Day 4: Tofino, BC
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
This morning, the agenda included sleeping in and taking the hotel shuttle (i.e. a Lexus hybrid SUV driven by an uncommonly nice breed, also known as a Canadian person) into town for breakfast. After a less-than-stellar latte and two baked goods from Common Loaf, Sean and I walked the three blocks to Ocean Outfitters to check in for our whale watching tour.

My brain, vision, and stomach are still recovering.

The whale watching tour was simultaneously fantastic and awful - I spent the first hour laughing, using my new telephoto lens, and joking that they should warn women to wear athletic bras. (I'm nothing if not classy) Then, all of a sudden, a sharp wave of nausea came over me. I took Dramamine with breakfast while laughing that, despite my usually iron stomach, it would be better to be safe than sorry. Every time the boat stopped and really just rolled around with the ocean, I was overcome with nausea, akin to getting hit across the face with a cinder block. Not fun.

We managed to see a couple pods of grey whales (a bit further from them than I would like), some Stellar Sea Lions, bald eagles, a mother/pup otter duo, and other assorted wildlife. I managed to keep my mediocre breakfast down, but only via an intense concentration on the horizon and any land that I could find. I'm nauseous just THINKING and WRITING about it. *urp* On the upside, the water this time of year is unreal - a deep, lapis blue. Beautiful.

Back on land, we lunched at SoBo and I worked on reclaiming my land legs. (Panko-encrusted shrimp cake with spicy mustard, and a bite of Sean's polenta fries - yum!) So far, no dice - I'm still not feeling 100%. After begging for a night in, we ordered a pizza and are going to watch a DVD and enjoy some beers that we're keeping cold on our mini-terrace. I also finished four chapters of my new book - this has been an amazing vacation so far.