Trip report, part 3

Monday morning dawned bright and glorious. No, not really, but I felt bright and glorious, because today was the day we were to head across the island to the west coast! Wheeee!
We sprang from bed. Again, not really, but we did get up and packed and out of the resort fairly early, then zoomed into downtown Parksville to Smitty's for breakfast.
I have nothing but complimentary things to say about the Parksville Smitty's.
Clean, warm, welcoming.  Great service.  Tea cups with no coffee or lipstick stains. Hashbrowns in a choice of shredded or cubed (you have no idea how happy this makes Dave.  No idea.)
Eggs cooked right.  A non-dribbly teapot that holds more than one cup of hot water.  Fluffy pancakes with real butter and Smitty's own syrup.
Delightful!
The only odd thing was the sign outside.  I wish I had taken a picture, but we zoomed away too fast.

As you might guess the sign is supposed to advertise current or upcoming specials.  This one said:

Senior Liver.  That's all, just "Senior Liver". 

This led to all sorts of conversation, speculation, and laughter.  We got quite a bit of mileage out of that one.  All the way to the liquor store, 3 blocks away,  where we stopped to pick up "supplies" for the next two nights.  God knows we need lots of alcohol to get through two days and two nights of togetherness on a beach. 

Once stocked up with "supplies"  we headed west.  Driving was wet and dismal, but we didn't care (except for when I tried to take pictures from the car and kept getting the windshield wipers in the way). Ack.

At any rate we drove on, snapped photos, and quickly approached Cathedral Grove.

Cathedral Grove is "one of the most accessible old growth temperate rainforests in the world." (from their website).

As proud Canadians, Dave and I love trees and we love to hug them whenever we can.  It's what we live for (among other things).  Hence the following RAINY, WET pictures.

 

That's the wet bum of our car.  Did I mention it was raining a bit?


....and below, are some TREES.  Not just any trees, but old majestic, marvelous, magnificent trees.  Many trees....and they just kept getting BIGGER.

We wandered in the wet for a while and got pretty soaked.  There's nothing more fun than getting your freshly-washed-with-shampoo-from-the-resort-hair  all wet and plastered to your head.  Nothing like getting your cute leather boots all smooshy. Nothing like realizing that you need a bathroom, and then having to walk through giant puddles as you look for the outhouse...

(and I thought MY roots were noticeable)

Just look at the size of this thing!

(and the tree is big too).

After we finished hugging every tree in sight, we climbed wetly back into the car and splashed our way out of Cathedral Grove, FINALLY heading on the last leg of our journey westward.

Next stop, Tofino.

But first, a VERY twisty highway.

to be continued...