My-Oh-My Canada

BE FOREWARNED- THIS IS A LONG ENTRY RECAPPING MY AWESOME MINI-VACATION....

Okay, so here's the deets on my vacation:

Wednesday after work, I took off right after work and headed to SLC to stay with AnnMarie, my good friend. She was going shooting in Heber City and wasn't going to be home until around 9:00, so I called Mark and we went out to dinner. I hadn't heard from Ann by the time we got done eating, so Mark & I decided to go for a walk. Now, I was not at all equipped with walking shoes, but walk we did. We headed over to First Encampment Park- it's on 1500 S. and about 500 E. where the pioneers spent the first night, which was actually July 22nd. Up the road from the park are a bunch of homes Wilford Woodruff owned, including the one where he wrote up the Manifesto (the polygamy one, not the communist one). We walked back over towards his house, stopping to get an oh so tasty shake from Arctic Circle. Still hadn't heard from Ann, so we walked over to where UDOT is repairing the bridge along I-80 (we're planning nerds, so we like things like that). When we got over there, we saw a really bright light up the road- they were rolling another one of the bridge sections into place. We spent a while watching it roll down the highway. It was incredible- this massive bridge was rolling along on a remote control flat thing supported by I-beams. There was quite a crowd watching. I finally go a hold of Ann and headed to her house and crashed.

Thursday, I got to the airport and got to Seattle with no problems. I met up with my sister Kelli, her husband Ryan and two of her kids. We had to take a taxi to from the airport to the harbor. Turns out, it was only a few dollars more to take a limo, so we did! It was awesome- I have never ridden in a limo before. The boat ride over to Victoria was great- the boat wasn't very full so we sat in the front and watched the ride. I slept a good part of the way- I get motion sick fairly easily so I had dosed myself up with meds and fell asleep. Once we got to Victoria, we checked in and headed out to check out the town.

Friday morning, we found this way yummy French bakery for breakfast. I had the most tasty croissant- ham and gruyere cheese. Oh, and we went to the Victoria Bug Zoo- Sierra loves bugs and had a great time. She even let the guide wrap this giant millipede around her wrist. I learned lots of things about bugs- did you know that cockroaches are acutally really clean- they carry no bacteria or viruses. When the health department closes a restaurant because of cockroaches, it's not actually the bugs- it's because cockroaches eat everything, including trash, so it is because of the condition of the kitchen. Anyways, there's your random fact about bugs. We walked up to Beacon Hill park, had lunch at a great seafood place, Pescatores- while we were at the park, I saw a tree with a low branch and thought "sure, I can climb that tree- no problem". Oh no, there were no good toe holds on the tree so I slipped and tried and gave people a good laugh, but the dang large tree got the best of me!

After that, we rented a car so we could go to Butchart Gardens. All I have to say is OH MY GOODNESS- the place is incredible! The pictures I took (see album below) do not even begin to come close to doing it justice. We were there at the perfect time of day- early evening- and there was an outdoor concert by a western Celtic band, Kitangus. They were great.

The best part of Friday was this super cute older couple we met after the concert. Jim & Neva Haug from California. As the concert was getting over, Neva was trying to push Jim around in a wheelchair- she is a little lady and he's tall, so she was having a hard time of it. Nolan (Ryan's business manager and he was with us) offered to push Jim around so Neva would have an easier time of it, so we all walked around for a while. Neva was so appreciative- they were on a cruise and just stopping in Victoria and only had a couple of hours at the Gardens. She was trying so hard just to push Jim around and not crash into things that she wasn't really getting to enjoy the flowers. Neva and I had such a good chat while we walked- we talked about faith and God's creations and taking chances to serve other people. It was a fantastic time spent with them and we bacame great friends.

We hadn't eaten dinner when we left the Gardens and by this time, it was almost 11:00, so we stopped at the only place we saw that was open- Keating's Pizza. We got some moderately decent pizza and sodas and chowed down in our hotel room. Good times.

Saturday, I took Sierra to Miniature World for a little while. I don't think it has been updated since 1973, but it was kind of cool. They had all these displays that were super tiny- we're talking toothpicks and smaller. They had replicas of the Civil War, Berlin (post-WW2 bombing), the development of Canada, all sorts of European castles, fairy tales, circuses, all very cool. We were going to head out to some of the beaches but we hadn't done any souvenier shopping, so natch we had to do that for a while. I found this really cool sweatshirt for myself and some other things for the fam. There's this place in Victoria called Trounce Alley- it has a collection of hip, artsy type stores (incense, buttons, restaurants, boutique). I really liked it- some very cool building arrangements.

Saturday night was the conference banquet- it was held at Hatley Park Castle. I forgot my camera, grrr, but I will add pics of it if I can get Kelli's pictures they took. It was like a mini-Hogwarts. Beautiful building, beautiful gardens and grounds! The castle is part of Royal Roads University. The food was great and we sat with a really neat family from Pennsylavania- they were great fun to talk to. The only downside was we had to take buses and had to wait around for everyone to get ready to go, including the people who had too much to drink. Afterwards, I stayed at the hotel with the baby so Kelli & Ryan could take Sierra out for a carriage ride.

Sunday was spent packing, checking out of the hotel and heading home. The ferry back was much, much fuller than the one over, so even though we were there and through customs with plenty of time to spare, it was almost full. They don't like to split up families on the ferry so we got to sit in the employees lounge. Really, it wasn't anything except for more comfortable seats up by the weelhouse and we couldn't really see outside, but that was okay, we didn't have to deal with other people and could stretch out like we wanted. I ventured out on to the deck to check out the view and take some photos, but it was cold so I didn't stay out for very long, just long enough to know how pretty it is.

Once we got back to Seattle, Kelli and Ryan had more time to kill before their flight, but I had to get to the airport, so we went our separate ways. I hopped a cab to the airport and got home safely. The flight home was uneventful- I met a nice couple from Orange County when our seat assignments were all screwy so I switched so they could sit together. I got in later than I thought, but Mark was there waiting, so I dropped him home and headed north to Millville, sweet Millville.

So, to hit the highlights of the trip:
-Managed to take several forms of transportation: car, boat, limo, taxi and airplane.
-Saw Butchart Gardens- definitely worth repeating.
-Ate incredible food
-Enjoyed my idea of perfect weather: sunny and 70 degrees
-Bought myself a super cute sweatshirt
-Saw Darth Vadar playing violin (yeah, crazy, I know)
-Got another stamp in my passport
-Got to play with family
-Ate dinner in a castle
-Had an incredible time!!!!!
-Took some decent pictures

Enjoy the pics- there's a lot but I think I did a decent job on most of them.