Road Trip #3: Freddie's Disneyland

No Pirates of the Caribbean log ride or cotton candy or Mickey Mouse parade, but the far-west beaches of Pacific Rim National Park were a veritable Disneyland for Freddie — and a lovely battery-charging retreat for his people. I won't inflict all of my photos on WWF readers, but I will split the (still quite numerous) ones I do want to share into a few separate blog posts ...

Let's go!

Here's Freddie on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo. The ride was uneventful, but our return journey involved an interesting service-dog-related encounter with the Chief Steward. Stay tuned for that story in a future post!

Heavy (unseasonable) snow in Nanaimo and across the much of the Island

No snow at our destination, however!

The business signs for this little plaza between Ucluelet and Tofino capture much of the essence of the region: outdoorsyness, surfiness, grooviness.

More regional character: First Nations art, Olde English pub, Sushi bar

Thankfully, we did not need these services.

The Main Attraction!

Our "home" beach, Cox Bay — stunning in all weathers

All-weather Surfers

(Freddie was initially a little freaked out by the boards, but he got used to them.)

Inside our cozy cabin :)

Many thanks to Suzanne and Michael (and their jazzy pooches, Basie and Ella) for the recommendation of Cox Bay Beach Resort, where comfy accommodations, über-friendly staff, and good off-season deals can be found!

No WWF post of this length would be complete without some attempts at arty-farty photography. These photogenic beaches can be pretty flattering to the skills of amateurs!

Officially, the beaches of Pacific Rim Park are on-leash only — mainly because of the dangers to shore birds of charging, barking dogs. Shore bird season, we discovered, is between April and September ... so, with the go-ahead from locals (and keeping an eye out for anything other than fearless crows), we let Freddie romp off-leash.

Hard-packed sand is perfect to walk on!

Most of our walking was done on the beaches, but the forest provided nice shelter and ambience during a downpour.

The fish tacos at the Wildside Grill were yummy; the post-meal blood sugar of 20 (nasty-high) was not. I did do my best to calculate the right insulin dose (ie. yes, these things have a high carb count ... but I've been walking for 3 hours, and I don't want to O-D like I did yesterday ... best to be a little conservative ...). Argh. At home, it's easiest just to keep my carb intake quite low (a bit more challenging when eating out).

On the lighter side, can you see how Freddie is sitting on the wall? That was his choice, and he remained that way for about ten minutes. :)

No, I did not bother trying to calculate a dose for ice cream. I contented myself with the photo — and am quite pleased with the result!

 Hip, Handsome Fellows Hanging Out

Thanks to everyone who emailed me a link to the Saturday Sun article on diabetes alert dogs and the local teen who is using one. Here is the article, for anyone else who is interested.

More from the Wild Wet West to come!