Surfing in Canada

It had been six years since I had been to Australia. I spent a year over there working, traveling and learning to surf. Over the six years since I have been home, I have only been surfing twice. Once on a long road trip to Cape Hatteras and earlier this year on a trip to Hawaii. Since I was going to be in the Victoria area, I called the girls I surfed in Australia with and asked if they were interested in a trip to Tofino. That was all it took. We were booked for a 3 day girls surf trip.

We booked into a little surf shack (actually called that) near Chesterman's Beach. It had one bedroom, a couch, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and a HOT TUB! Since surfing in Tofino is so damn cold, the hot tub is the key ingredient to any trip.

We rented full wet suits and boards from a place in town and took off for the ocean. My friends would fall into the 'good' category for surfing and I would fall into the 'beginner' category. They did a great job and caught some waves while I practiced my paddling skills by the shore.

One of the best parts of the trip (aside from surfing and hot tubs) was the fish tacos! There is a little truck called Tacofino in town and the tacos are incredible. My favourite was the Tuna taco made with Ahi Tuna and a mango salsa and wasabi. I can't remember all the ingredients but they have some amazing stuff there. We got ginger cookies for dessert.

If you don't mind slightly cold water then get your butt to Tofino as soon as possible for an amazing vacation in Canada.

Nuit Blanche 2010 - Toronto

The Nuit Blanche experience this year proved to be a great night. The rain held off and the crowds certainly came out in full force. I don't have a lot of 'culture' in my day to day life so this night is always a very interesting experience. Since I really enjoy photography, I use this night as a way to take photos of some interesting art projects that I wouldn't usually have access to.

We started our night on Bloor st around 8pm and couldn't believe how many people were out already. We walked down Bloor and then hit Yorkville and fueled up with Starbucks. After that, we hopped on the TTC and got out at Yonge and Dundas square. We walked down Yonge, through the crazy crowds all the way to Front St. Now it was about 2am and we decided to take a pit stop at home. We finished the night at the Distillery where the crowd had really thinned out.

After 10 hours, 2 coffees, 1 subway, chinese food and A LOT of walking, here are some photos from the night. To see the full album of photos, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katedw/sets/72157625087824978/