WA & BC Abridged Version
 

First detailed trip report lost in the black hole of Fodor's.....or maybe it was the fires of Mordor?

2 nts Port Townsend, WA at Holly Hill House. Lovely B&B, great owners, fabulous breakfasts, great untouristed town, excellent, unique shops and galleries.

Dinners: Fins - very good, T's outstanding!

3 nts Tofino, Vancouver Island at BW Tin Wis with kitchenette. Wow what views of the beach!

Whale watching: grey whales, orcas, sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, porpoises, bald eagles. $65 per person, 3 hours

Sea kayaking: if I could stand to live in this climate, I would do this EVERY DAY! $70 per person, 4.5 hours

Dinners: The Point at Wickannish, outrageously overpriced, good. The Raincoast Cafe - best meal of trip and very reasonable for the quality. Highly recommend!

Victoria, BC 2 nts Rosewood Inn, lovely Inn, good location, lousy food, like hotel convention food. Ugh. If you stay here, make sure of a room up high, wood floors = noise.

Buchart Gardens - a must see even for men. Flower heaven!

Seattle - Boeing (Everett) tour - interesting statistically speaking.

EMP - Experience Music Project - awesome building (Geary). A must see if you are a Jimi Hendrix fan - fabulous.

Customs - 1 hour following ferry from Sydney, BC to Anacortes, WA. We were in the SLOOOOOW line.

Thanks so much to Fodorites for excellent restaurant recs and ferry advice!

Anyone with specific questions - I'll answer gladly.

have I set a record for the shortest trip report, 9 day trip????

I like your short trip report. It is easy to read!

We are going to Tofino shortly for the first time. Which whale watching trip were you on, and also what outfitter did you go kayaking with?

Any recommended hikes?

Should we bring our bikes?

I'm surprised you like the EMP building. It is really different....

Thanks for the succinct report Dayle ;-).

Orcas, I hope you don't mind me chiming in, as someone who's been to Tofino many times.

I have done at least 4-5 kayaking trips over the years with Tofino Sea Kayaking and recommend them highly--they've been there since the early days when Tofino was just being discovered.

Remote Passages is a good whale watching/hot springs tour company, as it Jamie's.

My favorite hike in the park is the one from the Wickanninish Interpretive Center (in the park, not to be confused with the Inn) to Florencia or Wreck Beach and back. I also love the short Rainforest hikes (2 loops on either side of the highway) but those were heavily damaged last winter so they may not be open (they weren't on my last visit at Christmas). For beach walks, I like Long Beach and Chesterman's Beach.

Welcome back, Dayle; I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to our little corner of the world.

And I love your trip report---I could take some pointers from you and shorten up mine.

NWWanderer, enzian, Orcas,

I spent 1.5 hours doing a detailed report with descriptions, incidents, impressions, food details....only to have it disappear into the black hole when I hit post! AARRGGG!

We went kayaking with Tofino Sea Kayaking and our guide was Cody. He was outstanding.

Can't remember the name of the whale watching company, but we went in a small Zodiac boat and it was a blast. Rain had been predicted, but we lucked out with blue skies and very calm seas. We didn't even get wet (in our lovely and oh so stylish orange floatation suits - think NASA, but orange).

Loved Chesterman Beach and all rooms face the water at the Tin Wis, as are as I could tell.

Bikes could be fun, you can even ride them on the beaches because the sand packs so hard. You don't even leave footprints. Strange to someone who grew up in southern CA.

We didn't really have much time for hiking. Our kayaking trip included a short walk on the boardwalk on Meares Island. Mosquitos in the rainforest very hungry.

Thanks for all the info and the ideas.

I was wondering about the mosquitos. We'll bring our repellent!

Has anyone kayaked to the hot springs at Maquinna Provincial Park? I was wondering how tough it is to get there.

We decided to go only a couple of days ago, and wanted to go the first wkend in August. I was concerned it would be too late to get reservations. I called place after place and was told they were booked. I finally sent in my dates to [email protected]
and got several positive responses. What a great way to find a place to stay! We'll be staying at Middle Beach Lodge. We're excited!

Dayle, bummer about the long trip report, how frustrating!

Orcas, that's great that you got a spot at Middle Beach! That's where I stayed on my first visit to Tofino back when the original beach lodge first opened, and I've stayed there at least 3-4 times since. I've stayed at some other lovely places on other visits, but Middle Beach still my favorite.

Our experience at the Wickaninnish was that the food was both overpriced and cold. Too much time spent on making the "presentation" eye-popping and not enough on expediting the food to the table.

Great report. I shared your opinion of the Wick and the Raincoast. My DH still talks about the Raincoast halibut. Glad you had fun.

I tried to duplicate my salmon dish from the Raincoast Cafe last night, and didn't even come close! So much for my sauce making abilities. I think I'm going to e mail or call them and beg for the recipie....

Glad you had a great trip. I'd love to hear more about the sea kayaking. That sounds like my cup of tea. Can't wait to see picture.

Barbara