Three things to know about Tofino, British Columbia

What happens in Tofino… stays in Tofino… unless it happens to Team Toto. So:

Crystal Cove Beach Resort and RV Park provides, with all accommodations, Wi-Fi. This is particularly helpful when you’re visiting from the USA (or other foreign country) and your mobile phone provider features a $1500-per-megabyte mobile data when roaming. (I may be exaggerating). So: FREE Wi-Fi, as long as you don’t mind logging in every 30 minutes. I didn’t mind. It seemed to work quite well.

This Wi-Fi repeater, or access point, or whatever it is, just across Dust Lane from our campsite, worked well. Sometimes.

But on waking after our first night at the resort, I couldn’t log in at our campsite. Further investigation as the day progressed revealed that I COULD log in in other areas of the resort — just not near our campsite. Another inconvenience of wilderness camping, but we muddled through just fine.

I could have gone to the office and alerted them to this devastating problem, but I didn’t. It would seem, however, that someone else did. Because, late in the day, I returned from a beach walk to see what appeared to be electronics equipment sitting on the edge of Dust Lane, with no one around. Maybe someone had left it there by mistake?

No. It belonged to a technician who had been dispatched to remedy the log-in problem, which apparently was associated with the aforementioned repeater across from our site. I moved on. And, later, I found that I could now log in to the Wi-Fi from our site. It was thoroughly satisfying. These folks at Crystal Cove Beach Resort have their act together; they run a tight ship; they’re a well-oiled machine. And, I expect, when the weather is normal (slightly damp), they don’t have all those dust clouds. That is a thing to know; or maybe it is a heap of things, but I’m calling it a single thing, for literary purposes.

Before the Wi-Fi problem was overcome, I had to find an alternative blogging station. I suffered through.

This was my blogging station during the time I couldn’t reliably use the Wi-Fi at our site. Hey, the view was better anyway, and the doggies liked hanging out on the lawn.

Here is another thing about the greater Tofino metropolitan area: it is scenic beyond all reason. You get got your long, wide, sandy ocean beaches, with pounding surf that attracts surfers from all over the planet. You get all those rocks and trees and mountains for which British Columbia is known. And then you get Clayoquot Sound, an extensive inlet covering many thousands of acres, or hectares as we say up in Canada, and which encloses its very own islands which themselves possess hundreds of their own hectares. It’s all very hilly, and green, and largely undeveloped, and is so much more pleasing to look at than, say, a strip mall.

Tyler and Wally survey Clayoquot Sound from the Grice Bay launch ramp.

We went for our mandatory stroll on Long Beach — a Pacific Rim National Park mainstay and important component of repeating Tyler’s initial visit eight years earlier — and then we went to Grice Bay, before finally retiring to Toto’s creature comforts and lovely Crystal Cove.

The easier-on-the-eyes portion of Team Toto inspects the launch ramp at Grice Bay. This is part of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which has other, more famous parts. But this part seems nice enough.

So, Tofino 2015. Check. Done. Nice. Now, back to Nanaimo.

Wait, oh wait. The third thing to know. For casual dining or take-out in greater Tofino: Wildside Grill. Matchless fish & chips and other delights. We celebrated Sooz’s birthday on July 4, treating ourselves to a wonderful take-out meal and some California bubbly from Tofino’s BC Liquor Store.

There.