Leavenworth. It was a beautiful evening, with a lovely meal with other old Holden friends Ron and Nancy Vignec, Barb Rossing and Lauren Johnson, and Barb's youngest sister Mary, who is the mayor of Northfield, Minnesota! We sat out on the deck over a terrific dinner of lamb done on the grill, and had wonderful conversation about life and faith and church. Here's a picture from our time together:
On Monday Greg and Mary and I went tubing on the river, which was really fun! We got a bit wet, but it was well worth it. Here's a photo from our expotition:The red and green paddles are frisbees. Works pretty well.

Larry had been to Holden to do some museum work. He went up last Wednesday. Pat went with him and they did a little hiking for a couple days. So the complicated car exchange went like this:
Pat brought the Checker to our house and rode over with Larry. Pat came out of Holden on Friday in time for his 20th high school reunion and for Nico's 4th birthday on Saturday. He drove the green van back to our house and took his car. On Sunday I drove over to Field's Point to pick up Larry, and we went to Leavenworth. We finally both arrived home on Monday evening. It was an action-packed and eventful few days!

I am currently reading the fourth novel in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series. Merrily is an Anglican priest who is also the diocesan exorcist! The first novel, Wine of Angels, didn't really impress me very much, and I thought the Rev. Watkins was a bit "wet" as the English say. But the second volume, Midwinter of the Spirit hooked me, and I find the whole series quite engrossing. Although they are big books, they are quick reads with fast-paced story lines. The ecclesiastical stuff makes a lot of sense. It all takes place in Hereford near the Welsh border, and he uses real places and real stories of those places, which I like a lot. So I'd recommend these novels. The third is A Crown of Lights and the one I am currently reading is The Cure of Souls. Merrily also has a 16 year-old daughter, Jane, who is a very good character. After The Cure of Souls there are six more. They are not very easily available, although they are recent. Not many printings, I guess. I had hoped to pick up a few when we were in England in May, but even at Foyles they didn't have any, and the few they had had been ordered from America even though they were printed in England! The weird anomalies of book publishing. Rumor has it they are all about to be reprinted.

Speaking of England, I did pick a great new author there. The name is Nicola Upson, and her three mysteries are An Expert in Murder, Angel with Two Faces, and Two for Sorrow. These take place in the 1930's in England, and the protagonist is Josephine Tey (pen name of Elizabeth Mackintosh), most famous for her mystery The Daughter of Time. They are well done, although a touch pedantic at times. They are also based on real cases of the era, and the historical setting is excellent. I have always been interested in the women of that time (Dorothy L. Sayers being one), and these novels give another perspective in that context.

More coming up on the adventures of the summer! Happy September.