Oh, today is a crazy day !

Joel, my new travel partner, and I started our trip to Tofino at 8:30AM. It was a smooth trip until we were stopped by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer. Right after our ticket was written, another car was stopped. -- Same story. Traffic laws are very strictly enforced in British Columbia. I was told that a driver's license was more difficult to get here than in any other Canadian provinces.

Joel was originally from Quebec, and has just completed one year English teaching in Taiwan. Prior to that, he lived in Japan for seven years. He explained to me not only what "kiln" meant in English but also how to write in Chinese.

Joel's father was a carpenter, from whom he got good education about trees. His tree knowledge helped a lot when we stopped at Pacific Grove, a preservation place with virgin forests. There were cedars, spruces, hemlock and maples. The oldest trees are several hundred years old. The tallest trees are mostly spruces. We stopped by to pick up some blue berries.

The highway from Nanimo to Tofino twists and turns with nice views. Most drivers drive 15 to 20 kilometers above the speed limit. With the previous speeding ticket still lukewarm, I tried to stick to the speed limit. We finally reached Tofino at 2:30 pm.

I was to go back to Vancouver on the same day. What I saw persuaded me to stay here for one night. The town was also a tourist town, much smaller (pop: 2,700) than Victoria. People come here to watch whales, do deep-sea fishing or bathe in hot spring. Guided tours for these activities require almost a day. The youth hostel is one of the best I have ever been to. It faces the Pacific and an Indian fishing village. The hostel was opened about a month ago.

Went down to Long Beach to watch the sunset with Joel. Had a nice jogging on the beach. On our way home, however, our car was stuck in the roadside ditch when I tried to let other cars to pass by. Michelle, a University of British Columbia nurse major student, drove us to her nearby home and helped us to get a tow truck. After that, she drove us back to our car. By the time we got out of the ditch, it was around 10:00 PM. Joel called our experience an 'adventure', that was very nice of him to say so. On our way back to hostel, we saw a car accident ahead and the police let us detour.

Five hour's driving, police ticket and getting into ditch all makes the day just as stressful as programming 14 hours a day to meet the deadline.

Will head back to Vancouver tomorrow morning. Joel will stay here for another day.

next day (9/11)