Drive home from Tofino - Highway 4

Our drive home was filled with much rain, foreshadowing the deluge that would affect many parts of British Columbia the next day. As we approached the continuing work on a section of highway 4, at Kennedy lake hill, I though I would take some pictures of the progress as they try to find solid rock for supports.

Two Full Days in Tofino

For our first full day in Tofino, we had a casual early morning of reading and stovetop steel cut oatmeal at our accommodations. We then journeyed to the Tofitian. On the way my wife saw the wonderful drops of water on a small tree.

At the Tofitian we each got a slice of egg pie and a ginger-lemon hot drink.

We had decided to walk downtown, around 45 minutes, and saw this new thing...bus stop, water dispenser, and garbage bin. 

The art on the garbage can was very humorous.

After looking around at familiar places in Tofino, we ate at Shed. We each got the poke bowl and drink, and I got the Brittany Spears (fried pickles). For my drink I tried the chestnut ale from Whistler Brewing company which was quite tasty. 

After doing some more shopping, we walked back to our place and then immediately walked to Chesterman's Beach, images available here. After a rest and light snack of nice brie cheese, we drove to our supper at Wolf in the Fog, a place we have eaten at many times. We decided on a sharing meal, so we started with the ever delicious potato encrusted oysters followed by a seaweed salad. Our main was the seacuterie; marinated octopus, haliwurst, and BBQ' d herring with all the accompaniments. Apologies for the dim pictures, but the lights are always low here at night.

Afterwards we returned to our place, played crib and read with chocolates, then to sleep.

On the second full day, we had breakfast at Roar (for images of the entire Hotel Zed/Roar experience go here). We then drove to town and stopped at the Tofino Distillery for my wife to do a tasting (she really liked the beach fire) while I walked across the street to the wonderful Picnic Charcuterie. The selection and taste of the locally made cured meats was marvelous and the variety of cheeses impressive. They also have a sundry of other things for picnic inside or out.

We then went to Rhino for a handmade donut each, bought some kindling for the stove at our place, picked up a picture at the Roy Henry Vickers gallery, and some bread at the Common Loaf bakery. We then went back to our place for lunch with our meats, cheeses, and bread with a little fire. Our supper was at Roar and the rest of our evening was experiencing another fire, reading, chatting then sleep before driving back home the next day.

Hotel Zed

This was our first time to Tofino since the Zed hotel had finished. Its quite funky for all the right reasons.

I really like the outdoor surfboard shower, garbage, and bike repair station.

The lobby is a trip back through time. The sunken area with ultra shag carpet is marvelous. In the 70's study room, find the book called "Hotel Zed" and pull it to reveal the arcade room.

Had to try out the disco room.

The restaurant in the hotel, Roar, was incredibly delicious. We ate there for two breakfasts and one supper.

For our first breakfast here, I had the Island Egg Pie sandwich.

My wife had the pan fried eggs and hash.

For our supper, we started with drinks. My wife had the Clover cocktail and I had a vermouth I had not tried yet.

We shared the roasted carrot special, which had a nice citrus-y sauce.

The shared main was rockfish with lots of accompaniments. The fish was prepared very well and had great flavour.

For our final breakfast, I had the house kofta and lemon shakshuka. The heat was just right and flatbread just the way I like it.

Chesterman's Beach

Chesterman's beach is always on our list of places to walk along. Here are some images of what we saw. There is also the live cams available here.

Journey to Tofino

Our journey to Tofino was a little wet as it rained most of the time. We chatted with the previous owners of Alderlea Vineyards for an hour and a half catching up. We then drove to Parksville so my wife could try some samples at Misguided Spirits, and she liked the Brother XII vodka as they had filtered it more than others she has tried.

It was then a straight drive to our temporary residence in Tofino, picking up a bottle of wine in the revamped MAC beer/wine/spirit store, getting our pizza from Basic Goodness, and a last stop at Chocolate Tofino. The Capriccioso pizza was perfect Italian style and the Stracciatella gelato from Cholocate Tofino is divine and chocolates awesome. 

Tofino Accomodations

We rented accommodations through VRBO in Tofino, between the two entrances to Lynn road, and was quite happy with our choice for the three nights we were there. It sleeps six so would be more economical to rent with others next time.

The back patio is surrounded by trees. The road noise is present but not obnoxious. The indoor windows really cut out the sound though, which was appreciated.

The kitchen has many amenities and lots of pots, pans, slowcooker, and other items for a longer stay.

The living room is large and airy with lots of seating. There is a skylight for additional light in the day.

The kitchen table is larger than other places we have stayed at in Tofino and has a good wood stove. We had to buy some inexpensive kindling downtown as the wood was a little damp in the storage bin outside to get the fire going.

A bed is up the ladder with a skylight and there is two other bedrooms downstairs.

One of the downstairs bedrooms has a bunk bed with a skylight.

The main bathroom is roomy and has a washer/dryer.

The main bedroom has two side windows with nice views of the backyard. The bed was a little firm but still comfortable.

We would stay there again, especially with other folks.

Leverage

Leverage is a great caper style TV show. It basic premise is a small  group of not very nice people getting together to do bad things to bad people for nice folks who were taken advantage of. Because of that, each episode always leaves me feeling happy with the results and that there should be folks like this in real life. Or at least proper enforceable laws to prevent the bad people from doing bad things.

The characters are nicely acted and each have their own character arcs over the series. There is the mastermind with a drinking problem, grifter who fails at being an actor, hacker with phobias and allergies, thief with social interaction issues, and the hitter with an aversion to guns. They face against new bad folks each episode, find their weaknesses, and exploit them to turn the tables on them for the benefit of getting compensation for their victims. Most times the bad guys end up being arrested for the now exposed bad activities. Many guest stars play the bad guys and occasionally as people the main characters know from their past. There is always a twist or two in the show where it seems like they cast will not succeed but in fact they did plan for it, seen through a flashback.

Each season has a shorter run than series mainstream tv, 13 to 18 episodes. In all 77 episodes were made. There is currently a revival and continuation with nearly all of the characters called Leverage: Redemption, which I also very much enjoy.

El Valle Truffle Chips

While my wife and I were in the Okanogan valley, we were getting groceries while staying at her parents place when this bag of chips called to me while near the checkout counter of the local farmer's market. They were fantastically delicious and perfect with nice cheeses and wines. Highly recommended!