Been meaning to write this for some time – it’s now 12/5 and this road trip just before Thanksgiving with Kelly was a ton of fun. The pictures have been online for some time. The idea was to have a scenic drive and visit the little town of Tofino on a little peninsula on the west coast of Vancouver Island with a stop on the Olympic Peninsula on the way back – think of it as a big circle with an out-n-back and two ferries. We left at 6am on Saturday 11/20, catching the 8:30 ferry from Anacortes to Sidney. A ton of Trader Joe’s junk food in the car. What followed was stunning 3+ hour ferry ride through the San Juan’s and Gulf islands. Getting off the ferry we drove over snow, ice, and sludge and then found on roads lined with snowy fir trees. I think it was the first snowfall and cold-snap.

We stopped in Nanaimo for hot chocolate and book browsing and stumbled into a flash mob dancing up a storm on the main street of this small town. An hour or so later we were at free spirit spheres where we read books and moved with the wind in a 10ft diameter sphere suspended by ropes between three Douglas firs. As fun and amazing as it looks…

On Sunday we lingered in the sphere and then hit the cross-island road to Tofino. We made a couple tourist stops on the way and tried to run on icy paths each time. We ran through a grove of huge growth Doug Firs and received some education along the way…

We actually stayed five miles south of Tofino in a really nice room right on the beach. Most of Monday was spent that way, watching crazy surfers in wet suits, and hiking up to a headland on a really icy trail.

Tuesday was a long drive to Victoria followed by a ferry to Port Angeles and an overnight at Kelly’s Aunt Lyle’s in Sequim. Back to Seattle on Wednesday where the city was still recovering from over a foot of snow that had basically shut down everything for almost 3 days. Kids were still sledding on local streets and neighbors built a snow man along with a snow dog. Thanksgiving was a feast (made better by running 5miles to the dinner and great views from the table across Lake Washington) and by Friday all of the snow was gone. All in all – a super week. Check out the rest of the pictures if you have time.

Fine Print: This post was actually written on 12/7, not 11/24 – I just backdated it.