Thursday, September 17, 2009

After we finished our stay in Victoria we headed north then over the hills to the west coast of Vancouver Island to stay in Ucluelet. This photo is the "dock" at the house where we were staying (a GREAT deal - 1 or 2 bedroom apartment with lawn then beach). The owners advised me not to let the kids down there unsupervised. As soon as I saw the dock I understood why! It was juryrigged and very tippy.

A snap of Uncle C. looking out our window at Q. whose reflection you see in the bottom of the photo taking this pic.

At the end of the dock we got to enjoy watching otters dine on discarded fish scraps.

We went on a cruise with Archipelago Cruises from about 10 - 3 one day. It was an excellent boat that the proprietors lived on. They had an interesting story - they had been shrimpers for many years until there wasn't much of a market/catch left and then they crafted this new site seeing venture instead. They take a group of up to about 20 people out to the Broken Island group of islands - islands that are inhabited almost exclusively by sea lions, otters, eagles, whales etc. It was a foggy day - as all our days in Ucluelet were. That is what happens on the west coast... Here is a snap of some folks processing some thresher (?) sharks. The guy was showing off for us. We were heading out of the Ucluelet harbor. Apparently there used to be a huge fishing fleet here which was able to support several gas stations etc. Now there is just one gas station left - it was adjacent to where we stayed which was actually rather nice as there were always boats coming and going to enjoy watching.

Here is a shot of a humpback out toward one of the many many Broken Islands. We watched him for a while. There were a couple other whale watching boats doing the same thing. The nice thing about being in and around the islands is that the water is remarkably calm.

Down he goes. It was fun to watch the water pattern coming off his flukes and swirling in the water afterwards - he left behind a smooth patch on the water.

A sea lion colony - they were entertaining to watch - these bulls were busy scratching themselves - in tandem.

How often do you get to wander wherever you want and climb around on the boat? The kids had great fun. We all had good binoculars to use and thick blankets. We went with the preordered gourmet lunch option which was quite yummy.

This was when we scrambled down off the path near the Lighthouse at the Wild Pacific Trail to explore some tidepools. It was a good enough hike that we did it twice! Photos long and short.

1 comment:

MJ said...

OOOh I actually really like the snap of uncle with the reflection...and I love the last one especially too.