Honeymoon - Part 1 - Vancouver Island

We made it to Vancouver safe and sound, but the airport was pretty stressful. There were tons of people at the airport and all three flights to Vancouver were sold out or oversold. It wasn't looking good at all, but about 3 minutes before they shut the door they called our names and we were able to get on the first flight. The plane was jam packed - completely full. (But in the end, we even got to sit next to each other). We rented our car and then drove straight to the ferry. We had a reservation for the later ferry, but we decided to try for the earlier one and if we got on, then great. We got on the earlier one just fine, and had a two hour ride to Vancouver island, then about another hour drive to our resort. The scenery is amazing here. We love it. The Resort we are staying at is really cool too. Our room isn't the biggest in the world, but it's really nice. The description said "partial kitchen", but apparently here in Canada that means, "mini fridge, toaster, coffee pot, and a dresser drawer of silverware" (not even a microwave) so it looks like we won't be cooking any of our own meals besides sandwiches for lunch. Yesterday was our first full day here at the resort, we had breakfast first (they only do that on Mondays) with a little orientation telling us all there is to do here on the island. We went kayaking the first day, which was a lot of fun. We found lots of little crab shells, oysters and a few sand dollars. The water is super clear here, so it felt weird to be in a kayak, it was like you were floating two feet above the ground all the time. The temperature is perfect. It's a little on the cold side, but you can still easily wear shorts and a t-shirt, with a jacket needed occasionally. We're so glad we didn't choose a hot place.

One day we drove down to the city of Victoria which is on the south tip of the island. It was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour drive, but we ended up stopping at pretty much every little town on the way down so it took probably at least 5 hours to drive there. Each town has something unique about it so tourists will stop. For example, one town had at least 60 huge murals painted on the sides of all the buildings down town. Another town had hundreds of totem poles. Another town we stopped at - Cowichan had a Maritime Museum and also a s restauran Bay -hop where they still make wooden boats today and let you watch. Really cool. We ate lunch in a littlet right on the bay there, and for the first time ever I ate some seafood I actually liked. Fresh Halibut. It was so good because it didn't taste fishy at all! We finally made it to Victoria, our original destination, found a spot to park, and roamed the harbor city. There is a lot of really neat architecture in this city, huge stone buildings, just beautiful. The parliament building is there and it was pretty cool inside. In the harbor there were a lot of the planes that land on the water coming in and out, so that was cool to watch. We went the castle of Duke ..... (can't remember his name right now) a few blocks from downtown and it was pretty neat too. Overall, Victoria was a very clean city and very enjoyable.The ferry

Castle
Totem Poles

The next day we decided to stay closer to the resort and do some of the more local attractions. It was the lowest the tide had EVER been in that area so we went beach combing on several beaches. We found crabs, oysters, clams, sand dollars, fish, etc.... All sorts of stuff in the pools left on all the beaches. This same day we also saw a sign for some farm, but what caught my eye was the 'fresh cheese curds' written by the name. So we decided to try and find it. We found the farm and it turns out, it is just a normal farm, but that they let tourists come in and wander around wherever they want to see all the animals. They also have signs saying when they milk the cows and such, if you want to watch that too. We petted goats, played with chickens, cows, pigs, etc... and it was a pretty cool little place. In their little store they actually didn't have any cheese curds because they only make them one day a week, but we found some ice cream to get instead. We chose boysenberry and it was seriously the best ice cream we've ever had in our entire lives! You can definitely tell a difference when it is made with all the fresh ingredients. That was the best detour of the whole day.
Another day we went across the island to the West coast to a town called Tofino. This was the prettiest drive I've ever been on in my life. It took about 2 1/2 hours and there were lakes, rivers, green, more green, and it was raining too so waterfalls were cascading off the top of the rocks everywhere. Seriously Gorgeous! We stopped several times just to go hop around on rocks in the river because it was just so pretty. There was also an old growth forest we stopped and hiked around in for quite awhile too, so green! We stopped at one other little town before Tofino and went to an aquarium there. It was a pretty small place, but really neat. They catch everything right from the harbor there, and then release it later. They let us touch starfish, anemones, sea cucumbers, etc.... They also did some demonstrations where they put some of the animals in with their predator so we could see their survival instincts in action. This was one of my very favorite things of the whole trip. In Tofino we ate lunch right near the harbor again, and I ordered my halibut again. We went out to the prettiest beach I've ever seen shortly thereafter, but it was rainy and cold so we couldn't do much. I would love to play there and try some surfing on a hot sunny day though. On the drive back, we saw a black bear on the side of the road and got some good pics.