Honeymoonin' (Ucluelet)

Day 7: (continued)
We arrived in Ucluelet (it means "safe harbor") and found our next hotel, Black Rock Oceanfront Resort. We were early to arrive, but they had the room ready, which was wonderful since we were tired from being up so early for the bear tour. We went up to our room and were immediately taken with the view.

Beautiful view from our room at Black Rock. 

Ocean waves crashed over mighty black rocks right out our floor to ceiling windows, then if you looked further, you could see the Pacific stretching into the distance as far as the eye could see. The sounds of rolling and crashing waves with the occasional fog horn were pleasing to the senses as well. We decided to shower off the sea from the earlier bear tour and relax with an open window and fresh air for a bit. Then we finally made it out for dinner at Romans Grill. I had a margherita pizza and James had veal parmesan. Pretty good. We stopped off at the local market to grab some cheese for later and headed back to relax by the fire and sound of the waves for the evening.

Day 8:
This morning, we woke up pretty late and made our way down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet and our view of the waves out the window from the table.

Breakfast at Black Rock's Lure Restaurant

It was an on and off rainy day, so we layered up, grabbed jackets and headed toward the Wild Pacific Trail for some hiking. Most of the hike was dry. Yay!

Enjoying the beauty and rugged landscapes of the wild pacific trail

 We enjoyed many beautiful vistas of the ocean along with twists and turns through the rainforest and a neat little red and white lighthouse.

The strange, yet serene Amphitrite lighthouse in Ucluelet

The highlights of the hike were spotting several more bald eagles, one with a freshly caught fish, another sitting atop a tall evergreen guarding it's huge nest.

Eagle sitting over it's giant nest

 After our hike, we headed to Ukee Dogs for lunch. It is a tiny local hot spot with all sorts of delicious hot dogs, coffee, and cookies. I had the Veggie Ukee dog with mac n cheese and James had the carnivore Ukee dog with fries. Our next stop was the Ucluelet Aquarium. It is a pretty small place, but neat. They catch and release all the sea life locally and have lots of touch tanks.

Big sunflower starfish

We spent a good chunk of time in there watching a friendly halibut spit water at guests and checking out a speedy sunflower star fish.

Hilarious spitting halibut 

There was even a red octopus feeding going on while we were there. Though it wasn't like any other aquariums I visited, I enjoyed it and I think James did too. He sure got a few good pictures of the sea creatures. Next, we drove up the main drag of Ucluelet looking for some statues we'd seen on a cartoon map of the town while sitting in Ukee Dogs. We saw an eagle statue, bear statue, and lady with a bird statue. Nothing too wild, but it was fun to drive through the tiny town and try to spot the landmarks. After that, we headed to the hotel to relax a bit. Later on, we went to the Crow's Nest gift store for a few trinkets to take back. Then it was dinner time. We headed up the street to Matterson House, a cute little restaurant in an old, historic house. The atmosphere was quaint, service was friendly, and food was amazing. I had the Cheesedillicious pasta and James had some kind of sea food pasta with olive oil. We both enjoyed nice green salads and some very yummy bread. The best part was dessert- lemon cheese cake. Yum. Having stuffed ourselves, we went back to the hotel to wind down for our final evening in Ucluelet. Now, a few words about Black Rock Oceanfront  Resort. The view!!!! I just couldn't get over the view of the waves breaking over the dark, jagged rocks, especially during high tide. It is just amazing. The rhythmic waves are almost hypnotic. The room itself wasn't too shabby either. Cute little patio overlooking that beautiful ocean view, comfy bed, cozy fireplace and...drumroll please....an awesome bathroom! Now usually I don't care to take the time to rave about hotel bathrooms. They is what they is. But this bathroom was something I could get used too. It had a giant soaker tub with sliding windows so you could watch out the floor to ceiling windows and enjoy those wonderful waves rolling in.

This picture doesn't do the bathroom justice...

It also had beautiful black rock heated floors, and a black rock shower with a rain spout. I felt pampered just taking a regular old shower. Ahh. Do we have to leave? We ended our night listening to the sea, the wind (which really started roaring for awhile), and the moan of some not too distant whistler bouys. Relaxing.