Let's Go Places: Nanaimo, Parksville, Tofino, and Ucluelet, British Columbia

 

Friends, it's time to close out the Big Beautiful British Columbia trip.  It's Friday afternoon, we've been here just over a week, and after the weekend we'll be going home.  What could there possibly be left to see?

Answer: a beach binge!!!  We're going to see things this weekend that will make everything that we've seen up to now on this trip look ugly in comparison.  Weather wise, the temperature was the ideal "warm enough for shorts, not warm enough to break a sweat".

Can I See the Map Again?

Yep!  Here's a refresh on where we are.  We're headed north of Victoria, and our first stop will be on the east side of the island.  After a few days of that, we'll pop over to the west side and then go home.

How Did You Pick These Places?

Our friend Nicole.  I picked her brain for ideas on where to go.  I had heard glowing things about Tofino before, but everywhere else was new.  All I knew going in was that these were beach towns, and that's the perfect background to have.

On Friday afternoon I left Butchart Gardens and drove on the freeway for a bit.  It was the longest time that I spent on the entire trip without being in sight of the water.  Finally a few blocks before I got to the Airbnb my friend the sea popped back into view.

Let's Rate the Airbnb!

Remember how for our past few stays we've been grading on a curve?  Well, we don't need to do that anymore.  The Nanaimo unit was a winner.  It was the lower floor of a house in a Very Nice neighborhood, so technically it was the basement but it was a very nice basement.  The bathroom was so normal that there was no point in taking a picture of it.  Everything looked like it was brand new and super clean.

The only downside is that there was no kitchen and the only water source was the bathroom.  I got to chat with the owner, and she told me that the house was too big for just her, and it doesn't work for her to be a full time landlord.  She'd looked into installing an extra sink, but it was cost prohibitive.  By going the Airbnb route, she is able to bring in some extra money, and then not rent it when she is traveling or when her grandkids come to stay.  To me this is the ideal Airbnb situation - no impact on the housing market since the lack of a kitchen makes it unsuitable for a long term rental, but a far nicer stay than I could get in a hotel.  For that I was more than willing to use the bathroom sink for all of my kitchen needs, and the odds are high that I would be doing that in a hotel anyway.

Bonus points for a private back yard.  I ate all of my meals outside.  If I had a magic wand, I would have transported all of the landscaping to my own backyard.

After settling in, I hit up Google for dinner and picked nearby Simon Holt.  They had an ahi tuna sandwich on the menu that fit the bill of what I wanted in the moment.  The real point of me mentioning this is to document that I had a sensible dinner on Friday, which will not be the case on Saturday.

Afterwards I hit up the grocery store for fruit and another round of Amy's breakfast burritos for my Nanaimo breakfast needs.

Saturday - Let's Go to the Beach!

The next morning I brewed up some coffee and took my time savoring it out in the backyard.  When I was good and ready, I went for a stroll around the 'hood.

Mid morning I drove to Parksville and hit the beach.  It was a long walk over the sand to get to the water.

At last I made it to the water.

As I got closer to the water, the sand gave way to rocks and shells, which was no problem since I was wearing Teva sandals, but pro tip these beaches are the wrong place to be barefoot.  On any given Florida beach it will sometimes be rocky, and you'll see smaller shells.  Parksville wasn't like that.  There were a ton of larger shells, and whole oysters.

I couldn't get over how many of them there were.

In Florida you'll sometimes see a piece of a sand dollar.  In Parksville the beach was covered with a TON of whole sand dollars.  They were brown, and some of them had barnacles on them.  I picked one up, and kept upgrading it for less barnacled models.  Finally I found a pure white sand dollar, and made that my official souvenir of the trip.

I kept moving on, and started seeing purple sand dollars.

Later on I hit up google to get educated on the sand dollar situation.  I don't think any of the ones that I saw were still alive, but I'm glad that I didn't take any of the brown or purple ones just in case.  If they're white then they're definitely not living.

I started making my way back, and came across a large pool that had a lot of oysters it it.  A woman was collecting them and breaking them open.  At the time I wondered if she was trying to get the meat, and only later on I realized that she was probably looking for pearls.

After quite a beach walk, I started getting hungry.  There was a pizza truck on the beach, but that wasn't what I was in the mood for.  I googled Nanaimo beaches, and Departure Bay got my attention because the internets said it had food trucks.  That sounded like more variety, so I headed there.

I was greeted by another lovely beach but only one food truck, and I was seriously hungry.  I turned to my phone, which directed me to look across the street to Drip Coffee Social. 

They had a nice sandwich menu, so I fulfilled my lunch needs.

They also had baked goods.  Normally I don't have room for dessert when I travel, since a human can only eat so much, and 1-2 restaurant meals per day plus the occasional drinky drink is about all that I can manage.  However, thanks to Kyria, there was going to be an exception to the rule.  We'd been texting, and when I told her I was in Nanaimo, her response threw me for a loop.  She asked "did you get one of the bars?"

Bars?  What bars?  She wasn't asking if I'd been to a bar, so what did she mean?  I asked her to 'splain herself.

The answer: "Nanaimo bars."

What?  I turned to google, and saw something that looked right up my alley.  Let me talk you through what you're seeing: the base is a mix of graham crackers, coconut, walnuts, and of course chocolate, a custard layer, and more chocolate on top.  As if that wasn't good enough, there's more: it's a no bake dessert.  If Kyria hadn't put them on my radar I would never have taken a look at the bakery case, and sure enough they had them.

There was something else from the bakery that was asking to go home with me.  To understand why the peanut butter marshmallow bars spoke to me so much, you need to know that rocky road fudge was a Christmas staple growing up.  The only thing is that I have more of a sweet tooth than a chocolate tooth, so seeing my childhood treat in a non-chocolate form was a dream come true.

To answer your next question, I had a couple of bites of both of my treats on the spot, and took the rest with me for later.  "Later" ended up being dinner, and if you've never had dessert instead of dinner then you are not living your life right.

After lunch I headed back to the beach.

There were a ton of oysters here as well, and I was amused by the sign.

There was still time for another beach, so I headed to Blueback Beach.

The next morning it was time to move on to check out the west side of Vancouver Island.  It's about a two hour drive, and I have no pictures cuz...I was driving...but just know that I am not showing you something that you need to see.  Mountains and lakes.

I made it to the west side of the island and headed north to Tofino.  I saw a black bear, but not in the way that I wanted to see one.  It was in the middle of the road, and a car with a badly dented hood was off to the side.  I've seen the aftermath of plenty of deer vs car situations, and would never have thought that bear vs car has the same hazards.

Ok, let's get back to happy things.  I pulled into Tofino around noon, and took note that it was (1) gorgeous, (2) it was lunchtime, and (3) the town was very crowded.  I drove around for a bit, and parking was so limited that I decided not to bother with stopping in the town.  As far as food was concerned, I'd seen a sign for a restaurant called Browns Social House on the way into town, which had my attention since yesterday's lunch at Drip Social had been such a hit.  I headed back there, and turned down the road that I knew would take me to the sea...and was also taking me to a Best Western?  Huh Browns Social House was located inside of a Best Western?  I'm not saying that I'm a snob, but let's say that I didn't have high hopes going in.  I only stopped because it wasn't crowded.

Oh hello, this is quite a view for a restaurant located inside of a Best Western.  

Also hello, who knew that you can get a poke bowl like this at a Best Western?

The meal came with chopsticks, and chopstick instructions.  My chopstick M.O. is "she believed that she could so she did", so I was tickled to see it written in tighter phrasing.

I cleaned my plate and changed my tune about Best Western as a brand.  Now that I was fueled up, it was time to hit the beach.  Based on my chat with the host of the Nanaimo Airbnb, I picked Chesterman beach, and spent a good bit of time walking on the beach, climbing on the rocks, and generally being transported to another world.

In due time I came back to reality, which only meant that it was time to head to Ucluelet with a hiking stop on the way.  I'd taken note of Schooner Cove trail, which was described as being part beach and part rainforest.  That's a combination that does not exist in my part of the world, so it was a mandatory stop for sure.  Sigh, it was closed.  I continued driving, and saw a sign for a rainforest trail.  Oh hey now, that will do!  I believe that the technical answer for where I was in the Rainforest Hiking Trail, Loop B.

It was a short, quite easy stroll with maximum gorgeousness.

I got back in the car and headed for Ucluelet, which was my final destination of the day.  It was too early to check into the Airbnb, so I headed for the star of the show, which was the Wild Pacific Lighthouse Loop.

I'm condensing one million pictures into just a few, but I think you get the gist...endless gorgeous views, a hike, constant paths down to the beach, a forest...it goes on and on. 

As if that all wasn't enough, I got a chance to see something that I learned on the Legislature tour in action.  Before this trip I would have told you that I saw something that looked like blue jay but was not a blue jay.  Ladies and Gentleman, may I present the official bird of British Columbia, the stellar jay?

I could have stayed on the trail forever, but it was time to wind down the day.

Let's Rate the Airbnb!

I can't say enough that I really should have booked my lodging sooner for this trip, and that the summer is high tourist season.  The options that I had to work with were very limited, and the online pictures of the unit that I picked were on the grim side.

The reality was much nicer.  Everything looked new and clean.  The unit was the size and function of a hotel room, but a very nice hotel room.  The dregs of Ucluelet lodging were very nice dregs.

I got dinner at Ucluelet Brewing, which offered this view from their patio.

I tasted a couple of beers and had a reuben for dinner.

Afterwards I went to the grocery store for breakfast fixings and called it a night.  

The Ucluelet Food Co-op won my heart for selling individual frozen breakfast sandwiches.  There is nothing wrong with a microwaved breakfast sammie, but since the unit had a toaster, I was able to posh up my road breakfast.

I took a quick walk around the town.

Sigh, it was time to pack up and leave.  This guy kept an eye on me as I walked to the car.

I had my return trip across the island with just enough time for another beach stop before the ferry.

Back in Vancouver, I checked into my lodging for the night, which was the airport Best Western - chosen for being reasonably priced by Vancouver standards and for having a shuttle to the airport.  Between the Tofino lunch and the final night, Best Western treated me well on this trip.

I dropped off the rental car and sure enough there was a ramen place right across from the street, so I did not overthink dinner.  I can't explain why the food theme of the trip was fancy ramen and poke bowls, but the heart wants what it wants.

The next morning was an early start and a smooth shuttle drop off experience.  I am not someone who lives on the edge when it comes to showing up at the airport.  The internet stressed that the recommended time to show up at the Vancouver airport for an international flight was three hours early, so I was three hours early.  It took 10 minutes to get from the door to the other side of customs.  

Airport breakfast.

Take off.

Layover in Denver.

Home.

Let's Wrap it Up

There are no words or pictures to tell you how gorgeous BC was.  You need to get out there and see it for yourself.  I went to a lot of places, but I know I only saw a small part of a big place.

For sure I am not done with Vancouver Island.  I will go back to see more of the wonders of the beaches some day.

In the meantime I've got my memories and my sand dollar.

 

Thanks for hanging out with me and letting me relive BC!  Next time we'll get back to normal blogging content, starting with books.  So many books....