Mackenzie Beach, Tofino

When we were in Winnipeg last month Shauna and Michele made plans for Michele to visit us in Vancouver during Spring Break. They brainstormed as to where we should go for a short destination holiday. Tofino emerged as the clear winner as Michele had never been there before. It's a bit of a trek time-wise; it takes about a day to get there presuming the almost obligatory stop in Coombs. Who can resist the goats? And don't forget Cathedral Grove. Our only real stated travel goal was to arrive in Tofino during daylight hours.

An 800 year old Cedar.

At least partial inspiration for Lord of the Rings may have
come from Cathedral Grove.

An 800 year old Cathedral Grove Cedar is this big!

Considering the short notice to book a cabin we were not overly surprised that a pet-friendly cabin was not available, although we (especially me) were disappointed. It's really fun to watch Tannah run on Chesterman Beach. However, we did get a pleasant surprise upon arrival in that we were presented with a free upgrade to a beachside two-bedroom cabin. Our intended original accommodation had suffered some sort of emergency plumbing catastrophe. Ironically our new accommodation was pet-friendly. 

Mackenzie Beach cabins.

We reeled in a big one in scoring a free upgrade to a beachside cabin.

This is Pacific Mile Zero of the Trans Canada Highway. Probably 10 years ago
we visited the Atlantic Mile Zero in Newfoundland. We've now photo-
graphically bookended the country.

The artisan culture is in full swing in Tofino.

Board culture spans the sands between Tofino and Ucluelet.

The waves weren't crazy-big but I did see a few people riding them.

Tofino is always about the scenery and the weather. I'd like it to be about the occasional wildlife sighting too, but none appeared on this trip. Being officially Spring I was prepared for anything, but didn't really think we'd encounter anything more than a light flurry. And the daytime temperatures were forecast to be around 7 degrees Celsius.

Chesterman Beach's version of a living sky.

An approaching squall, no doubt containing rain and quite possibly hail.

This was quite literally about a 30 second hail storm. I only had time for one
photograph and a short video.

This was about 5 minutes after the hail storm abated.