Hey all, Hope you've all had a fantastic week. We've just been taking it easy for the most part, oh yeah and bear spotting... Yep this week we saw our first bears :) Read on.... Wednesday 08.05.13: Happy anniversary Nadine & Nick! I can't believe it's already been 3 years since I was lucky enough to be a part of your special day :) xxx Today was really grey and foggy. The fog is so bizarre, it just looks like an overcast, cloudy day outside but then you can actually feel the fog 'wash' over you - it's really cold, and you can see it billowing in the air like smoke when you look up.... So we had a walk along the beach (making the most of the sand while we can - most beaches are rocks or pebbles), grabbed some coffee and stayed in all day. Read a few books, drank some more coffee and lit the campfire on nightfall - yep that was the extent of our day :) Thursday 09.05.13: Another foggy day today - it seems to be the norm around here. Apparently they will have a bit of sun and then the fog bank will roll in for a few days until the sun is hot enough to burn it off again. A few days of sun, then here comes the fog again and around it goes... Still too weird for me having fog last all day, give me the sunshine any day! After our morning beach walk we went for a drive down to Chesterman Beach and Long Beach for a look. Ben is still dead keen for a surf but the weather is pretty **** so he's holding out for another day. We stopped in at the "Live to Surf" complex on the way home to check out board rental from the surf shop. One of the guys that we spoke to there was from Adelaide and it was so weird to actually hear his accent. I've always been so used to the Aussie accent at home that I just don't even hear it, but over here I'm now so used to hearing the Canadian accent that his stood right out and Ben & I both noticed it straight away. We walked out and looked at each other like "Do we really sound like that to everyone else?" haha. It was weird to hear the difference. Since we were already in the complex we stopped for lunch at Wildside Grill again and it was just as fantastic as last time. Ben had the salmon burger and I had the pork carnitas again - I did try to order something different but at the last minute changed my mind back coz these were sooo good! We drove into town to run a few errands and by the time we were done the fog was finally starting to lift and the sun was trying to come out. We had driven past the Tofino Brewing Company each time we went into town & Benny was itching to try them out, so we stopped in there on our way home. When we first pulled up we weren't even sure we were in the right place - it just looks like your usual industrial storage shed from the outside. But get a bit closer and you could see the hops growing in pots outside and also spy the beer vats inside the doors. The staff were super friendly and got right down to business giving us tasters & talking us through the beers they had on tap. We could've easily spent the afternoon at their bar, but the sun was finally showing itself so we grabbed some beers to go and headed home to the beach. Since the sun was now out and we had no real plans we decided to extend our stay here & hang around for the weekend. Friday 10.05.13: Surf day! Today we're off to Long Beach so Benny can have a surf - he's so pumped!!!! :) We went and hired his board and all the gear from the surf shop - because it's so cold in the water here he has to wear a wetsuit, hood, boots, gloves - the whole shebang hehe... A little bit different from surfing in boardies and maybe a rashie at home that's for sure!! Usually when he's surfing I'll laze about on the beach soaking up the sun with a good book, then have a swim, read, swim and so on.... Let me tell you it's just not the same sitting on the beach on a foggy day wearing jeans, 2 jumpers and sneakers haha. And there was definitely no swim for me today, way too cold for this little black duck... Ben had a ball though, only stopping for a lunch break before heading back out for another surf. No doubt he'll be sore tomorrow but he says it was all worth it :) We spent pretty much the whole day at the beach and when we got home we had an invitation from the staff to join them for a pancake brekky tomorrow. Awesome! :) Saturday 11.05.13: So it rained all night last night but who cares because we got pancakes for brekky this morning! "Guest appreciation pancake breakfast" - what a great idea!!! Apparently it's something the resort does every now & then where the staff cook pancakes for the guests and I'm sure not one to complain when someone's cooking me a free brekky! Plus the pancakes were yum! :) After returning Ben's surfboard we checked out the choccie shop (Chocolate Tofino) and after hearing rave reviews about them, also grabbed a coffee from Tofitian - it was pretty good. Then we went for a drive to Ucluelet, the sister town to Tofino - a bit like 1770 is to Agnes. We stopped in at a couple of beaches on the way home but by then it was raining hard so our heart wasn't really into sightseeing. We headed back home where I settled in with a book (which may have ended in a nanna nap haha) & Ben surfed the net for the rest of the day. The forecast of rain for the next few days plus our leaky toilet problem had us both in a bit of a miserable mood so we decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights in a hotel tomorrow. Just to get out of the rain will be so nice, but to be able to do some research on where to get Toby looked at as well will be a plus. We had a quick Skype call with my family and then had pizza for tea - our first home delivery hehe. Talk about a cruisy day.... Sunday 12.05.13: Wishing both of our mums & Nan the biggest HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!! We love you heaps & hope you have a fantastic day! :) xxxxxx Also a big happy birthday to Josh :) xxxx TODAY WE SAW A FREAKING BEAR!!!!!! Well 2 bears actually.... We started the day with a coffee, checked out of Crystal Cove & then hit the road back to Nanaimo. The road was just as ****** on the way back & seemed worse with the thick fog everywhere making visibility pretty poor. So we were just driving along & I was a bit bored and zoned out when I thought I saw a 'dog' on the side of the road out of the corner of my eye. As my brain computed that I was actually looking at a bear, I squealed "Ohmyf____god" (sorry - I can't control what comes out of my potty mouth in the heat of the moment) and began pointing hysterically out the drivers' side window. Props to Ben for not driving Toby off the road haha. If we were in a car we might have been able to just chuck a u-ie (how does one spell a u-ie by the way????) and go back, but the road was so narrow & windy (plus Tobes isn't quite so dainty), so we drove down the road a few km's before we found somewhere we could turn around. Coming back we passed a lot of traffic, so we thought for sure the bear would've been scared off by now. But no, we came up to where we thought we'd seen the bear, pulled over and right there beside our car was not one, but two bears - looked like a mumma bear and baby bear. They were so cool and not fazed by us at all - I'd guess we were less than 10 metres away from them - they were literally just off the side of the road. Not me, I was so excited/nervous/hyped up/running on adrenaline that my hands were almost shaking too bad to take photos. We sat and watched them for a good 5 minutes, they just pottered around in the grass munching away. The little guy seemed more interested in us & would lift his head up and check us out from time to time, but mumma pretty much ignored us. I meanwhile was on red alert for daddy bear to come barreling out of the woods to scare us off - Ben left Toby running so we were primed for a quick getaway if need be lol.... In the end something spooked the baby so he ran into the woods and mumma ambled after him.. It was so awesome. I still can't believe we were lucky enough to see them out in the wild. Now that is what I love, don't give me animals in an enclosure at a zoo, there is nothing like seeing wild animals in their natural environment!! The whole rest of the trip I swear every 5mins we'd just look at each other in amazement like "I can't believe we just saw bears!!" or "I can't believe that just happened". So cool :) We stopped at Little Qualicum Falls for a lunchbreak - leftover pizza - but it was still raining so we didn't bother hiking to the falls. Once we reached Nanaimo we had a drive around - there was a cruise ship docked so we had to check that out - and then checked in at the Travelodge. It'll be a nice change staying in a hotel, but it feels so weird just parking Toby in the lot. What if he gets broken into? That's our whole life right there.... Earlier on the drive in we had noticed that there was so much fast flowing water in creeks or waterfalls by the side of the road & joked it must've been the "heatwave" last week melting all of the snow. At the time we thought that it was just nice pleasant 20-odd degree heat but now it turns out that it really was a heatwave for this time of year. It was on the news that record snow melts due to "last weeks' heatwave" as well as rainfall have led to flood warnings being issued in certain places. Lol we should stop joking... Monday 13.05.13: Now I love Toby but last night it was so nice to sleep in a bed where I didn't have to climb a ladder to get in & where I could also sit up and not hit my head haha. We are just making the most of being out of the rain today, lazing about doing the blog, some laundry and just watching telly. After a month without TV I thought for sure we'd be locked onto Discovery Channel, Ben's favourite haha but I've been surprised. When we were staying in Vancouver we got a bit hooked on some property shows - Property Brothers and Love It Or List It - and there was a marathon of these on today so we were loving it. It was also actually nice just to catch the news and see whats been going on in the world. Also loved not paying for a shower again, how luxurious :) Tuesday 14.05.13: Today was our 7 year anniversary - how time flies :) - so after our continental brekky we checked out and headed to the shops. I could not believe when we moved over here that Canada didn't have Target, I was devastated since its one of my favourite shops! Well it turns out they were coming and last week they opened at multiple locations, including Nanaimo, so that was our first stop today. Yay, it's ridiculous how excited I was haha. Turns out I wasn't disappointed, it's even better than home as they have everything we do, plus groceries!! I was stoked to find my beloved jersey cotton sheets - if you've never tried them you should! So soft and comfy, can't wait to wash them & get them on the bed. We also bought a pillowtop mattress topper so that should make the bed a lot more comfy! It's not that uncomfortable, but it's not really meant for everyday use so we're starting to make grooves in the mattress from where we've laid overnight haha. Hopefully the mattress topper should help. We had Chinese takeout for lunch and as we were sitting there eating, what I assume was the fire alarm started blaring. So I looked at Ben like "Ok, alarm, well we better go then".... But no-one else even looked up from their lunch... The food court employees kept serving people, customers kept ordering & eating their food and staff kept cleaning tables & emptying bins. So Ben says "Well I'm going to finish lunch. I'll leave when the employees start running. No-one's even moved". Fair point. So we sat there eating lunch with the alarm ringing for about 5mins, in which we saw no fire and no-one made a move to exit, then the alarm stopped and everyone carried on anyway. Haha. After lunch we made a last stop at the lovely Lush to grab some essentials (I was very restrained), Walmart for some groceries and then headed to Westwood Lake Campground. We met Rhonda, one of the owners, upon checkin and she was so lovely. She actually travelled around Oz a few years ago doing what we're doing & met her husband Ian (a kiwi) over there so she was full of stories and questions for us. We explained what was going on with our toilet and she was kind enough to ring a friend of hers who's an RV repairer to see if he could see us tomorrow. There was no answer so she left him a message to call her in the morning and said we could come back and check with her tomorrow whether he could fit us in or not. Until the toilet is fixed we can't use any water so that makes camping just that little bit trickier lol. We bought a 10L water container so we've been making do by filling it up and using it, but it'll be nice to have running water again! So we ended up staying in the office chatting with Rhonda for about an hour. She's such a wonderful lady, we've met some really nice people on our trip so far! :) Our week was topped off with the wonderful news that another beautiful baby girl has joined our extended family. Congratulations Kimmy & Dan, we wish we could be there to meet your gorgeous Thea. You'll have to give her plenty of cuddles and newborn snuggles from her Aunty Loz :) xxxx Missing everyone at home & hope you are all well. Lots of love till next week :) Xxxxxxxxxx