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Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Postcard of the Interwebs - 06 Dec 2017

Habitation Location for Moon Found: Lava tunnel found under our moon's surface that is a perfect place for a habitation area.

Exxon is committing over a Billion dollars to Green Energy: When one of the biggest companies promoting climate change denial is investing in renewable resources, you know progress is being made...even if its only for profit.

Chemical that retains unwanted thoughts found: There is hope for persons that suffer from anxiety, PTSD, depression, and schizophrenia if it can help the brain move on from mental blocks that prevent healing.

MRI devices made friendlier for Kids: Of course why not make the loud claustrophobic MRI machines friendlier to kids to scare them less. I would want them friendlier for me as an adult too!

Enceladus's Chance of Life Increased: Now that the oceans under the ice looks like it has existed for billions of years, the chance of life has grown. We'll see with the next probe there.

Brain Training to Delay Dementia: University of Indiana developed brain training exercises that have helped ten years after the mental exercises. Cool!

Sponges are Early Evolutionary Relatives: First to branch off and longest around. Cool!





Sunday, 26 November 2017

Chocolate Tofino

The place called Chocolate Tofino has the best drinking chocolate, called chocolate elixir, I have had in Canada. It tastes like liquid velvet and warms you from your ears to your toes. Highly recommended and will try other sweet delights when I return to the area.



Seen around Tofino

Here are some things seen around Tofino of note, starting with a mural.
A crow was hanging out at the Tofitian coffee shop.
A surf board sitting and work area.
Leftover pumpkins.
Some clever graffiti.
A parking area along Chesterman's Beach.
Some stuffed animals on a truck.

Ucluelet - Kuma Restaurant

The Kuma restaurant was a new place to eat for us. It serves Japanese inspired comfort food. Highly recommended after a cold day, lots of walking, or both! We each got a flight of sake, which were quite good.
 I had the Goma eggplant, which was a delight.
 My wife had the spicy agedashi tofu, which was also good as we shared portions.
My wife had the winter ramen, made with red miso broth, pork shoulder, roasted corn, egg, seasonal vegetables, and nori.
 I had the house ramen as a main, with udon, egg, pork belly, smoked tofu, kale, and nori. Very delicious and filling!
We would come here again.

Ucluelet - Wild Pacific Trail - Ancient Cedars Loop and Mushrooms

Here are some pictures in the Ancient Cedars loop of the Wild Pacific Trail. Enjoy!










Ucluelet - Wild Pacific Trail - Lighthouse Loop

Our first walk on the Wild Pacific Trail was the Lighthouse Loop. Enjoy the pictures.






Ucluelet - Wild Pacific Trail - Overview

The Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet is a superb trail. It has a couple of loops and one long trail that goes along the coastline. It will eventually be expanded and integrate with a multi-use trail to Tofino to the North.

The trail was started by "Oyster Jim", a local fellow from Colorado who moved here in 1979. He tried several times to have a trail built along the coast but had to convince municipal council as well as local, provincial, and federal landowners to allow use of their land. He did get permission in 1996 and the first trail, the lighthouse loop, was finished in 1999. More have been added over the decades and more planned.
As with many trails, what you take in you must take out.
The trails are wide and well laid. There is even a stroller trail that although it does not go along the complete coast, is a more even trail for those with wheeled or limited mobility.
There are also many many offshoots that peel off to go to a small lookout to sample the change of viewpoints along the trail. The offshoots have either platforms, benches, or both.
Here is a platform that also uses the natural foliage to protect the trail and platform itself. It also provides a viewpoint surprise as it it climbed.
I think that this will be a regular part of our stay in Tofino and will encourage us to stay in Ucluelet once in a while.

Ucluelet - Wild Pacific Trail - Main Trail

These pictures are for the main trail on the coastline of Wild Pacific Trail. Enjoy!






Tofino - Shelter Restaurant

The Shelter restaurant is another place we like to go to when coming to Tofino. To start we shared a warm chevre salad.
My wife had the salmon risotto.
I had the red Thai coconut curry.
Yum!

Tofino - Sobo

Another fantastic lunch at Sobo. We had the corn fried oysters first.
Next was a bowl of their excellent vegetable soup for me and a cup for my wife. Then we shared a mushroom and a salmon tofu pocket each.

Tofino - Tofitian

The Tofitian isa new place for us and we were amazed by their pasties.
It is very nice inside with high ceilings and great selection of drinks and nibbles.
I had the breakfast scone on this morning, pictured below. On another day I had a sausage and ginger roll and a breakfast mini pizza. All were good and we would go here again.