Ah, to be a weekend warrior. I’m so grateful to live in our beautiful province where getting away to the beach, the ocean, the lakes, the mountains is possible for a weekend trip. That being said, it sucks being a tourist for all the busy weekends. I’m still determined to make the most of it!

We’re off, headed to Tofino for the long weekend. Should be fun to do some car camping, lots of surfing, and hanging out with J and Trev. Of course, I’ll have to hit up all my faves… Shelter (best yam fries), Breakers (best everything), and Sobo (best key lime pie and pizzas!)… but we’ll be doing lots of cooking on the grill as well.

The swell forecast is looking pretty small now for the weekend, so I’m glad that we’re bringing out longboards. Should be a nice sunny weekend as well, and hopefully a little cooler than Vancouver! I really, REALLY, need some sleep and rest to get rid of this head-cold.

The goal this weekend… progression. Although the waves will probably be too small at most of the beaches, I’d really like to start learning some cutbacks. I’ve got my left and right bottom turns down and can pretty much catch any wave with my (small) 7″10″ longboard, but I’d really like to get a little fancier. Still — surfing will always be about just being out there… the peacefulness of the waves, the serenity, and not worrying too much about anything at all!

Can’t wait!

Ocean, sun, surf =  happiness.

See you all on Monday!

I have a secret interest. It’s in aquascapes.

Aquascapes are beautiful aquariums that are artistically arranged with plants, rocks, and driftwood to create an interesting display. Often, they can look like landscapes out of the real world.

I had an aquarium all throughout growing up, and fortunately Allan is very much into aquariums and I am lucky enough to be able to enjoy his stunning fish tank all day long! If you haven’t seen the timelapse of our fish tank yet, I highly recommend you check it out here on Vimeo:

Moving and Fish Tank Timelapse Photography – VancityAllie.com from VancityAllie on Vimeo.

I wanted to share with you some of my favourite aquascapes in the world.

One of the most famous masters of aquascapes is Takashi Amano from Japan. (All below photos credit to http://www.adana.co.kr)

As you can see, it takes a lot of time, effort and design strategy to build an amazing aquascape.

Another one of my favourite aquarium designers is the Aquarium Design Group. All below photos credit to ADG.

The first three photos are freshwater tanks, and the last one here is a “paludarium” which is a combination of a fish tank with some “on-surface” vegetation and sometimes creatures. If you look carefully you can see the chameleon.

Personally, I would LOVE to have a proper paludarium is our apartment, but it’s really difficult to do and expensive. And Allan loves the fish tanks so I don’t think it is going to happen

So we talked about it and I think we’re going to continue with the freshwater aquarium and start turning it into a proper aquascape. We used to have plants growing to the top of the plant, but some bad choices in fish led to all the plants being eaten. We’re now rid of those fish, but it’s a long slow road back to cultivating the plants again.

Allan bought himself a brand new light that will help with the plant growth. For those who know this stuff, it’s a Coralife Aqualight Strip Light 4 x 65 Watt. TONS of light! We’re planning on eventually scaping it like an Amano tank with the rocks and carpet of Riccia (the stuff that looks like grass). Very excited! 

Allan built a DIY CO2 reactor out of a plastic bottle and some tubing to encourage more plant growth. Pretty cool for only $5 worth of equipment. It bubbles out all day long, just with a little mixture of yeast, baking soda and water. Lasts for weeks.

Stay tuned! We’ll be sure to post some photos of our new aquarium aquascape when it starts looking cool!