I have always been drawn to the ocean. The rhythmic pounding of the surf. The ever changing landscape. Plants and animals that look so foreign it is difficult to comprehend that they also came from Earth.
Sometimes, during the winter when it is really stormy, I will head down to the beach to revel in the power of Mother Nature. I love the feeling of the wind trying to push me around, the spray of the ocean after pounding the rocks. The howl of the wind as it begins to hurt my ears.
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In good weather I love exploring the beach. Jumping from rock to rock, poking around in tidal pools, turning rocks over to watch the crabs scurry about, are all wonderfully relaxing to me.
For me, the west coast, specifically Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park, is the epitome of beach going. This past weekend Sue and I headed up there to spend some time with my Mom and sister (it happened to be my Mom’s birthday too).
In a word, the trip was awesome. We arrived around 8 on Friday evening, spent some time with my Mom and sister, then went to bed. I woke up early on Saturday, so I grabbed my camera and tripod, and headed down to the beach to do some shooting. It was misty out over the water, and the tide was on it’s way out. The waves were breaking and provided a nice backdrop of sound. I headed to a rocky outcropping in search of some subjects, and found lots!
After shooting for an hour or so I headed back and had some breaky. The four of us then headed into Tofino and wandered around the town a bit. Such a quaint little town. We hung around for a bit, then went to visit Sue’s friend Janet who was up there for the weekend doing some surfing.
After lunch, my sister and I walked out to Sunset point. It had started to rain, very very lightly. It was more like aconstantly falling mist. Very neat. There is a high perch above a point, overlooking two different bays. The waves were rolling in, and when they hit the rocks below, it sounded a lot like thunder. Awesome. I took a few pictures of waves crashing and spraying, then we headed back.
For dinner we went to the Tin Wis. It wasn’t my most favorite restaurant, but the salmon I ordered was excellent.
Sunday morning I awoke to the mist still falling, but it ended, and the sun came out. The four us were out looking for shells, taking pictures, and going for a run (only one of us ran, care to guess which one?). My sister headed back to the room, but mom, Sue and I walked along the beach, barefoot. The water was actually warm. The tide was on the way in, so it was flowing back and forth across the sun-warmed sand.
All too soon we had to pack up and head home. This was a very relaxing and fun weekend. I got to take lots of pictures, visit with my mom and sister, eat well, play games, and read.
The only scary part happened on the way home while I was deleting some pictures from my camera. One deletion was taking a lot longer than it should have. An error message appeared on the camera saying something about corrupt data! I was scared I had lost all my pictures. Turns out I hadn’t, but I guess the camera’s index to the pictures got messed up. Phew, close one!
In the end it all worked out. The IronFans treked to the interior and settled into a long day of watching some pretty inspiring performances. It was pretty smoky in Penticton on race day, and surely it affected some racers, but for the most part everyone looked great. It is remarkable how fast the pro’s are during the marathon. Good grief. How can someone run a sub 3 hour marathon after swimming over 3.75 Kms and biking over 180 Kms? Astounding. I hope to get a more complete write up a little later.
