Three

We made it home! After about 17 hours of travel over snow covered roads we arrived back in Ravenna and thankfully collapsed into bed. Our adventure had begun four days before with an early morning drive to the Anacortes ferry. We arrived in B.C. three hours later to pounding rain. The deluge stayed with us the rest of the day as we made our way up the east coast of the island to Nanaimo and then over the mountains to Tofino.

Tofino is an eclectic town that sits on Clayquot sound about halfway up the west coast of Vancouver Island. First an aboriginal fishing village and later a bastion of B.C. logging, Tofino has now embraced tourism and is a world famous kayak and surf destination.

My knee injury and Eliza’s pregnancy prevented any of our accustomed outdoor pursuits so we had to be content with walking along the beaches and enjoying the hospitality (wait service and tasty beverages) of the Long Beach Lodge great room.

We woke to snow on Saturday and watched as surfers filled the break outside the Lodge. By evening it had warmed and the snow began to melt under a soft rain. We were worried about road conditions in the mountains and got an early start on Sunday. Contrary to our expectations, the road through the hills was clear and wet. It was not until we began our descent to the east coast that the temprature began to drop and the snow piled up.

By the time we hit Nanaimo it was clear that we would not be close to making the Anacortes ferry, so we detoured to Nanaimo and caught a ferry to Horseshoe Bay. Roads through Vancouver were snow covered, but uncongested and we entertained illusions of an easy drive home. Reality rudely stepped in when we hit heavy snow and congested traffic in Surrey.

All of our border security could be solved with road construction and heavy snowfall. We sat at the border for 2.5 hours (well, ok we did cover about a kilomter in that time). Finally crossing at about 6:00 pm, we crawled up the I-5 on ramp and took another 1.5 hours to get to Bellingham. I-5 resembled the parking lot at Hyak, only bumpier.

We stopped in Bellingham to get some dinner and to see if Eliza could move after her marathon if sitting. As we ate dinner at Boundary Bay (sans brew) we heard rumors of I-5 closing. We called home for a traffic report and found that the old interstate was open so we hopped back on the freeway and headed for home.

The hour we had spent in Bellingham had give DOT the chance to plow and sand the road through the Chuckanut mountains and we had slow, but uneventful drive home.

With the exception of the laborious drive home it was a great trip. Take a look at some our Tofino Pictures.