Welcome to the swan song of the Cantwell father-daughter trips, starting -- appropriately -- on Father's Day weekend. It's 2009, year of the Big Fizzle (think Great Depression, but not so bad), so like everyone else, we're staying closer to home. Destination: Vancouver Island.

Not far, but it should be fun.

Pacific surf crashes ashore on the western edge of Vancouver Island
near Tofino. Tourism B.C. photo

The "swan song" is because my 17-year-old daughter, Lillian, goes off to college in the fall. And while there's nothing to stop us from traveling on our own again -- and I bet we will -- there comes the recognition of a new era in her life, with new directions and new commitments.

So we're making the most of this coming week. In keeping with the times it's going to be adventure on a shoestring (hey, college ain't cheap, you know).

We'll spend nights in hostels, or camping out. Stopovers include:
-- Victoria, British Columbia's stately, very-English provincial capital;
-- Nanaimo, the seaport town with a burgeoning arts district;
-- Tiny Tofino on the continent's western edge, a magnet for surfers, kayakers, and beachcombers from around the world.

We hope to bike on salty waterfronts, ride zip lines across a river gorge, paddle kayaks on Clayoquot Sound. We'll do it all, if June rains don't drown us (Tofino gets 10 feet of rain annually -- three times as much as Seattle). And we hope to meet interesting fellow hostelers along the way.

Read along starting Sunday, June 21. We'll try not to chicken out because of rain (too often). We'll brave drizzle in the name of adventure -- so you don't have to.