Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Spring Break: Days 1 and 2

Every spring break, we head to Vancouver Island.  I grew up doing this (every spring break and summer and sometimes more) so I really love it.  We always go to Ucluelet, except for last year when we did Parksville which was not my favourite.  Anyway, it coincided with my oma's 90th birthday!  It is my mom's mom and whenever I'm with her, I feel most connected to my momma.  I hope I have my oma's genes!  Wouldn't mind seeing 90!  My oma travelled a lot with us and being that we had a very full camper, oma and I even slept in the truck together!  My sisters and dad were on the same ferry as us so that was fun :) My sister Jantina once joked that we made up half of her friends and it's kind of true.  Love hanging out with them. So easy.
{To anyone who cares, this was taken on our 5d mark iii and the ISO is 2000!!!!  So little noise for 2000!!! There was no natural light in there as it was in a church basement}.
We ended up being there, in Port Alberni, for about 4 hours so it did make the day very long by the time we finally got to Ucluelet.  However, it was great to hang out with my mom's side as the family as we don't see them very often.
As a quick side note, we are trying to get more convenient items for travelling. Small, light, efficient.  The Phil  & Ted's travel crib worked awesomely (one complaint; you can't use a sheet on the bottom as there's nothing to wrap it around) and this is a chair seat that I bought second hand just before our trip too.  It worked so well and just rolled up to the size of a pair of socks.  So great!
We stayed at the Water's Edge Resort.  We stayed there two years ago and loved it.  It is perfect for our family in regards to size and budget. Nice and big with a full kitchen and great location and pretty new.  I wish we could do two bedrooms but that gets a little out of our budget.  So, Gary, Nya and I slept in the bedroom and the boys slept on the pull out bed in the main room.  The first night was ridiculous as Nya did not get a good nap in so she was out of sorts. I think I fed her every 2-3 hours.  Then, we were all up at 6am for the day.  Being that there was a recent time change, it really did feel like 5am. Oh well, we thought this would be our one sunny day so we went off to do our favourite hike, `The Wild Pacific Trail' at 7:30am.   I just mean it's our favourite because it's good for kids and it's beautiful.  We walked to the lighthouse. 
It's a 5.5km loop but we just did 1 km to the lighthouse and then back again. 


Beautiful shots of the sun rise there...





Being that it is the Whale Festival there, there were TONS of activities.  They've really stepped it up this year!  This is one that we went to after our hike.  We went to Terrace Beach as the aquarium staff were doing a dredge and they shared a lot of cool information.  The kids got to see some pretty cool fish, prawns and crabs.  
Poor Miss Nya had to be in the Ergo most of the time when we were out.  It was just too cold and she would've been covered in wet cold sand from head to toe in seconds.  She did really well in there and I LOVE my Ergo.  Love it.  I can breastfeed her in it,  carry her in it for hours, she can go to sleep in it.  Love it. 
Then we drove to Tofino (it's about a 20 minute drive from Ucluelet) to try to find the Tacofino truck.  Fortunately, Nya fell asleep on the way so she did get a small nap in.  We found the truck.  This made the top three of our favourite things from the trip.  In case you didn't know, Gary and I love food.  We have never eaten from a food truck as we never get down to Vancouver and taking the kids all the way there to eat at a food truck seems a little exhausting.  Anyway, loved it. 
Gary and Kai ordered.  They got fish tacos and tuna tacos.
We went and ate them at Long Beach.  It was waaaaay too windy and cold for the kids so that was too bad but fortunately the food was terrific.
Then we rested up at our place.  The only book Koen will read; his Cars Encyclopedia.
Nya loved being able to finally move around.  She was such a good sport the whole time.  It was the lack of sleep during the day, and getting up a lot at night, which really did a number on me.  Soooooooooo tired.  I feel bad for her though.  She's like her momma, she sleeps best in her own bed.
So, that concludes days 1 and 2 of our trip!!!    I think next time we will go for at least one more day.  We had such fabulous weather and didn't even go to the aquarium which was on our list of things to do, it was just too nice out!  

One thing I will say...I love my kids and would rather travel with them than without them, but wow, they are tiring.  I brought a magazine along and I got as far as taking it out of the suitcase.  Didn't even get to open it.    One day...maybe in 3 years? It's having a baby along that really makes it tough.  Especially when she doesn't sleep through the night.  I've actually started praying about it.  I need more sleep.  My family needs me to have more sleep.  So, we are hoping that Miss Nya sleeps better soon.  Oh well, I don't to stop doing what we love to do just because I'm not sleeping enough.  I'm so glad we went and am looking forward to next year :)  More to come...

6 comments:

  1. WOW those nature shots are incredible!!!! Looks like a great time :)

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  2. love all the shots! looks a wee bit chilly :)
    sorry for the lack of sleep...that's just no fun :(

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  3. What, you did not want to camp?

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  4. SUCH great pictures!! Love that you went to Tacofina (majorly jealous) and that you went whale watching (also majorly jealous!).

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  5. I just read both posts - Mike and I watched a food show with the tacofino truck earlier this year and wanted to hop on the ferry that night.. The weather looked fabulous. It almost always rains when I go to Uculet or Tofino.. in the summer. If I went at this time of year it would probably morph into a full on monsoon.

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  6. Haley, please don't go during spring break. Ever. WE don't want rain :) Hope you are enjoying having your husband home, although, I'm sure March Madness is taking up a bit of his time!

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