(Part 3)

We were told that the tide pools at Botanical Beach in Port Renfrew were worth the drive. I was told it was about a 2 hour drive away, but totally worth it. We had planned to go to some tide pools in Sooke, which was only about 30-45 minutes away. I did some research and found that people said it was just a short hike to the beach if we went to Botanical Beach. If we chose to go to the beach in Sooke, we would have had to park and hike about 40 minutes to the beach. That didn’t sound so fun with the kids. We figured we would take the drive and short hike. I checked the tide, and low tide would be about 10:15 am.

We ended up getting out the door a little late, but by 8:30 am. So, not too bad. The problem was, that after the first hour, Ella was car sick. We stopped at a church and let the kids out for fresh air. The highway ran along the coast, which meant it was pretty windy. When we thought we were in the clear, we got back in the car and started off. We made it 5 minutes down the road, and Ella threw up. Luckily, I packed extra clothes, so we cleaned up and headed on. She finally fell asleep, but for the rest of the trip, we had to stop every few miles to let Jameson out. He did really good, and told us every time he started feeling sick. Needless to say, it took us longer than 2 hours with all the stops we had to make. The short hike down to the beach, actually took us at least 15 minutes. So, by the time we got there, it was almost noon. That meant the tide was halfway back in. *Side note, Jameson got out of the car and threw up. We were so proud of him for making it out of the car first, and not getting anything on himself. Is that sad? We are proud of our child who was car sick for making it all the way and out of the car, before throwing up?*

I’m guessing the more interesting tide pools were already covered by water, but we did get to check out a few. Ella and I sat on the beach for a snack while Kevin and Jameson set out on their explorations.

But, when Ella saw that the boys were out discovering new tide pools, she was not about to stay on the blanket with me. We made our way over the rocks to the boys to check it out.

We decided we would go check out the other tide pools before high tide. We hiked back up the stairs (partially man made partially natural) and down the path. We found an opening where we could get down to more tide pools, but it was a little dangerous to climb around the rocks. We headed back to the trail to find another way, but the trail kept going. After about 2o minutes, we decided we were on the trail that looped back to the cars, and turned back to go to the beach we were originally at. Along the way, Jameson found a great new spot.

Ella was destroyed by this point. So we got down to the beach, laid our blanket down, and Kevin smoothed out a bed for Ella. We laid her down, and she was out within about a minute.

I felt about how Ella looks, so we took a break while the boys went exploring again.

I sat and watched the waves crash over the rocks.

The boys watched the waves for a while, then decided to chase the waves. Jameson loved trying to touch the wave and then run from it.

It was pretty fun, but then the rain came. So, we packed up and headed back to the car. Bad news, it was uphill the entire way. We made it back, and headed out. We stopped at a general store for some Dramamine. Turns out, Canadians don’t know what that is. They gave us whatever they use for motion sickness. Only problem, it came in gel cap form, so dissolving it in the kids juice was not going to be easy. I finally bit the gel cap so we could put a few drops in their juice to help them on the way home. A few minutes later, I realized my lips and tongue were numb. I don’t know what is in that gel cap, but I was numb for an hour. The kids, luckily, fell asleep for the roughest part, only after Ella threw up again.

Kevin did spot this street sign on the way.

We made it back, gave Ella a bath, and went out for some dinner. We ended up at the Old Spaghetti Factory. While we waited for a table, the old ladies next to us adored Ella. That night, Ella went straight to bed, and Jameson did after a little coaxing.