materials

I'd tell you but you INTRUDED.

Went to Vancouver Island this weekend with two other couples from work, and we were driving from Nanaimo to Tofino when we passed three ostriches in a large fenced area. I didn't have any trouble convincing everyone to stop, and Rekha and I proceeded to hunt all around the perimeter for loose feathers. The only feathers to be found were old, mangy and brittle Rekha was even sticking her hand through the fence to grab some that looked a little better, but each time she did so, the male which was following us everywhere would go straight for her! The place where they were being kept was connected to a bed & breakfast, but strangely its sign only said it was a b&b, and there was no name for it anywhere. I was going to go and knock, but we'd kept everyone waiting for a while already. As we got back to the car, the male put on a show for us by mounting one of the females - you should have seen the thing waving its wings and head all around! it was really quite an amazing scene. now i wonder if there is a special significance to the ostrich feathers people wear in hats
Bill

You had your chance to grab a fistfull of feather while the ostrich was doin' that funky thang! Oooops - that tain't no feather - dOh!

Seriously, I saw a perfectly white albino hawk today. I glided (glid?) directly over my head in Bedford MA. I almost fell over backwards looking at it. Amazing. Not a single thought of feathers for fly tying came to mind... until now - hmmmmmm......

Tofino - was: materials

As the joke goes, Betty Ford's method of birth control was to give Gerry a stick of gum when they went to bed
I'm pretty single-focused myself, and was in (non-fishing) vacation mode the whole time, so i wasn't checking into things like fishing boat rental rates, etc. - our hunting was focused on food, wine, coffee, .., although i was practically drooling on the windows as we drove by all the rivers. We stopped and hiked around some at Englishman Falls, and i was scheming how Rekha and i could come back with the truck and camp on a river

The place where we stayed was http://www.duffin-cove-resort.com It was really nice, and despite the image from the web site's home page, it was only a block out of town. The "Common Loaf" is probably the best place in town for good coffee, not to mention breakfast & lunch.

Tofino is absolutely beautiful, but i understand it gets really crowded in summer. We went out on a zodiac whale watch and saw all kinds of cool stuff - they put twin 225s on those boats and they do 60 - the guy driving it was responding well to all the whooping and hollering, and was running it pretty hard & launching us off the waves It was a little bit of a haul to get there from Seattle - we went up to Tswassen (just over the border) and took a ferry to Nanaimo, where we crashed around 1:00am, then drove up the island the next morning.
I have no idea if the ferry to Victoria from Anacortez would be a better route - if we go again, and i expect we will, i'll probably ask someone from Tofino for the true best route from Seattle. One thing to consider is that if you are trying to catch the last ferry out of Tswassen, factor in some time for getting through the border - we were lucky on this trip, but have had the car/bike searched a couple of times going into canada.

They were looking for smuggled cul de ostrich canard

Tofino is primarily a saltchuck tyee and coastal flyfishing area for big hooknose coho. It's another primo western Vancouver island coastal area (like Ucluelet). I am not aware of the river angling, although I gotta believe it's great. Every time I've fished the pacific coast of Vancouver Island it's been toward shore from boats coming from the US Olympic coast. Many of my Boeing friends made regular pilgrimages to TOfino and Barkeley Sound, etc. They typically release any chinook under 25-30 pounds.

Even the seemingly insignificant Nitinat Lake inlet to the east has been a perennial hotspot for us. 30 pound tyee in 10-20 feet of water!

Along the coast, bright glacial cascades tumble from cliffs into the pounding surfline along pristine shores. Other than the clearcutting and timber devastation in the foothills, the place would be the very picture of wilderness in it's prime.

Sounds like a great expedition you had!