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Thursday, July 02, 2009
Parksville
Once we got settled in our hotel we headed down to the beach in
Parksville.
It was high tide, the girls waded in up to their knees.
Angela with a couple of rocks she found. There will be a lot of photos
of stuff taken on this trip since they can't bring as much back with
them.
A little crab they found.
There was a park at the beach. The last time we were here we only spent
a few hours in Parksville, so we didn't get down to the beach.
After the beach it was over to Uncle Tak's place.
Angela and Claudia out back looking for frogs.
Uncle Tak's house and pond.
There were alot of black slugs in the grass.
We only found the one frog this time.
The girls enjoyed looking around his studio.
Here are his tools.
All of his certificates and honourary degrees hung on the walls.
Check out his bike hanging from the ceiling.
I liked the corner painting.
The girls with Uncle Tak.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Long Beach Part 1
After Cathedral Grove it was on to Long Beach. The road out to
Tofino/Ucluelet is a winding, narrow and hilly road. Some of the scenery
along the way.
We stopped at the Pacific
Rim National Park Reserve Visitor Centre and paid our fee. The day
pass was $19.60 for the family and it was good until 4:00 PM the next
day.
Our first stop was the Wickaninnish Beach. This is part of Long Beach
which is 16 km long. The weather was perfect.
There was alot of dead crabs on the beach.
There were quite a few surfers in the water trying to catch a wave.
The water was a little cold. The only ones in the ocean were the ones
with wet suits. The girls enjoying the beach.
Angela with one of the crabs she found.
Gillian with jelly remains.
Angela and Claudia heading to wash off.
After a couple of hours on the beach we headed over to the Interpretive
Centre.
Angela and Claudia found a tide pool with some sea anemone.
One more shot before heading inside.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Long Beach Part 2
We took the trail out to South Beach, the trails are short, good for the
kids. The description of this trail is "South Beach offers spectacular,
but potentially dangerous, wave watching. Very large waves and strong
currents form at this pebble beach." Along the trail there was a totem
pole, it is the first totem pole the Ucluelet First Nation raised in
over one hundred years.
There were notices up about bears and wolves in the area.
Angela checking to see if there were any bears home.
The girls had climbed up on the huge rocks at South Beach.
Some of the rocks they were climbing on, they were on the one to the
left in the previous photo.
The waves weren't that large today.
We found a dead starfish washed up on the beach.
More climbing and exploring.
Angela and Claudia holding on for dear life.
One last look back to the beach.
We certainly lucked out with the weather today. We really enjoyed this
spot, the girls even spotted to live starfish clinging to some of the
rocks in the water. The pebbles and rocks were smooth and lots of shells
that were intact.
Long Beach Part 3
After Second Beach it was off to Radar Hill, it was a Pinetree Line
Radar installation back during the Cold War.
We saw a pair of bald eagles while we were there. If you look closely
you can see them, they came right over top of us and kept going.
In case of Tsunami go this way.
Our last stop for the day was at Combers Beach, we hit it at low tide.
This is the view as we came out of the trail.
Way out on the rocks you can see the outline of sea lions.
Even though it was kind of a long weekend, the beaches certainly were
not busy, although all the campgrounds had no vancancy signs up.
That's the amazing thing about tides, it can make the same beach look so
different. Gillian had scratched her name in the sand, only to have the
incoming tides wash it away.
Low Tide at Parksville Beach
Today we are heading to Victoria for a few days. Our day started with a
stop at the Parksville Beach. It was low tide compared to Thursday when
it was high tide.
There is a whole different world of creatures with low tide.
The girls were in 7th heaven catching the little crabs.
A little hermit crab.
Claudia's crab.
A live sand dollar in the sand.
Claudia with a dead sand dollar.
Looking back towards the beach.
Finally we hit the water.
Sand dollars.
The girls really enjoyed low tide and couldn't believe this was the same
place they waded in on Thursday.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Botanical Beach
Monday morning we headed out to Port Renfrew from Victoria. We were
returning to Botanical Beach, one of our favourite places from our last
trip. This time we were taking Grandma and Grandpa with us.
The weather didn't co-operate as much, it was raining on our drive out,
but it was only spitting when we ventured out onto the beach. It was
damp, but that wasn't going to stop us.
Grandpa was way ahead of us, finding the good stuff in the tide pools.
There were lots of sea anemones.
Gillian with a banana slug.
Claudia showed Grandma where to go and stuck close to her to make sure
she didn't fall in a tide pool.
The last time we came the fog was so thick you couldn't see the ocean,
on the drive up I thought it would be the same, but it was clear.
A little crab.
We found this huge starfish.
Then we found some little starfishes.
Everybody smile!
Grandpa out at sea.
This Great Blue Heron was standing about 20 feet from Grandpa and I. It
was determined to catch lunch.
While everyone was watching the bird, a deer wandered out to the beach.
Finally the heron caught his lunch.
The deer was watching us.
The forest is a lush green.
This banana slug was trying to get up one of the stairs.
The sloth tree, last time I could lift Angela and Claudia up on the
branch, but not Gillian, so she hanged from it like a sloth. This time
none of them could even hang from it.
One last look at the beach.
Angela was determined to find a new walking stick, I found this one off
the path and she carried it back to the parking lot.
Gillian helped Angela carry her walking stick.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Birch Bay
It is on to Washington State today, our first stop is in Blaine, WA.
Pat, Mo and Jodi and Sally and their families are staying at a cottage
in Birch Bay. It is just across the border. Pat invited us to stop by
for lunch on our way to Seattle. Here is Claudia outside the Lion's Den,
this was our base camp while we were in the Vancouver area.
The border wait was only about 20 minutes.
The girls with Nicholas, he followed Claudia around like her shadow.
After lunch we headed down to the beach.
Here is Jodi and Justin. Jodi is my first cousin once removed.
Mo had purchased a clamming licence.
The kids enjoyed all the creatures on the beach and under the rocks.
This is Jodi and Justin's oldest son, Jeremy, he is the girls second
cousin once removed.
Dad with the boys.
Claudia holding a big crab they found.
Clamming wasn't going so well at first. Note the empty frisbee.
But things got better, Shanna discovered that the key was to dig shallow
and dig out, rather than dig down. Sally holding the clams.
Mo with his grandson Nicholas.
As the official licence holder, Mo had to carry the tools and the catch.
Everyone washing the sand off their feet.
A few pictures before we left. The girls with Grandpa and Pat.
Mo with the kids and Tucker.
Shanna, Mo and I (first cousins).
Us with Mo and his girls, Jodi and Sally.
Claudia with Tucker.
On the way down to Seattle we stopped in Tulalip to do some shopping at
the Premium Outlets.
Some happy shoppers.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Beach
It was about a 15 minute drive to the cottage, we unloaded and headed
down to the shore to explore. It was high tide so there weren't many sea
creature things to look at. But the kids enjoyed it just the same.
Claudia fishing with some bull kelp.
The view is to the north and east.
The cottage.
This is the ferry that goes to Sidney, BC, it goes by at 7:00 PM every
night.
Marine Life
The morning started with Shanna spotting some sea otters down in the
water. We all headed down to get a closer look.
There were a couple of deer lying in the bush that we woke up.
There was still some fog rolling through.
The first of our many sea stars we would see.
Of course there were lots of crabs.
Shanna found a sea star stuck to a rock, so the girls could hold it by
the rock.
The girls like to stand on the rocks waiting for the boat waves to come
in.
We even saw a jelly fish, not sure if it was dead or alive.
Skipping Stones
The girls were learning how to skip stones across the water.
While we were down at the water a pair of Bald Eagles were in the area.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sunrise Over San Juan
Susan and I were up bright and early to watch the sunrise. We were down
on the beach around 5:30 AM.
Here it comes...
The tide was going out, so we were able to look for some sea creatures.
There were lots of Ochre Sea Stars
Under this rock was a Sea Star and a Sunflower Star.
The Sunflower Star has more than 20 legs.
It seemed everywhere you looked or stepped there was a purple sea star.
This is where we are staying while we are on San Juan Island.
Back on the Beach
Once the kids woke up they were down on the beach to explore low tide,
after breakfast they were back down there. Claudia and Jesse collecting
some kelp.
I pretty sure that Jesse wasn't to keen on picking this stuff up, but
Claudia made him help her, because they were going to make seafood wraps.
Gillian and Angela fishing for some seaweed.
We found an eel like thing under a rock.
As well as lots of crabs.
The morning ferry going from Sidney BC to Friday Harbour.
Jesse relaxing on the beach.
The girls rock people.
I think they were only about 2ft from the shore.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Last Morning at the Beach
It was time to clean up before leaving San Juan Island and heading back
to Seattle.
The faster we cleaned up the sooner we could get down to the beach to
explore.
It was the lowest tide yet.
We saw some new creatures that we hadn't seen earlier in the week.
We tried to go out to the end of the rocks, but it was slippery with all
the seaweed covering the rocks.
A Sea Cucumber.
I think this is a Sunflower Star on its back.
Our first orange Ochre Sea Star
The girls discovered that if you squeezed the Sea Sacs they sprayed
water through their tiny pores.
We also saw a Sea Urchin.
This is a Hairy Chiton.
A closer look at the Purple Sea Urchin.
We couldn't figure out what this was, we couldn't get close enough to
get a closer look.
We were trying to reach those rocks, but couldn't make it safely.
A purple Sea Star eating his veggies.
I think these are Blood Stars.
A big Red Crab (Cancer Productus). They don't have to worry about ending
up on the dinner plate, their shells are too thick.
A Flat Porcelin Crab.
That is a quarter next to the Orche Sea Star.
Susan and Gillian relaxing before we leave.
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