Birthday and Christmas in this wonderful place.

Hi,
I woke up on my birthday with my sister who made me breakfast!!
Then we dressed up warm and got ready to do what we came here for. Storm watching!!
First we went to a small beach across the cottages, we couldn't get on the beach cause of the high tide. Then we walked to the lighthouse a bit further ahead. The trail was closed because of damage from the storm, so we followed the road. There it also said to watch out. Also that this was an area with bears, wolves and cougars :) But the waves were so huge, it was really nice and stormy ocean. The water was far away so we went to sit on the rocks to take some pictures, there were a lot of people doing the same thing. You could just sit there and watch, it was so beautiful. We found a nice little bench and just sat there for a while. Then we walked a bit by the trail and took pictures.
We were there for a good part of the day, so beautiful.
Then we went back to the cottage for a late lunch. To then head back out to see the sunset on big beach a little further away. I found a really nice sea shell, but did not take it with me... The sunset was so nice, so beautiful.
After that we went back to the cottage and had a pizza with a movie.
So we had a nice evening in :)
Oooh yeah I bought myself a lemon meringue pie, but my sister is allergic so I ate it by myself during the whole stay in the cottage :)
The next day on christmas eve, we went to Tofino, known for it's surf vibes.
We stopped at one of the beaches and yes found some surfers!
The village was really nice and really had the beach village vibes. We walked around for a bit and did some last grocery shopping. Then we went back to the cottage and called home to see how there celebration was going. To then start our own cooking and celebrating. We had some food and watched Harry Potter, cause we didn't found any christmas movies on tv.
On our last day, so Christmas day, we had a late start and then went for a walk to the beach and lighthouse. We were so lucky to see a bald eagle or 3 :) We really didn't want to leave this place. Then we cooked our simple Christmas diner and watch Home alone on tv :)
We enjoyed our time in this place so much!!! We plan to come back one day, cause it was really perfect!! Best place in Canada so far :)
Love,
Sarah

Stuck in the snow.

Hi,
For my birthday we rented a little cottage in Ucluelet.
But to get there was a long road, there was that big storm 2 days ago and there was still a lot of damage everywhere and some places didn't had any power back.
So we started the +2 hour drive, we did a stop at Coombs to see the  goats on the roof. We did not find the goats, I guess they were inside with this weather. We did go into the shop and bought some snacks for the road. We wanted to stop at Cathedrall grove to see the big trees, but it was closed cause of the weather. So we only stopped once more for a pitt stop, we needed some petrol in the car and a hot drink for on the road. And this was the last village before our final destination, so we would drive in nature for a long time. It was raining but the nature was so beautiful, then we saw some snow and we found it so nice and great with Christmas coming. But then the snow got really bad, like really really bad!!! At one point going up the cars before us started to stop, so we all stopped.

Then after 10min or so we started driving again...some cars got up the little hill, but then the truck in front of us got stuck in the snow going up the hill. So we needed to stop again, then cars started to pass the truck so we were like, ok lets try this, we got next to the truck but then it didn't want to go any further and the truck driver was like, you girls are making the road slippery like this, just go back behind me the snow truck will be here any minute. So we waited, then the snow truck arrived, but made a big pile of snow in the middle of the road. A lot of cars started to go again, but the truck was still stuck. Then a car got stuck mid hill next to the truck and people started to push the car, my sister went and helped.
All this time it's still snowing really bad. So then someone told me to go and drive, my sister and 3 other people started to push the car and we went up the hill. Then one of the guys said "don't stop driving now", so I yelled to my sister "RUN", she ran and jumped into the driving car. Finally we could continue. The weather went from snowing bad, to snowing just a little, to raining so much!!! Finally we got at the end of the road and in Ucluelet. We checked into our little cottage. It was the cutest place, they put up christmas lights on the cottages, so nice!! After such a horrible/stressful drive we were so happy to get there. Our small cottage was also so cute. Once settled in we went back to the office to get some free DVD's. So we watched a movie and went to bed.
This was the most stressful ride I've ever had. We just don't have that kind of snow in Belgium.
But now I know I can do this :)
Love,
Sarah

My sister is here!!

Hi,
I know it has been a while, but so much happened :)
So 2 weeks ago my sister arrived in Vancouver!!
The first day we did her paperwork, so she also can work here while she stays.
In the evening we went to Aurora Winter Festival, I bought the tickets a few days before.
It was so nice with all the lights and there was a maze where we needed to help the elfs. So we put the app on our phone and we needed to find some pictures to scan in the maze. I couldn't work with it for some reason, but my sister could. At the end we would win a prize if we found everything and we did, we won some bracelets who light in the dark :)
Then we went to find some drinks and some food, there where a bunch of food trucks and it was really good food. We had a great night even when it started to rain so hard when we walked back, it was crazy!!
Her second day we went to Stanley park to walk around. In the afternoon we went to the bank to open up her bank account. We had an early night, because the day after we had to get up early to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island.
In the morning we went to the ferry stop early in the morning, but already in the bus we heard that the ferries till that point were cancelled. There was a big storm on the ocean.
So once we got there they said to wait 10min and they would let us know if the next ferry would go.
It wouldn't, the next news would be at 1pm so we went to get some shelter, because it was cold and windy. We went back at 1pm to see if the ferry from 3.45pm would go, good news it probably would. So we went to the waiting room to hear the next feedback. It said we would not go and the next news would be in about an hour. At the end the called in that the next and only ferry would go at 6.15pm and that we should get ready to board. The boat ride was wild and they said we should not walk around. We were supposed to rent a car that day, but we wouldn't make that anymore so I called them and we could get it the next day. Once in Nanaimo we got a cab to get to our hotel in Parksville, because there were no busses. After a long day we went to bed, we were so tired!!
It were some long first days for my sister, but we also had so much fun :)
Love,
Sarah