In more than ten years of being together, Brian and I have never celebrated Valentine’s Day. We don’t believe in Hallmark holidays for one thing, but also, my birthday happens the week before and we’ve already done a dinner thing, or an overnight thing for that. Valentine’s just seems like one more thing to spend money on.
But when I told Brian last week that I was taking some time off work, effective immediately, he suggested that we take a couple of days of holiday on the other side of Vancouver Island. And thus, yesterday we arrived in Tofino coinciding with Valentine’s Day.
Tofino has changed a lot since I was a kid. For one thing, there are several resorts on Long Beach, all with beautiful big lounges that look out onto the ocean. Although these resorts are out of our price range – the lounges at happy hour are not – so last night we went out and had (the pictured) fancy cocktails in the Long Beach Lodge “Great Room” and watched the sunset with all the other romantical couples. Two $6 “champagne” cocktails later and I was happy to retire to our B&B on Jensen Bay (the inlet side of Tofino).
This morning we woke up to this sunrise over Meares Island before stumbling up the trail to a little hot tub nestled in the trees:
It’s a pretty spectacular spot all around. Plus the weather is taking a break from the storms of the past few weeks. As far as I’m concerned that’s great news for this trip, but according to someone here – tourists at this time of year hate the good weather because they are here to “storm watch”. Apparently that’s something the big resorts promote as a winter pastime to get people over here.
We’ve got dinner planned for the best restaurant in town tonight – The Wolf in the Fog – almost impossible to get a reservation at but highly recommended. I’m hoping it lives up to its reputation. But even if it doesn’t, a couple of days among the big trees of the west coast feels like a good break for the brain and a little recuperation of heart time for Brian and I. Despite the fact I don’t do Valentine’s day, a renewal of time together is always well spent.
