Surfing, Running and Big Trees

Last Friday we took off for a weekend vacation up-island. Cam's cousin Jill and her husband Dave were kind enough to put us up at their home in Port Alberni. They also offered to serve as our tour guides to the west coast.

Saturday morning we drove to Tofino and rented surfboards. Jill gave us a quick lesson on the beach and then Brenda, Jill and I attacked the waves.

We pose like we know what we're doing.

Cam falls, Jill laughs.

Brenda falls, Jill laughs.

We wrestled the surf with little success, but we had tons of fun doing it. We surfed at Chesterman Beach, then returned our boards and checked out the more famous Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park.

Brenda, Jill and Dave at Long Beach.

We saw this little guy on the way home on Highway 4.

Surfing, which looks graceful and effortless when you see the professionals do it, is actually exhausting. We had a quiet night back in Port Alberni, though we did crash a dinner party for a midget hockey team - don't ask.

Sunday was another busy day. The local running club was hosting a 10K and we joined Jill in running, while Dave biked around the course keeping us encouraged. Cam had never run an organized race before, and Brenda had only done the Nike 10K in Toronto. It was a fun experience, we met the mayor, and in a hilarious twist of events Cam won his age category (he was the only one entered).

Brenda closes in on the finish line.

Jill's friend Robin enjoys a celebratory drink with us after the run.

After the run we had one more big stop on our agenda - Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park.

Cam on the banks of the Cameron River.

Have we mentioned the giant trees?

It was one of the most active and fun weekends we've had together, and we offer many thanks to Dave and Jill for being such excellent hosts and encouraging us to take part in everything that we did last weekend. There are a couple more surfing wipe-out videos here and here.