“Did you see the prime minister?”

It was a simple question, posed to me by a guy I had just met standing in the Canadian morning sun waiting to get served coffee. As simple as the question was, though, I was momentarily confused.

We were standing in line at the Beach Shack Café, a place that serves the patrons of the Pacific Sands Resort. A tourist haven, the resort sits just south of Tofino, a town located on the west coast of British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. I had arrived there a couple of days previously, accompanied by my wife, her sister Jean and her husband Steve.

The guy and I had been talking about one of the resort’s best features, the long stretch of sandy beach that attracts numerous surfers, picnickers, dog-walkers and just as many dog-less walkers. Although I lacked canine companionship, I’d been explaining how satisfying my sunset walk had been the previous evening.

And that’s when the guy posed his question. And even though it was a friendly enough query, for a second it forced me to work hard to remember just who Canada’s prime minister even was.

Oh right, Justin Trudeau.

“No,” I replied, reaching for my café americano. “Where was he?”

“Walking on the beach last night,” the guy said.

I smiled, quickly realizing that I might not have noticed an alien invasion, the sunset had been that spectacular. As I’ve written in a number of previous blog posts, I love sunsets.

We’d come to the resort a couple of days before. My wife and I had met our in-laws in Seattle, where we’d spent two nights at the Maxwell Hotel. The high point of our Seattle stay was the Saturday-night dinner that we shared with my Going Mobile partners Leslie Kelly and John Nelson. Thanks to Leslie, the six of us, plus our friend Bruce, were served what was a virtual tasting menu at Terra Plata.

The next morning we drove to Port Angeles and boarded the ferry to Victoria, where we stayed two nights at the city’s historic Fairmont Empress Hotel. My first visit to Victoria in maybe four decades, I noticed that the former sleepy little town had evolved into a kind of mini-Vancouver.

We didn’t do much but relax, other than getting a feel for the city by taking the Hop-On Hop-Off sightseeing tour, going on long walks around the wharf area and up past the many restaurants, coffee and ice-cream places, clothing stores and souvenir shops along Government Street. (Note: the Crust Bakery, which is a few blocks off Government Street, serves croissants to die for.)

Of course, we did take in the hotel’s “world-renowned traditional English afternoon tea.” And we enjoyed a gourmet dinner at Marilena, whose executive chef Kristian Eligh has built a menu that “that draws inspiration from memorable West Coast cuisine with an emphasis on local and globally sourced seafood.” All I can say is that I ate the best Caesar salad I have ever had the pleasure to order.

Upon leaving Victoria, we drove north to Nanaimo, stopping for a couple of hours at the world-famous Butchart Gardens. Strolling amid the various collections, from the Rose Garden to the Italian Garden, the Mediterranean Garden to the Japanese Garden, we encountered a truly international experience – not the least of which was the half-dozen or more foreign languages we heard spoken.

Leaving the gardens, we headed west on Highway 4, then up the coast to Tofino. Note to anyone sensitive to motion sickness: The winding, twisty, up-and-down Highway 4, although thoroughly scenic, is likely to require a dose or two of Dramamine.

 Upon arriving at the resort, we settled in. Yet it wasn’t long before I was walking the sandy shoreline, said to be Canada’s No. 1 surf beach. As I traipsed along, I watched all the surfers – many of whom were being taught by a cadre of instructors – attempt to ride waves in water so cold that it required them to wear wetsuits head to toe.

The thing about Tofino the town is that … well, there’s no there there. It’s a dropping off point for lots of outdoor activities, though, from surfing (of course) to whale watching, hiking and fishing, golfing and kayaking.

We enjoyed a couple of good meals, too. Aside from the lunch we ate at the resort’s Surfside Grill, where we devoured fish and chip and burgers at outdoor picnic tables, we ventured into Tofino to order even more seafood dishes at Big Daddy’s Fish Fry. It’s the kind of place where you wait in line just to order at a window, then find a table – if you can – as you wait for your food to be announced (everything from clam chowder to fried oysters to “Locally Caught Lingcod Burgers”).

For an actual sit-down meal, we chose a restaurant with real linen tablecloths (just kidding, the wooden tables were bare but at least we were able to eat indoors). The place, Roar, is located in the Hotel Zed, which bills itself as a place that “celebrate(s) the unordinary and we are obsessed with combining a retro aesthetic with modern comfort.”

OK, with that in mind, Roar offers a breakfast, brunch and dinner with a full range of offerings, much – but not all – of it (surprise surprise) seafood-oriented.

After two days, we returned to Vancouver, where we spent a single night before driving home (more on that later).

So what can I say about our Vancouver Island holiday? Well, other than one big disappointment, I agree with my fellow travelers: It’s a great place to visit.

What was it that disappointed me? Well, that I didn’t get to say hi to the Canadian prime minister.

I’m just glad that I remembered his name.