Here are Lilli's notes from the long and winding road to Tofino:

-- We stopped to walk through Cathedral Grove, a grove of old-growth Douglas firs in MacMillan Provincial Park. The largest was more than 800 years old, and we debated whether that could be termed the early phases of the Renaissance or not (hey, I took European History way back when I was a sophomore, which feels like at least 800 years ago!).

Visitors try in vain to wrap themselves
around a Douglas fir in the Cathedral Grove.

--We played some vigorous air mandolin while listening to a Flogging Molly CD.

--We passsed the World Parrot Refuge, in Coombs, and a bit farther along on Highway 4: Butterfly World. Who knew the back roads of Vancouver Island were so exotic?

--Also in Coombs, we spotted the "Coombaya Warehouse." You've got to give them credit for the name. Alright, we're easily amused, what of it?

--We got our brain juices flowing playing The Minister's Cat (as in, "The Minister's Cat is an Ambitious cat, a Bawdy cat...a Zealous cat!"). A few of our better entries were a "Xena: Warrior Princess"-Imitating Cat," and "after watching the Saturday cartoons, the Minister's Cat is a Yabba-dabba-dooing cat!" Did I mention the whole "easily amused" thing?

--We couldn't resist pulling over to climb on the boulders of a particularly scenic rushing river, the Kennedy River, which follows Highway 4 for quite a few miles. We've decided that next time we need to film a fantasy epic, that's where we'll go.