Tofino, People!
I finally made it. I’ve been meaning to get there for years. It was a plan I had with Lynn that never happened. I went with Kit. It was pretty beautiful.
We spent one night in Vancouver which was amazing. I love that city. The food was great. We ate at Forage. So good. It’s just so fucking pretty there.
The next day we got in a car and went to the wrong airport to catch a prop plane to Tofino. The Lyft driver didn’t know the difference between airport detinations. Which I guess is the primary argument for taking a legit taxi. They know the cities the drive in. They are pros.
We scramble into a cab to the small South Terminal airport. Then the wait began. There was no shortage of suspense on this trip.
The plane that we were getting on was an hour late getting in from Tofino. When it arrived it wasn’t clear that we would be able to take off. There’s a fog issue on the island in August. They call it Fogust. I didn’t know this when I booked the vacation. September is pretty foggy as well as it turns out. I don’t mind fog. It’s pretty in the Pacific Northwest. Not great for flying though. And probably not great every day for long periods of time. Which I will have to get used to if I ever live there.
Before we boarded the plane the gate agent actually got on the mic and said, ‘were going to try to make it to Tofino. We don’t know if we will be able to land but we will try. If we can’t, we will turn around and come back.’ Awesome. Exciting flight ahead, I thought.
It was true. The fog cover was so dense that we circled twice for a half hour each time and the pilot said we’ll loop around one more time and see if we can see the runway. As we looped around we felt the plane drop into a pretty rapid descent and someone yelled, ‘He’s going for it!’ He was. He made it. We all clapped. It was mildly harrowing.
We got the hotel and had a beautiful suite overlooking the beach. The first day there we went on a whale watch. More suspense. Only with seasickness this time. I didn’t really think we would actually see whales but we definitely did. We saw two humpbacks, a mother and a baby. We saw sea lions. We saw a couple of gray whales. Otters! We saw sea otters. Lots of them. Suspense paid off big. Seasickness lasted a while. Worth it. Kinda.
Then, more suspense. We still felt ill. Buggy. Kit more than me. So, had to go to the pharmacy get supplies for the queasy. Crackers, bananas, electrolytes and Covid tests. They just give them to you in Canada. A box of five. Here you go. Right at the counter. It was an exciting 15 minute wait for the lines and we got one. A single line. Novid.
We went and got massages outside in tent in the woods in the rain. Sweet.
She still felt a bit ill so we had to figure out whether we wanted to try to get home a day early. It rained the last night we were there. All night. We woke up it was very overcast. I knew the prop plane (a smaller one than the one we came in on) had to get from Vancouver to Tofino first for us to get off the island. I had little hope considering what we went through getting out of Vancouver. I thought we’d be stuck and she’d be sick it was all making me very anxious and aggravated. Then a miracle. Sky cleared, plane landed, we got out. Made it off the island. Smaller plane. There was no cockpit door. I could see too much.
Got to Vancouver airport. We were supposed to stay another night there but I thought we should get home. I was able to switch out the flight and I’m writing this as we fly back to LA on Sunday.
It was a great trip. Too much suspense. Some good. Some bad. Still feel a little buggy. We saw whales!
Today I talk to Al Ruddy about the movies he’s produced. Including The Godfather and Mathilda. On Thursday I talk to Sharon Van Etten about her music and her life. Great talks!
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
