Sunday, April 6, 2014

Beauty Captured - The Sea

If you would ask me what type of surroundings I’d like to live in most, I’d have a hard time choosing between the mountains and the ocean.  One beautiful thing about Vancouver Island that you’ll see in these pictures today is that you can have the best of both worlds there!  You are surrounded by the sea and by the mountains.  It’s quite a potent combination of scenery!  And you can tell because I took a LOT of pictures of the sea on our trip last week :)


The beach we looked out on from the place we stayed is a rock beach, so we strolled down to the rocks several times and enjoyed the sun and discovering around the area.  We saw a great deal of different animals on our trip.  Deer, Elk, Seals, Dolphins, Eagles, Fish, Starfish, and this fun discovery - lots of crabs on the beach.  This was the kids learning how many crabs they could find under the rocks.  It was quite entertaining.  


Here’s a little guy now in the center in deep coppery brown.  


We saw cranes, and sea birds...


And a whole lot of eagles, both golden eagles and bald eagles.  It was so beautiful to watch them soar!



So majestic aren’t they?  


On Long Beach I spotted this cute heart in the sand....I know you might not be able to read it, it says “We are engaged!”  So sweet!  


I have a lot of pictures of this wonderful Lighthouse, it was what we looked at out the window from the place we stayed.  I really have a special place in my heart for Lighthouses!  Our youth building right now is called “The Lighthouse” and I’m really loving a song by Rend Collective called “My Lighthouse” these days too.  Take a look and listen.  They’re awesome - and from Ireland!  



This day was the most still and sunny, which was a gorgeous view of the Lighthouse!


And this view was of the same Lighthouse in a different spot on the island on the day it rained.  The water was so choppy and everything had a very different feel.  I love the misty look to the sky and water.  And despite that storm, the light never fails to shine.  


We spent a whole day in the Tofino area on the west side of the Island and on Long Beach.  They call it the most beautiful beach in Canada, and our family just LOVED the time there.  It’s surf season right now so we did see surfers, but the beach was actually very quiet.  We had lots of space to ourselves.  Our youngest son had so much fun pulling all the driftwood around to make a fort.  The beach was the highlight of the trip for him!


It was so fun to capture the driftwood and the ocean.  




So spectacular I think.  The ocean is such a picture of power and peace.  


Here’s some of the fort builder.  



Our girl writing in the sand.  


My beloved walking along the beach.  


Toward sunset we found a spot on a huge rock to watch the sun go down.  It was low tide and the kids had fun playing Pictionary in the sand and our older son did some gymnastics :)  I never fail to be entertained by them!



With the tide so low and the waves so strong, the sand is really packed down, so it was so nice to walk near the water in my sweatshirt that was covered by my rain coat.  The sun was beautifully warm - but the air and water was quite chilly!  


Beautiful waves.  The relentlessness of them always amazes me.  And it speaks to me about the relentless love of God.  



Sunset on Long Beach for the next couple of photos.  



If you look really carefully, you can see the surfers in the waves.  All with wetsuits for sure!  This guy on the board in the center stayed up on the wave for so long!  


Another beach we went to, Qualicam Beach has a gorgeous view of the mountains and the water.  


Seaplanes in Tofino, it was fun to see them take off.  


And I’ll finish with a fishing trawler back on Qualicam Beach.  Look at the beautiful snowy mountain!  

And there you have what was my view of the Pacific Ocean this past week.  One more round of photos later this week of all that was beautifully green on the trip.  Thanks for stopping by!  

12 comments:

Marisa said...

You sure got great weather! Long Beach is such a beautiful area as is Tofino. Love the picture of the sunset there!! Qualicum Beach is where my in-laws live and we were there over Spring Break so just missed you by a week!

Rosy Newlun said...

So happy for you and your family - you need the serenity, the refueling of the soul that the ocean gives. I grew up in Washington, Oregon, California and now Hawai'i. I am an ocean girl at heart, but always close to mtns. 2 on our island are over 14,000 feet high and get lots of snow, even in Hawai'i. Mtns and Oceans = life for me. Enjoy ♥

Lynne said...

Just loved the pictures. The float plane brings back so many memories. My Dad was a bush pilot for years and flew groups into lakes for fishing and hunting to areas that had no roads into them. Thanks for sharing your holiday with us. Hugs n' stuff, Lynne

Carole C said...

Such beautiful photos. Thank you.

Conniecrafter said...

Enjoyed the pictures of your wonderful trip, I grew up in Michigan and that is surrounded by water, we lived in the middle so it was a couple hour drive to the water and I so enjoyed it whenever we would go!

Julie Koerber said...

Wow.... I got relaxed just looking at your photos. I will have to put this place on my must visit list! SO gorgeous! So glad you and your family had that time. :-)

KarinsArtScrap said...

wow gorgeous photo's Christine with gorgeous scenery's.

gr karin

Joyce B said...

Christine, thank you for sharing your wonderful photos of your time of recreation. That area is absolutely gorgeous. I especially could get lost starting at those sunset views...so awesome. It just makes me sigh when I look at them.

Glad you had such an enjoyable time.

marilew said...

What absolutely beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. Although I live in Canada I have never baeen to Vancouver YET, let alone the Island...I am putting that trip on my bucket list!

Traci M said...

Beautiful pictures, Christine. We lived in Oregon for 7 years...love the Vancouver area. I really want to stay here now...will halve to research the area for rentals. Any idea where to start? Thanks for sharing and glad you had the rest.

RitaR said...

Christine ..... I want to thank you so much for all the beautiful photos you shared. I feel as though I've had a mini vacation!

Blessings

lritchie said...

Wow beautiful pictures, I happen to be lucky enough to have grown up in Victoria and now reside in Courtenay, we do have some beautiful scenery!