rested and relaxed

So, I made it back. I could have stayed, easily, but the whole not-working thing would have worked out against me.

We had a completely escapist weekend with what we would generally consider horrible weather, but on the west coast of Vancouver Island, it's exactly what you want in order to witness cliff-pounding waves and misty rain forests.

The weather was far more appropriate for the area on the May long weekend than it had been for those unfortunate travellers who had paid high-season rates this past February. Those guests were able to sit on the beach in shorts, but the storms that they had hoped for never materialized. We, on the other hand, saw some great epic wave action that we hadn't thought possible in May. The weather even prompted the power to go out one night: "why, this must be just like camping!" we thought, sitting in our easy chairs, in front of the fireplace and waiting for our room service (honey-mustard wild salmon and steamed clams and mussels in coconut milk and peppers) while the winds raged outside. Yeah... I'll have to be sure to look for the backpack-sized, fully staffed gourmet kitchen next time I'm at Canadian Tire.

I now have to sift through the mass of digital photographs that I took, although I didn't get any of the crazy surfers. They, I believe, were perhaps the only ones disappointed in the weather. Everyone else was out and about at all the sites we visited in Tofino, Pacific Rim National Park and Ucluelet. (A plug for the Ucluelet Aquarium, billed as the world's smallest. But, despite its size, this little shack is definitely the coolest. It's only open for a short time every year, all the plants, fish et al are local and returned to the ocean, unscathed after the summer. The water for their habitats is piped in directly from the sea to keep them extra happy.)

It was a decidedly luxurious weekend - not the kind the banks will allow me to repeat with any frequency, but one I'll have to keep in the back of my head in case of an unexpected windfall.