A Perfect Day

It was a perfect day; a rare day. 

It was a day filled with so many of my favourite things. 

It was virtually a flawless birthday. 

Surfing and Sunsets- Last couple days at age 26.

The first beach day was a short one. I was kind of glad I had committed myself to shooting rather than surfing. I'm pretty sure I was as content on the sand as I would have been in the water. Plus, as Laura and her friend's shredded (do they even call it that?) her dog Delani kept me company. 

There's a girls only surf competition in a couple weeks I want to come back for- strictly for photography's sake... If I make it out I'll definitely be posting about it. 

That afternoon I tried to find some other friends of mine who were kite boarding at Chesterman's, but I missed them. I snapped a couple shots and moved on. 

They found me in Tofino later and as the evening approached we walked to the beach for a sunset mission. 

It was glorious. The sky glowed for hours as we inspected sea creatures, climbed an old over-hanging shoreline tree, and explored a cave. 

As we wandered along the beach we felt as though we were inside a giant snow-globe with stars instead of snowflakes. 

Those were yesterday's adventures. Today I ate a delicious Gringo from Tacofino and went surfing with Dan for the afternoon. A little slack-line was thrown into the mix as well. It was a perfect way to spend my last day as a 26 year old. 

What an amazing year.

Chanterelle Central

The fall coastal plant was out of Parksville, BC again this year. A tough contract but beautiful weather and friendly company made it all worth while. Plus, it's a bonus to get to the island for work purposes. Top up the bank account and head to the west coast, not a bad goal to work towards.

I'm staying with an old tree planting friend of mine in Ucluelet, not that she's old, but we met years ago. And I hadn't seen her for four years. My first night in Ukee Laura took me to watch the sun set behind waves breaking on the rocks. We studied a huge variety of gurgling sea creatures and caught up quickly; memories of planting crews and stories of old and new love. 

The next day we took it easy, cooked and ate food, and picked mushrooms. We found lots of chanterelles, plus some mysterious others- most of which turned out to be edible, but we had left them behind to be safe.

Possibly a granulated slippery jack

Possibly honey mushrooms

Laura's prize chanterelle

And the trumpet sounds...

Crawling under tree trunks to collect

Happiness

A modest sample of our edible golden delicacies