Everyone up early this morning and raring to go. We headed off on our little adventure early this morning after having picked up the rental car. We got a nice Suburban, much better than a minivan for the drive to Vancouver Island; I’m glad someone dinged the rental minivan yesterday. Jaime drove and we headed for Horseshoe Bay. We hadn’t been able to book the ferry over to the island so we hoped to get on the first one of the day at 10.30. We got there with about 30 minutes to spare and were all excited when the ferry started boarding and we were moving right along, unfortunately they stopped boarding when we were about 6 cars from the front of the line. No big deal, only 2 hours till the next ferry and Horseshoe Bay is a cute little town. We got to wander round for a while and have coffee and I made a new friend who was heading to Vancouver Island for his first meeting with a woman he'd met online - I hope it went well. Then we headed back to board the ferry for Nanaimo; the trip across was nice and calm and took just under 2 hours. We spent the time wandering the decks and checking out the views from the outside deck. Tal-y got to stay in the car; there was a pet area that we discovered later but she had more space in the back seat of the suburban.
We are staying in Ucluelet for these first two nights and the drive from Nanaimo took a few hours.
Once again it is beautiful country, lots of trees and lakes, very grand. We stopped along the way for lunch and when we walked in everyone stared at us, it was just one of those places. Turns out we'd gone in the bar not the restaurant, what a difference an entrance makes!
Made it to Ucluelet late this afternoon and Lec checked us in to the cottage we are staying in. It's very cute and very quiet, overlooking the water. The area doesn't seem very touristy which is great, although there are a number of places to stay here it seems to be fairly unreached by masses of visitors. We took a walk on the beach this evening, we had to climb down to it a little ways, and we were the only ones on it. Maybe its the time of the year and it will get busier but right now its peaceful and unspoilt and the views are fantastic.

Mike: I preferred the bar (more Bubbas's) It was another hike!