The BIG 50th Vancouver Vacation Sept/Oct 2021 - Day 6 - Lazy day in Ucluelet

[smithlane]

Day 6 - Tuesday 5th October 2021

**Apologies, it's a bit of a short and boring one today**

I got rudely woken up by Jim at 6 o’clock this morning by making a racket going to the toilet
I couldn’t go back to sleep so surfed the internet a while and wrote up some notes.
The weather was going to be pretty rubbish today with on/off showers all day.

By about 9 we were dressed and ready so headed into town and went for breakfast at the Barclay Cafe again.

After yesterdays food envy from Helen I went for the breakfast bagel with a hash brown and a hot chocolate and Jim the burrito with a cappuccino.
It took a little while to come out but was really good when it did. Having tried both I think I actually preferred the burrito.

Once done we popped next door to the Co-op as Helen needed the pharmacy for ear plugs. Nicks snoring was keeping her awake!
Whilst in here I went for a wander and ended up with the most random selection of cinnamon rolls, butter cake mix, Franks Buffalo sauce, Coke Zero, chocolate milk and socks!

We put everything in the car then went for a stroll down to the harbour, the rain had started to ease thankfully.

It was so peaceful and quiet down here, you could hear a pin drop.
We walked right down to the marina and had a chat with a guy cleaning his boat. It was huge and clearly his pride and joy, he would take it around the island on his time off. Definitely living his best life!

Down at the end of the dock we could hear sea lions but for the life of us we couldn’t see them
Decided they must be a bit further up, so we kept walking. We needed to go back up to the road and around as you couldn’t access the water in a straight line.

Walked down to an area where you can launch kayaks from and sure enough there they were. My god they’re noisy, so funny though! We stood and watched them for ages.

The rain was coming down a bit heavier now so we headed back to the car. Its such a shame the weather was rubbish as I think Ucluelet would look a lot more inviting in the sunshine. At this off-peak time of the year a lot of things close down and there are barely any tourists so it all looks a bit bleak.

Just some random deer on the side of the road! They're so tame

Once back at the AirBnB we all chilled out for a few hours as there wasn’t much to do with it pouring outside. I spent a bit of time sorting out my clothes and taking photos of some of the items I had bought so far, also writing up yesterday’s notes as I didn’t get time to write anything down.

The other 3 all had a nap but I really struggle to sleep in the day. It was actually nice to do not a lot and just relax. We have been on the go for nearly a week now, I also had a crazy couple of weeks with work leading up to the holiday so a few hours downtime was well needed!

I went and took a few more photos of the house and grounds, a really beautiful location. The owner had these huge windows overlooking the back garden, perfect for bear spotting!

The entrance to our bedroom

Dave

At about 2.30 the sun appeared and everyone had woken from their naps so we decided to try out the Wild Pacific trail by the house.

It is literally only a 2 minute walk and this is what greets you!

Another beautiful stretch of the coast. We continued walking for a kilometre or so but it started to rain again so we cut our losses and turned back. The heavens opened so we had to take shelter as it started hailing!

Look at the colour on this tree!

After 5 mins it subsided so we did a fast walk back to the house. There was a huge flash of lightning followed by a very loud clap of thunder just as we were approaching the driveway so we ran the last part, too many trees around for my liking!

We had another chill out then slowly got ready for dinner. We were all quite peckish as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
By 5 we were ready so drove into town and parked where we had breakfast, opposite the coffee shop was a restaurant called Cedar Grill that had a decent looking menu and the bonus was it was open!

I popped into the gift shop next door while the others got a table.

They had some beautiful artwork by local artists but I just bought the obligatory postcards and magnet.

We thankfully got a table but my god it was cold in here. There was no way I could take my coat off! We asked about turning the heating up a bit but all she could do was put a tiny heater on in the corner, it didn’t help that they had one of the doors open to the patio area.
We quickly ordered hoping some hot food would warm us up

We all ordered chicken wings to start, I’m a wuss and had salt and pepper, the others ordered the hot.
These were nice but not quite as good as the ones I had in Whistler.

For mains we all had the lamb shank with roasted potatoes apart from Nick who had the New York Strip steak.

This was very nice but quite dry so Helen asked if we could have some more of the sauce. Much better now but would have been perfect with mash. They don’t really do our version of roast potatoes, just roasted new potatoes which is probably the last type of potato I’d choose!

None of us fancied a dessert so we got the bill, $90 each including tip

It was only about 6.30 which was far too early to go home but we were running out of options for places that were open. The Eagles Nest pub would have been perfect but was closed until Wednesday. We walked towards Frankies where we ate on the first night as they had a small bar area. On the way we spotted Shipwreck Pizza that was open and also had a bar. We asked if it was ok if we just had a drink which it was.

Coronas for everyone else and I had a vodka with San Pellegrino lemonade. This was lovely and refreshing, not too sweet either. She had only used half a can so I got another one straight after!

We got chatting to the owner who had only taken over ownership in December last year and his server Danni. He had moved to Ucluelet with his wife and two adult children from Vancouver. He was saying they were having to rent a house for now as the property prices had gone insane in part down to people buying property to turn into AirBnB short term rental.
The whole area was struggling with finding staff as there is just no where reasonably priced to live, this is why a lot of places shut on a Monday and Tuesday. We thought it was because we were visiting in off peak but it was actually staffing issues!
Even the lovely server Danni was having to rent a room in a friends house with 3 other people as she just can’t afford to solely rent, she’s worried as it’s not secure and not a long term solution.
He even had someone working for him who lived in his car

We ordered another round of drinks, this time a Hunt for Red October which is their version of a Moscow Mule. Ooh this was good and strong with a real ginger zing to it!
Can you believe the boys were still a bit peckish so ordered a portion of hot wings each as the owner was talking about the homemade sauce they make fresh every day. If you hadn’t gathered by now, Jim and Nick are fairly obsessed with hot wings!
I even had one and they were tasty, blimmin’ hot though!

We carried on chatting about Canadian sports as the ice hockey was on the TV with Seattle’s newest team playing the Vancouver Canucks in the Rogers stadium that we cycled by the other day.
He was explaining that the US teams were slowly taking over the hockey league with less than half of Canadian teams in it now compared to years ago. It’s still Canada’s number 1 sport though. Apparently Tampa has a team so will try and catch a game when we’re in Florida next year.

We got another round of drinks that he said were on the house, very kind of him! Hunt for Red October for me again, Helen had the same.
He also went out the back to give us a football scarf for the Vancouver Whitecaps, the soccer team he used to be a board member of. What a lovely guy!

It was now 10pm and they were closing up for the night so we settled the bill of $60 per couple.
We staggered back to the house and crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow

[anji]

Sorry the weather wasn't too great for you. We are booked at the Bayshore Waterfrint Inn that you pictured - they kindly carried forward our $30 deposit from last year too 😀
Love the sound of Hunt for Red October as Moscow Mule is my favourite 🍸🍹 Amazing to see the deer so close too. Lovely visitors.

[JessBlu]

Check out the English hockey league EIHL, everyone in my house is obsessed !

Local and reasonable priced. Sound like Guildford is your local team.

[Goldia]

It sounds like you all needed a rest day. Chickens wings for starter and dessert! They must love them. A shame the property prices are causing problems for the locals. It sounds like an interesting evening chatting to the pizza place owner.

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by anji

Sorry the weather wasn't too great for you. We are booked at the Bayshore Waterfrint Inn that you pictured - they kindly carried forward our $30 deposit from last year too 😀
Love the sound of Hunt for Red October as Moscow Mule is my favourite 🍸🍹 Amazing to see the deer so close too. Lovely visitors.

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That hotel is perfectly located. You’ll be within walking distance of everything in the town. You have to go to the Barclay Cafe for breakfast and definitely try the Shipwreck if not for pizzas then drinks. They were so friendly in there!

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by JessBlu

Check out the English hockey league EIHL, everyone in my house is obsessed !

Local and reasonable priced. Sound like Guildford is your local team.

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I’ll definitely check that out thank you. We aren’t far from Bracknell either which friends go and see often but I think their stadium has moved?
It’s not a sport I was that familiar with before but Jim really took to watching it out there

[smithlane]

Originally Posted by Goldia

It sounds like you all needed a rest day. Chickens wings for starter and dessert! They must love them. A shame the property prices are causing problems for the locals. It sounds like an interesting evening chatting to the pizza place owner.

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The word obsessed would be more accurate 😂. We are due to have a ‘wing off’ to see who can cook the best hot wings back home. I did some really good ones in the air fryer last week using Franks buffalo hot sauce!

It honestly hadn’t occurred to me what the AirBnb business does to local prices. It must be so hard to live in one of these tourist traps. It’s not as if they have any local towns they can live in and commute as everything is just too far away 😢

[jocat]

Sorry that you had a rubbish weather day, but sometimes those more relaxing days are just what you need.

The Shipwreck Pizza place sounds great. Lovely owner too by the sounds of it. It can be lovely to chat to the locals - you get to learn so much.

[smithlane]

I think by this point in the holiday we needed a down day, it always feels so miserable when it rains though!
It was a real gem of a find, it turned out to be a really fun evening

[Fuellady]

A couple of lovely walks today, despite it being much more relaxed. It sounds like you all needed a bit of down time.

It's such a shame that the locals are struggling with property prices. Lovely way to spend the evening with drinks, snacks and good local conversation .