Travel and Life Update (July 2023): Comical Mishaps in Tofino

I’ve been eyeing Tofino on Vancouver Island for years. Magical beaches surrounded by lush forests and rolling mountains sounded like my kind of place. It’s the northernmost town on the West Coast of Vancouver Island and has been home to the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples for over 5,000 years.

Now with a baby in tow, I figured what better time to go visit some beautiful beaches where we can relax without too much of an agenda. 

So after leaving Victoria (which you can read about in my June personal update) we cruised out to Tofino where we ended up spending a majority of July. This was much longer than we originally planned to stay, but thanks to some bumps in the road, staying put there seemed to be the least stressful option.

Read on for the second installment of my monthly personal update series.

(Somewhat) Comical Mishaps in Tofino

If van life has taught me anything over the years, it’s how to go with the flow. It’s a good thing, because we had a fair share of punches this month. Brace yourself for some hilarious stories that weren’t so funny at the time.

We’ve been doing van life on and off since 2016, and we’ve been very lucky to have things go relatively smooth all of these years…but over the last month our dogs have really put us through the ringer.

A few nights after arriving in Tofino, I woke up in the middle of the night at 2am with a wet back and neck. Like sopping wet. Luckily I’m over the post-partum hot flashes, so I knew it wasn’t sweat and something else had happened. 

In the pitch black, I started feeling around the bed only to have my hand land in something mushy. Before you get really grossed out….no, it wasn’t poop.

Gumbo had decided to saunter over to my side of the bed and puke all over my pillow. Somehow I didn’t notice when it happened, and I’d been sleeping in a wet pile of partially digested kibble that was now tangled up in my hair and all over my PJs.

Not wanting to wake our sleeping baby, the only option I had was to change my shirt, cover the mess with a towel, and go back to bed. Ryan and I had a good quiet laugh about just how disgusting it was, and luckily with how little sleep I’ve been getting with the baby, I fell right back asleep. 

In the morning, Ryan rushed to the laundromat at the RV park and loaded up all three washing machines with clothes, sheets, our waterproof mattress cover, and our comforter. Then as other people lined up he learned that the rule was one machine per person. Needless to say there were some pissed off campers waiting to do laundry that morning. 

This incident made me realize that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a second pair of sheets in the van for emergencies like this. 

The second mishap was only a few days later with Charlie. If you read my June update you know that Charlie already had to spend one night in the doggie ER since we left home while we were in Tacoma.

Well, this time he came down with a solid case of dog diarrhea. We really felt sorry for him, but we figured it would clear up on its own, so we let him ride it out for a day or two, and he did seem like he was getting better.

Then Ryan’s birthday rolled around, and we took Tofino’s free public shuttle to go out to a nice birthday dinner at the Wickaninnish Inn, which has a separate vegetarian/vegan menu. While we were gone, we left the van parked at our campsite with the dogs inside. 

The view was superb, but dinner itself turned out to be kind of subpar. Luckily it only took an hour, because when we got back to the van, Charlie had diarrhea all over the floor of the van. Happy birthday Ryan! At least it wasn’t in the bed too.

So instead of watching the sunset like we planned, we got to clean up dog diarrhea instead.

Luckily the job wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Last month I installed the Inhabit Designs custom floor mats, so all we had to do was pull them out of the van, hose them off with our outdoor shower, and leave them outside to dry. 

If that’s not a real way to put the mats to the test, I’m not sure what is. 

After being up all night letting Charlie in and out of the van every 30 minutes, the local veterinarian squeezed us in the next day. Her guess was that he lapped up a couple of sips of water from an algae-filled tide pool. Luckily with meds he was on the mends within 24 hours, but unfortunately for Charlie, that was the end of his beach fun.

On top of all of this, I had my own stomach issues after eating an undercooked, mushy Beyond Burger from the Wildside Grill. I only ate half, and it was honestly one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever consumed. That left me thankful we were at an RV park with a nice bathroom, and I’ve now sworn off Beyond Burger for life. Sorry TMI!

Tofino Highlights

Tofino is the northernmost town on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. I’ve always heard it described as a little hippie surf town.

I’m not so sure I’d call it hippie, but it’s pretty laid back and the beaches are absolutely gorgeous. They are massive and many are connected by trails so you can hike from one to the next. 

There is no free camping in Tofino. In fact, camping in Tofino will cost you as much as a modest hotel in some destinations (you can save money by going in the shoulder season). Luckily the exchange rate is in Americans’ favor right now, and since we drove all of this way with the baby, we definitely wanted to chill for a while. 

We stayed in two different campgrounds, and if you decide to go there, you will absolutely want to make reservations as far in advance as you can. 

The first place we stayed was Crystal Cove Beach Resort on McKenzie Beach. This is an RV Park where they don’t allow tent camping. Most of the spots were pretty spacious, and the bathrooms were some of the nicest I’ve ever experienced while camping.

The beach here is sheltered and great for paddle boarding and swimming and you can also hike north along the coast for a couple of miles.

Crystal Cove’s location was also great. A 10 minute walk away was a famous taco truck called Tacofino (be prepared to wait in a long line), a gelato shop with amazing vegan chocolate coconut gelato, a coffee shop, and the burger joint that got me sick (although my non-vegan parents seemed to enjoy their food there). It was also a 45 minute walk to town on the bike path.

The second campground we stayed at was called Surf Grove. It was the more expensive of the two. The spots were bigger and nicer than Crystal Cove, but the bathrooms weren’t nearly as fancy.

Surf Grove Campground is located right on Cox Bay, which is an incredible beginner surf spot with a surf school right on site. 

Cox Bay has a shallow, sandy bottom, and the waves never seemed too intimidating. If I was going to learn how to surf, this is hands down the place I would choose to do it. I thought about it on this trip, but being tired from the baby and stiff from sitting so much the last five months, I couldn’t muster up the motivation.

I honestly felt a bit guilty passing up on the opportunity to try surfing, but you know what? It’s ok. It’s just the phase of life I’m in right now. Being a new mom, I’m already crossing plenty of new experiences off my list, and the waves will certainly be here next time. 

At low tide, you can also walk over to Chesterman Beach from Cox Bay. There are awesome tide pools along the way packed with neon starfish and emerald sea anemones. 

Once we were set up at our campgrounds, we didn’t really feel like driving anywhere. With baby Herbie, it’s a lot more effort to get the van into drive mode, so instead we took advantage of the easy beach access and our nice campsite.

We spent most of our days walking along the beach, sitting at the beach, or just relaxing at the van. My parents, who also have a van, met us there, so we spent a lot of time hanging out with them.

We also had a blast busting out our table top ping pong set.

As always, Ryan also cooked us a lot of yummy van meals. Maybe you’ve seen my “Ryan what’s for dinner?” series on my Instagram stories?” I’ve been sharing all of the tasty dinners Ryan whips up on my stories. I’ll save it as a highlight in case you want to check it out.

We did manage to drive down to Ucluelet one day and took a nice coastal walk on the Wild Pacific Trail where there were dozens of beautiful coves. The lighthouse loop was all-terrain stroller friendly, but the other sections of the trail were not. 

There’s one final highlight that I have to mention. Since my parents were there, we asked them to babysit so we could treat ourselves to a couple’s hot stone massage at Stillwater Nature Spa. I don’t get massages very often, but it was hands down the best one I’ve ever had.

The massage took place inside a canvas tent in the forest where you could hear the birds chirping. It was seriously the most relaxing 90 minutes I’ve had since having a baby back in February.

On to Whistler

I’ve only been to Whistler once, 20 years ago. My college boyfriend and I drove up there on a whim, camped in the pouring rain and were so unprepared that the camp host had to give us extra blankets. The next day, we went to the ski area, watched some mountain bikers, and pretty much turned around and drove back to Tacoma. 

So I was overdue for a visit. 

After Tofino, we took the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay and spent two nights in Squamish at a nice spot called Paradise Valley Campground on the way up.

I was excited to explore Squamish, but between errands and the baby napping in the grocery store parking lot, we didn’t end up being able to do much. Are you seeing a theme here? I’ll get into it in a minute, but I’ll just say traveling with a young baby in a van is exhausting!

We’ve run into some sleeping challenges with baby Herbie in the last month, so when we got to Whistler, we decided we needed to get out of the van for a few days before we started our long drive home. I found a last minute discounted Airbnb that we stayed at for a few nights to catch up on rest (and work). 

The village was packed due to the Red Bull mountain biking competition called CrankWorx, but we enjoyed the many walking paths around town and some of the tasty vegan food that we found. Our favorite spot was Naked Sprout.

We also rode up the Peak to Peak Gondola that runs 2.7 miles between the top of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.

We haven’t spent much time in the mountains with Herbie yet, so it felt so good to be up there again, even if we only hiked for a short distance.

I’ll be excited to come back to this area in the van when Herbie is a little older and we can get out and explore the mountains more. 

Baby Herbie Update

I’ll be honest. This month has been very hard doing van life with our baby who was 5-months old in July.

First I’ll start with what I’ve loved about doing van life with a baby. Out in the van, I was able to cut back on my screen and tv time, allowing me to be more present and to build an even deeper bond with him.

We spent a lot of time on little hikes where I carried Herbie in the baby carrier. Before I know it, he’s going to be too big to comfortably carry that way, so I really embraced these adventures together.

I also loved watching him become more alert as we exposed him to nature and new environments. Despite some of the hiccups, this is a trip I will cherish forever.

But now for the challenges. I’ll start with the tough things that were to be expected. In the last month, baby Herbie has started to become a lot more mobile.

He’s now able to slither his way across the bed, which means we can’t take our eyes off him even for a second. Our van obviously isn’t the slightest bit “baby proof”, so this has made it a lot more difficult to get other things done. 

In the past Ryan would cook dinner, while I’d work on my computer. Now, Ryan cooks dinner or packs the van while I watch the baby.

Or if I’m doing work or decide to take that rare shower, Ryan watches the baby. We have a few places we can put him – like in his Baby Bjorn Bouncer or the Veer Baseamp tent, but in general, the two of us multi-tasking has become a thing of the past. 

Traveling with a baby forces you to embrace slowing down. Pre-baby, we’d hike like crazy when traveling in our van.

By the end of July, we’d been on the road for nearly two months. Despite feeling like our days were super busy, the number of activities we managed to cross off our list was relatively small.

While the “Instagram-worthy” moments of my past might be few and far between right now, there’s the ridiculously cute giggles and heart-melting snuggles that more than make up for it. 

Now for the real tough situation we’ve been facing – sleep!

Herbie has always been a great sleeper. It’s probably karma for sharing this to begin with, but at three months old, he was sleeping 9 hours straight at night. I know how rare that is so I felt like we really hit the jackpot.

In June, he was still sleeping pretty good in the van, although waking up a bit more frequently to feed. He’s been hitting developmental milestones, and he’s also starting to teeth, so it’s natural that he’s a little more restless at night.

By the time July rolled around, he started waking up almost every hour every single night. Anytime he wakes up, all he wants is me. Comfort sucking is his favorite past-time, and it’s the only thing that can get him back asleep…until the next hour when he wakes up again.

We made a makeshift cave for him to keep his travel crib ultra-dark and we have a portable white noise machine to help block out any background noise. But nothing we did seemed to make any difference at all.

While this would be hard at home, being in our tiny space in the van without any creature comforts or place to take a breather, has made this especially difficult. To say I was tired by the end of July would be an understatement.

The last couple of weeks, we’ve been really focused on getting him on a better napping schedule, since better naps can lead to improved night sleep. Unfortunately that also hasn’t made much of a difference, but either way we’re working really hard to keep him in a routine. And in a van, that’s a challenge in itself considering van life is the antithesis of routine.

We decided that after Whistler, we would go straight home to Salt Lake City to get his sleep back on track. We already planned to go home for his 6-month checkups, but this meant heading back a little bit sooner than we originally expected.

Part of me feels that going home early and staying home means we failed at van life with a baby, but I know that’s not true. In fact, we were pretty brave to be out here in the first place. And two months is no small feat. 

But for now, we know the best thing we can do for our baby bear is get him home and give him a consistent and stable environment.