Sea You Later Ocean

What a lovely week we had out West!! It rained nearly the whole time, but the surf was amazing, the storms were amazing and the clouds were so cool to look at. The surfers were out almost every day ripping it up in the huge surf, the people were out in their bright yellow rain jackets walking the beaches and some dummy was apparently the loser of a bet or something, because we saw him in just his swimming shorts diving into the frigid water!! He came out with his arms raised like he had proved somebody wrong... I think he was nuts, but he did it!

Calli LOVED looking for shells on the beach and searching for crabs and "dollars." She can identify mussels, clams, barnacles and limpits among a wide variety of trees. We played "Name that tree" on the way out (when she was awake) and looked for Easter rabbits in the bushes.

Marin held her own in the backpack. She giggled each time I put her on my back and watched her sister search for shells before falling asleep in the snuggly little carrier.

Calli made quite an impression on the ladies at the office. Granny had to check her email and pick up a few faxes while we were out there, so Calli went to the office with her each time and came back with something new each time as well! Everything from colouring books to stickers and toys that she was allowed to borrow. That girl is a charmer!

I can't believe how much Tofino is growing and being developed. It's almost sad to see how much it is expanding, but we wonder if there might be a building code that everyone has to follow because all the houses seem to be made in the same style. They are all built back from the road and they don't use the typical plastic siding you'd see in a "regular" town or city. The houses almost seem natural in a sense. I don't really know how to describe it. In all the many years that we've been going out there, it seems like now there is a huge boom of growth. I imagine in 10 years or less, we'll still be going out there and telling the girls how strange it is to see all the houses etc compared to what it used to be when it was ALL forest. I wish in 10 years I'll own one of those houses...
I'm already looking forward to going back again in a few months. It will be great for Calli. She'll be able to spend a little more time out on the beach and hopefully without her hat and mittens!!

I'll cross my fingers now for better weather enabling us to do a few different activities. We wanted to take her to the Interpretive Center and show her all the sea life in the "nuseum" as she calls it, but they aren't opening until this weekend when the Whale Festival opens. We were a week early for that. In the long run we left the beach a day early and headed home in order to beat the snow! Apparently it was a good thing we made this decision. We awoke to a good 3 inches of snow on the car at home this morning! I'm glad we got home when we did. There was lots on the news about the snow on the Island, so I'm glad we missed it. Overall it was a great trip. Nice and relaxing (somewhat), nice to be away, hard to leave (as always) but I can't wait to get back.