A quick trip to Tofino

Quick trip to Tofino

Summer is on it's way out, and an old fashioned " Wortsey's mini-holiday " was sorely needed. After breaking free of my chains of slavery for a day ( day off work ) and rescuing Becky from the shackles of her new business ...and oh Iyla, we bolted south. The "internal combustion pea" ( VW Van ) carried us south on our journey to the Tofino. Our plan was to make it to Kennedy lake for a "ninja style" campsite I had stayed at before. However, after making it only 15mins out of town we decided it would be in our best interest to stop and have dinner. We have figured out that Iyla travels best with a very full stomach. We pulled over at the Buckley Bay rest stop and had a "wrap" dinner. With dinner complete we got on our way. We ended up pulling over before Kennedy Lake at the Taylor river rest stop. We decided it was the off season and we could get away with over looking the " NO CAMPING NO OVERNITE PARKING " warnings. Besides we're the Wortsey's, a nice family, not a cracked- out theif with a rap sheet a mile long. It was fine. Iyla crashed out easily, the pop-top was popped,we did our "calisthenics" in the back and we fell asleeep with the sound of the river behind us. Wednesday morning we were up bright and early. Iyla was all business and Becky was, as always her cheerful morning self...I was too busy to be anything as I was wipping up coffees and making a wrap breakfast of eggs,cheese, mexican spice and God beef. ( HA! ) Off to the races. The road into the Ukee/Tofino junction is pure classic. A shit hole old logging road with some of the finest paving I've ever seen...except the pavement into Erindira on the Baja. Anyway really bad and idiot tourists stopping their rental Dodge Caravan's at the side of a 'no shoulder death road'...oh and on blind corners. Even with oncomming traffic slowing, yelling and gesturing to keep moving AND the evil death horn of the internal combustion pea, they would not move. Eventually they did though and we continued on.
I have a new joke. What does a Six pack of imported premium bottled beer , and a day pass for a family of three ( children under 5 are free..) to pacific rim park have in common?? They cost the same. HAHAHA. We ended up at Long Beach proper. We had a great walk that started in the sun and ended up in the Irish highlands. It got so foggy out. Becky got some great pics with the erie fog in the background and Iyla ran. And ran. And ran. She had her boots on and ran and played in the water and picked up shells and seaweed and we just tried to keep up. She is a can of beans our Iyla Ann. We finished our walk and had a nice appy platter style lunch in the Van with the sun out and top up. We enjoyed a nice cold Lighthouse Beer and Becky let me off the leash for a surf. Longbeach is not an ideal surf beach but for a family guy it provides the easiest view of the water from the parking lot. The tide was ripping and it was very sloppy. I managed to squeek out a few good rides and more than a few " ride the slarf out rides". I wish I had brought my longer board and not my Fish. I'm just not quite capable of riding it on smaller stuff in that slop. apres surf we mosied over to Florencia bay for some more beach walking. We got there and had a little nap up top and listened to the CBC on am. Iyla slept for and hour and a half and we chilled. I could do that for a month. And I'm sure Becks could to. We woke up and finished our shared beer and went down to the beach ...By this time it was so sunny and warm out. We basked in the sun and walked and Iyla ran barefoot. We found a nice round kelp head and trimmed it up nice for Iyla and she ran around everywhere with it like she was a midevil soldier with a mace! We explored all the little " houses " and climbed in and out of them at Iyla's whim. Iyla showed us how she would decorate them and where,of course her room was going to be. If only we could have a place like that on the beach...We took our time and really soaked the sun in. It was quite energising in the sun on the beach. We had yet another Wrap dinner...this time chicken. Wraps are truly the most convienient road food in the world. You can eat them and never really have too many dishes to do. There are also so many varieties as well. So we wrapped up or trip to Tofino with Iyla asleep and us enjoying the long late road home to Cumby...another classic Wortsey family mini holiday...