Meghan and Ian: Vancouver Island

What a gorgeous part of the country. We started our time here with a look around Victoria, exploring the city a bit. It's the provincial capital, and the parliament buildings are right down by the harbour. The large natural harbour is not only home to many boats big and small, but also to a number of float planes that take people on air tours and ferry flights to Vancouver and back. The city has a fair amount of parkland, including Beacon Hill Park, which is huge, and overlooks the ocean. We also walked through the vendors at the harbour, and I wondered if I could sell some of my photography there. Hmmm....

After a while though, we decided to get out of the city and head up the island to see the Pacific Rim National Park and the small community at Tofino, situated on the Claquoat Sound. When we got there, Meghan wasn't feeling so great, and came down with a fever. We saw a doctor, got her some medicine, and decided to just take a couple of days to recuperate. We got a campsite in the National Park and just relaxed. It was nice. Eventually, she got feeling better, and we went out exploring. There's lots of cool beaches there, and some have rocky areas that create tidepools, little rock pools of ocean water that are created as the tide goes out. Often, little sea creatures like sea anemone and starfish get trapped in the pools for hours until the time comes back up. The great (but apparently very cold) surfing there is also fun to watch. We thought about giving it a try, but opted to go sea kayaking instead.

There was a large environmental movement in Tofino, still ongoing, that started about 25 years ago. Loggers wanted to take the trees from the old-growth forests in Claquaot Sound, and the nearby residents put up a fight. The issue apparently still isn't completely resolved, but the logging has been stopped, at least for now, preserving the amazing beauty of the area. We went on a 4-hour sea kayak trip through the sound with a guide, and got to see some cool wildlife and natural areas along the way. We saw lots of starfish, different types of crab, and a few jellyfish in the water. We also saw a few Bald Eagles, including their huge nest in an old-growth cedar when we stopped for a hike on Meares Island. It was really cool, and we'd recommend it to anyone visiting the west coast.

While in Tofino, I had emailed the Victoria Harbour Authority about displaying my photography for sale. They wrote me back, and told me they had a space for me at the night market on Friday and Saturday if I wanted, so we thought we'd give it a try. I made a cut of about 65 of my favorite photos, and had them printed at a Victoria photography lab. We also picked up some acid-free archive-quality mat board and backing board, and went to work putting it all together. Over the two nights, we sold 15 prints matted and mounted, and 3 more framed. Apparently people like my work, which is great. We also met some great people at the market, both visitors to the area, as well as a couple of other local artists. In the booth next to us was Sarah Mulligan, a glass artist living in Victoria. Her work is gorgeous. Check out her work on her website at http://www.sarahmulligan.com. We just had to get something from her, so we traded a photo of ours for one of her cool marbles. There's a photo of it below. Pretty sweet. We'll be heading to the mainland in a day or two - off to Vancouver, then up to Squamish for some climbing!