When we woke up on July 11, the day we were to go into Victoria, we looked out the window and saw rain everywhere. Thunderstorms. Hail. It wa....I can't even keep a straight face as I type this. It was another gorgeous day and we were off to see the big city and meet up with Holly's sister April and her family. When we got into town, we had a couple of hours to kill so we walked from Market Square through the downtown harbour, over to the legislature, back past the Empress to the Bastion Square Public Market. Here are some pics from that little jaunt.
So both Max and Leo love statues but Max in particular wanted pictures taken with a few of the iron giants in the harbour.
We ran into a family that had just moved to town from Eastern Ontario on our stroll and they snapped this rare picture of the five of us. Definitely a serendipitous run-in.
The boys got their picture taken with the National Coat of Arms...
...and Holly got her picture taken with the crest that appears in the Northwest Territories flag and coat of arms (her territory of birth).
The Legislature.
The outside of the Empress. We actually found our way into a courtyard that the kids thought was pretty cool - it had staircases to service entrances and lots of mysteriously locked doors.
Not sure how many pictures we have of this moose over the years. He's looking a little shaggy these days.
Sully seems to be a new addition.
No words.
Throughout the entire trip, we were tracking license plates, crossing off states and provinces as they were found. Aside from states and provinces, we found federal government plates (from both Canada and the U.S.), a license plate for a member of the Turtle Clan of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin and this beaut from Mexico. We also spotted over a half dozen Alaskan plates on the Island.
Once we finally met up with the other crew, we decided that the best plan of attack would be to get some grub. Given that we were four adults and five children, the best option was the food court at the Bay Centre where we fused Asian and Mexican fare with burgers and fries while meeting for the first time/getting to know each other. All meals involving a kids' table are awesome. After lunch, we grabbed some awesome cones for dessert and strolled a bit before setting up a date to get together again out in Sooke where April and co. live.
Food court mayhem! Actually it looks pretty tame at this point.
I thought long and hard about which of the above three pictures best captured the mood post-ice cream. The answer was obvious: post all three. All of the kids got along so well and had a blast with each other. Big thanks to Chandler and Scarlett for being such awesome playmates!
Later that day, the five of us returned to North Saanich and took some time to see some beach. Thanks to
Google Street View, I can confirm that this is Island View Beach Regional Park. As you can tell from the following four pictures, the big highlights were 1) stripping out of pants and roaring around in underwear (imagine my surprise) and 2) horses on the beach!
The next day, as planned, we headed out to Sooke to spend more time with April, Rick, Chandler and Scarlett. We spent some time around the house, made a killer stack of BLTs for lunch, headed out to a nearby park for some afternoon playtime and then came back to the house for beer and
burger time. The kids were completely toast by the time we got home.
One of the things discussed the day before was how all of the older kids (don't worry, Henry would be infected by the end of the trip) were into Pokemon trading cards and how Chandler had a pretty awesome collection. The day in Sooke essentially started with Chandler standing on the stairs throwing handfuls of cards into the air, yelling "FREE POKEMON" and Max and Leo (whose cards were on hiatus at the time, I believe) running around like crazies picking them all up, grinning ear-to-ear.
So the boys might have taken a shine to Chandler. Unfortunately, I don't have any videos of their giant beanbag chair diving championships.
The TV had some sweet channels the boys weren't used to - this was perfect for grown-up visiting time :)
Not sure why, but Henry became obsessed with watering the plants. At first it was cute and helpful and then all of a sudden, it was "he'll drown us all!! THE GARDEN IS FLOATING AWAY! CAN NOBODY STOP HIM?" Auntie April was very patient with her helper.
Somehow, Holly and I got out of wheeling-the-kids duty. SCORE!
I love this picture, although it's a little hard to tell what's going on. We're all standing on this pole that you can grip and rotate yourselves around using a wheel. I decided to give Scarlett a master class in angular momentum. Much screaming ensued.
Not 100% sure what's happening here. I think this is me being relaxed as Henry is taking me somewhere by insect.
We really had a fantastic visit in Sooke. What a bunch of amazing hosts! A truly great day.
Max also conquered monkey bars for the first time at the playground that day. It was pretty awesome to see.
The next day, we were back in North Saanich and were treated to an eco-boat tour off the eastern shore of the Island. Our captain (whose name, I believe, was Brian, making thing really confusing when we were trying to get Uncle Brian's attention) was amazing and had all sorts of stories, knowledge of the flora and fauna of the region and all sorts of special things to show us. Here are some of the pictures we took that day:
Leo enjoying the view of the harbour.
All the boys getting ready to roll.
Brian, slicing up some kelp for us to eat.
Mmmmm-mmmmm.
Then Brian started carving the kelp into all sorts of things. Like a doll...
..and a whip.
We eventually pulled off on a private island, where we were allowed to go on the beach. This awesome tree was right on the edge of the beach.
Leo sifted through the bits of shells on the beach to find some treasures.
And Holly and I found some treasures of our own.
Brian told us that crabs are happiest in dark, moist places and invited us to stuff a crab under our tongues. Only one person took the bait.
Back on board: snack time!
We pulled into this tiny cove on another island and the boys had a great time looking at all of the...
...starfish!!
A replica of the Nonsuch apparently docked in this tiny cove and now the replica can be found in the Museum of Manitoba. What a strange coincidence that we'd be here!
Here are some more of the animals we saw on the trip: eagles...
...seals...
...Heermann's gulls...we were very lucky to see all of these wonderful creatures.
The whole crew on the beach.
That seems to be a starfish on me.
What a wonderful excursion! We learned a lot and got to see some parts surrounding Vancouver Island that we had never seen before. Thanks so much, Jan and Brian, for the wonderful treat! Thanks also to the kids for not once coming close to going overboard.
Speaking of thanks, another thanks go out to J&B for taking the kids off our hands for the evening so that Holly and I could head out for a lovely dinner date at
Sea Glass Waterfront Grill. A great meal with a lovely view of the water and live guitar for dinner music.
No comments:
Post a Comment