Holiday!

Victoria Trip

This whole adventure started with my employer sending me a letter saying I need to take 16 days of vacation before June 30th. When you only work 3 days a week that’s more the 5 weeks. So I have been slowly taking it, but I have trouble taking too much vacation and just staying home. I like to go somewhere for it as well. So I worked some extra shifts and Darryl did some extra work and here we are in Victoria. It was originally Mexico or somewhere all-inclusive, but that didn’t really work out. So we found a great deal through WestJet to come to Victoria for 4 days. It is amazing to experience so many new things with Lucas. Even flying was more fun to see Lucas’s amazement at the whole thing. Plus he’s cute enough that people quite like him. and don’t mind sitting by us. The flights were good. Not to long, which was an advantage. The worst part was I was holding a coffee for Darryl and my hot chocolate. I accidentally took a big gulp of the coffee thinking it was hot chocolate and it was HORRIBLE! We had a layover in Edmonton for a couple of hours, and I think they need to add some more “stuff” to the secure area. There was no fast food, no “fun” things for kids to do.

Victoria is beautiful. We are staying at a great hotel. We got a suite with a separate bedroom and kitchen. It’s great because the kitchen if fully equipped and the bedroom has a door, so we can put Lucas to bed and come into the living room. The hotel is super close to everything. There are no views of the harbors, but it is within walking distance to everything. The service here has also been great. There is a shuttle bus to take us downtown when it has been raining and they are so accommodating with our car seat. Often we’ll take the shuttle bus into downtown and leave the car seat in the car and then walk home and they’ll bring up the car seat when we get home. They also watch our dishes, which makes a great vacation for me. We can still have milk for Lucas, but not have to clean up the mess.

The first day we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner and then walked around downtown. The next day we went to an undersea garden. I wouldn’t do it again. It was okay, but not really worth the 9.50 it was. If you ever go make sure you stay for the show because that was the best part and the only part you see the octopus. After it was raining quite hard so we came back the hotel and took the shuttle bus to “Donald’s” for lunch. It was so busy there. One of the good/bad parts of coming to Victoria on Victoria day weekend it that it is quite busy. There has been a high school band wherever we go. This is nice when you want to hear a little music, but not so nice when the line at McDonalds is super long, or your kid is trying to have an afternoon nap.

On the second day there was a HUGE parade downtown Victoria. We were told it was 3 hours long. There were a lot of marching bands, which were great. I’ve never tried to play an instrument while walking but I’m sure it’s quite challenging. The highlight for Lucas was all the fire trucks. He watched most of it from my shoulders, while playing with my hair. Nevertheless it was a horrible day for my hair. After that we picked up some lunch and headed to the boat for our whale watching tour. As any of you who have been on a boat ( I seriously think that is probably all of you), they are very windy. So my hair quickly turned into an afro. After a lengthy boat ride we got to see the “J” pod of orcas. It was incredible to see. We have seen orcas at Sea World but to see them in their own habitat is great, plus they grow to be a lot larger. We learned lots about them; they need to eat 3000 pounds of salmon everyday. They live together in family, but the males, who are bigger need to eat more so they stay farther away from the group. It is a matriarchal society, so the females make all the decisions. We followed the male whale around for as long as our boat ride paid for and then headed home. After that we all came home for a late afternoon nap.

It has already become a bit of a routine to use the pool and hot tub here before we go to bed. Lucas loves both. He loves to scream “ready” before he jumps into our arms into the pool. And is quite good at kicking his feet and watching us go under water. He also loves the hot tub and trying to catch the bubbles, although we usually just sit him on the first step so that his feet and bum are in the water. Last night when we went from the pool to the hot tub I asked him if the water was too hot? No, he replied in a voice just above a whisper, “Nice and warm.” So cute. Hanging out as a family has defiantly been the highlight of the trip. I went to bed so content last night. We had such a fun day and it’s so great to create new experiences for Lucas and new experiences as our little family.

I'll post more and some pictures. Tomorrow

Jenn