Thinking Allowed: Pretending to be islanders, Part II

Considerations for biggish, unsettled families who are debating whether to move to Nanaimo, Ucluelet or Tofino.

Nanaimo is like Victoria's tattooed younger sister. The downtown core is just a few blocks of staggering winos (based on our ~10 minutes spent there), with concentric circles of big-box shops around it. First impression pretty bleh. But turns out there's ANOTHER concentric circle of awesomeness! An amazing aquatic centre with wave pool, three slides and in-water playground! Trail systems that connect kids to their schools via ravines! Mountain biking and trail running galore! A wooden boat museum that lets kids make their own (crooked) model boats with hammer and nails! It seems like people are very happy there once they've carved out a nice circuit of outdoor pleasure. Also, houses do not cost 25x the average family income, which is refreshing.

Sadly, you will need to be an Etsy maven, B&B host, or otherwise work from home, because the floatplanes are fickle (fog) and the ferry is well over two hours (the terminals are interminable) ... commuting to Vancouver is not really on the cards.

Ucluelet is Tofino's younger sister who wears jeans. Tofino is just plain charming. We had a really nice time in both towns despite endless rain. We found geocaches, climbed Incinerator Rock in violent winds, ate the world's #1 best fish chowder (in Jakob's opinion) at Sobo (recipe online! You need fish bones and pounds of salmon), We watched a floatplane rattle its way into the sky (looked awfully doubtful that it could stay up, left the water at like 40 kph), hiked to a lighthouse while Jakob trail-ran and the girls cowered in terror (there were signs about active wolves), saw a large pod of whales shooting white plumes into the air.

It rained the whole time. At bedtime we asked the girls what their favourite part of the day was. Sophia said, "going on the windy beach." Tova said, "the rain". Turns out she is extremely fond of jumping in puddles, so her shoes are now sodden. It's pretty ironic that we can barely coax her to hike a kilometer among gorgeous views, but she's happy as a clam in miserable weather. At Cathedral Grove everyone was floundering at the fringe of the mud-washed trail, trying to stay dry, while she splashed gloriously through the thick black goop, all dimples.

So it looks like Vancouver Island would be a wonderful place to spend a few years: you'd eat a lot of good chowder, get a pearly complexion, own several pairs of gumboots, and sneer mellowly at the busy-bee mainlanders who are too rabbity to take life at the right pace (slang: to "Vancouver" someone is to make plans with them and then cancel at the last minute). But first you need to retire, save 2 million bucks, or make it big on Etsy.