You and Me in Ukee

Joanne and I spent this past weekend in Ucluelet and it was outstanding. The locals call it Ukee, but I'm not sure why. Maybe because Ucluelet is too hard to pronounce?

Incredible accomodations at the Tauca Lea Resort. Incredible food at said resort and other chowder shacks around town. And views to blow your mind, not to mention some stunning wildlife. This wasn't even whale watching season or the time of year when the salmon are running so eagles and bears weren't plentiful.

Check it out and be jealous.

This first one is a shot from the patio of our room at the resort.



Those (above) are of course not my legs, but here's a shot Joanne took of me enjoying a morning soak.



Here is one of the many vistas along the newly created Wild Pacific Trail, which is basically in town. The trail is beautifully designed accommodating all kinds of views along its meandering route.



Another view:



And one more:



Sunrise in the inlet meant harbour seals would swim by for a morning fishing expedition, seabirds of various types prepare for a day of fishing and scavenging, and the glow of the morning light washed all in an orange hue. Here a cormorant, after spreading his wings to dry them off in the morning sun, takes a step towards flight as I snapped this shot:



And this duck was taking off in the water of the inlet right behind our patio.



On Saturday we went out on a Zodiac with Brian Congdon of Subtidal Adventures (www.subtidaladventures.com) for a truly mind-blowing experience out on the ocean touring around the Broken Islands. These islands are part of Pacific Rim National Park and are rocky crags, jutting out of the ocean floor laden with wind-swept trees and little else. Amazing. Here are a couple shots still in the inlet before we hit the islands. The first is of a California sea lion. Apparently just the males swim up from California to go fishing, leaving the females at home to tend to childrearing. Hmm, sounds like a lot men.



Here is another one. Joanne couldn't get over how similar this guy looked to a dog. We call this guy the Rottweiler of the sea.



Apparently a year ago or so this bald eagle and the one on an adjacent branch lost their nest in a windstorm, but they still come back to this spot to roost. Maybe they'll start rebuilding?



There's a lot of development happening in Ukee so they better start soon or their property, below, might get some condos instead. Note the tiny bald eagle atop the tree at the top of the image.



Once out on the ocean Brian was a wealth of information as he was an incredible navigator. Somehow amid the floating strands of kelp he spotted this sea otter, which, according to him (and he's been doing this since 1978), is quite rare to see.



This guy is actually sleeping, or was sleeping. They grab a strand of kelp, tie it around their bodies so they don't float away, and sleep on their backs. Apparently they spend a third of their time eating, a third of their time sleeping and a third of their time grooming. Once again, I know some people like that.

This shot below is really the best one I took all weekend. Looks better larger, but still pretty cool this size.



Out on the Broken Islands the Steller sea lions gather and soak up the last rays of sun. These guys are bigger than the California sea lions, we were told, and they really sound like a lion when they roar. The Californias do that seal barking thing, but these guys have some serious baritone.



Another shot of the sea lions:



And one more with this guy in full roar. Pretty cool stuff.



All in all a great weekend in a great spot.

Gie her a Haggis!

Happy Robbie Burns Day everyone. Not that I celebrated it in anyway, although there were at least three different Robbie Burns Day events just here in the 'Wack.

Crazy Scottish people.

Here's a shot from last August in Harrison Hot Springs when Joanne and I ran into this great family jumping off a cliff into Hicks Lake and they invited us back to their house for drinks, snacks and to dress me up in grandpa's sporn and kit.



We're off to Ucluelet tomorrow for a weekend at Tauca Lea Resort. Swanky looking place and we can't wait for the getaway. The weather is supposed to be clear and sunny and about 9 degrees Celsius. Should be a great weekend.

Hopefully the suites, all which apparently have a deck and face the ocean, are as nice as they look on their website.



But we shall see and I'll post photos post haste.

Wacky weather

Winds with gusts as high as 114 kilometres an hour blew through the Fraser Valley and the Chilliwack River valley on Friday. It was wild and wacky for sure, but when power goes out on Friday night at 10:30 p.m. during the climax of a bad natural disaster movie—Dante's Peak—it actually is a good thing.

Our place here had the fences on both sides blown down, and a part of a neighbour's tree come down over their fence onto the road. As you can see here:



The wild weather of the end of last year, floods and snow in November and so on are continuing now. More crazy winds last night and snow again today. Not major snow, but enough to cause some problems for us valley folks who don't deal so well with the white stuff.

The winds on Friday night were so fast at one point in the night they blew out most of the clouds and a stream of low clouds were quickly blown across the low sky just in front of the mountains and the full(ish) moon. It was really beautiful and I took my camera out to take a few photos. But it was so windy it was hard to hold the tripod in place because it would blow the camera over. Amazing gusts.

Here is one shot I took though:



More weather expected tonight too . . . the wind and snow and general weirdness from above is almost wearing a little thin when it comes to news stories. But power continues to go out, trees continue to blow down, so, I guess we'll keep covering the "story."