Vancouver in the summer!

Hot time, Summer in the City! Vancouver is at it's best right now!

The summer weather is finally here with temperatures from about 22 to 28 celcius and we finally have the summer vibe going on!

Last weekend (June 24-25) made me remember how much I love Vancouver and how great it can be. There was so much going on: Free Jazz Fest Concerts at Pigeon Park, Kits Days happening with sales and food kiosks on the street, and Greek Day on Broadway which I didn't attend but witnessed the sea of people in the closed off streets.

That weekend brought back a rush of nostalgic feelings for me. I remembered the excitement of getting out for summer vacation and how long the 2 months ahead seemed.

Who knew Vancouver could come alive like this? It's so easy to forget when the rains quiet the city, but with the comfortable temperatures and absolutely stunning scenery here, Vancouver is really the place to be in June!

Other must sees / dos for summer in Vancouver are:
- Going out to Wreck Beach for the day
- Creating a lantern and joining the Illuminares Lantern Festival
- Hitting Jericho Beach for windsurfing or beers at the Sailing Centre.
- Watching the Celebration of Light fireworks in English Bay, or from Kits Beach.

And many more things I can't remember right now but will come back to update!

Enjoy!

Our trip to Tofino

Made a trip up to Tofino for the weekend last summer. It was totally fantastic!

The scenery there is totally amazing. It's lush and green, quiet and very remote feeling and there is wild life everywhere, including lots of bald eagles, seals and sea lions, whales, whales and more whales.

Tofino is located in BC, of course, on Vancouver Island near Pacific Rim National Park. The drive up was totally beautiful and we stopped for a look in Cathedral Grove along the way, where there are walking paths built through the old growth forest there.

One of the best parts of our stay was our accommodation. It was a bed and breakfast called Meare's Retreat and we totally lucked out and stumbled upon it. I got a good tip from another bed and breakfast owner who said that the easiest way to find accommodation in Tofino is to email their chamber of commerce who will then send out a message to all of the bed and breakfast owners who are members. Those b and bs with availability will then email you back. It was perfect!

So Charlie at Meare's Retreat was one of the places to email us back. He has a spectacular room with a private hot tub on a deck. It sounded great but we didn't even realize until we got there.

The photo is of our view from the deck... It was absolutely breathtaking! Each morning we ate our freshly baked breakfast and watched eagles dive down to catch fish in the water. As you can see we were up on a cliff and had an incredible, did I already say breathtaking, view.

Charlie was so kind too. He lent us his boogie board to go to Long Beach and was great with directions, maps and all of that. And the hot tub was all to ourselves... perfect!

We also took the boat ride to Hot Springs Cove, where there are natural hot springs, right on the waters edge. The hot springs are among the rocks and there are natural pools and little waterfalls to sit under. I braved a trip into the ocean to cool down, but the waves were huge and powerful and the museel covered rocks gave me a few scrapes, but it was fun anyway.

The boat ride to and from the Hot Springs was basically a whale watching and wildlife tour as well. On the way there we saw the bald eagles nest, some seals and sea lions, a few whale spouts, and our driver even stopped to try and catch a salmon! I couldn't believe how action packed a tour it was.

On the way back in the open water we were in huge swells that went higher than the boat itself. We saw quite a few humpback and a few gray whales. The fright of our life was when we were still in the open water and one of the whales that was 50 feet away suddenly appeared right in front of us, bringing it's tail right out of the water and almost hitting us. We all screamed and I think the driver thanked the spirits that we didn't hit it.

The two fine dining restaurants that we went to were excellent, but please do make reservations! We had to eat outside and a German woman at another table who wasn't happy about that yelled "How can I eat?!? It's like we are camping!!" We had a good laugh about that.

There were lots of other highlights and great photos but I'll have to update that next time.

If you want someone to handle all of the details of your vacation to Tofino, and you want a package that comes with rental car, accommodation, driving itinerary, and ferry rides, see Tofino Vacations and Tofino Accommodations.

I Love BC!

Travelling around the world has made me realize how beautiful our province is and how much of it I have to see!

This will be updated with lots of photos, stories and hints for travelling in BC.