Peter and Mandy

So Sunday evening we repacked our bags and totally downsized and took only what we needed for the next two days with us and then boarded the ferry to Victoria. We originally were going to take the rental car over with us, but when we called, the ferry had no reserved spots left for Sunday night. So we could either arrive 3 hours early and hope to get a spot, or we could just walk on. We chose the latter and had a great time.

The view from the ferry

Connor reading to daddy-those free maps and brochures sure did come in handy.

Climbing a pole-getting a little exercise

When we arrived we waited in a forever long line to go through customs. As the guy handed me back my passport I said, “I don’t get a stamp?” He said they don’t always stamp them, but if I wanted one he could stamp mine for me. I said yes please. He also stamped Connor’s and Peter’s so now Connor and I have our first stamp in our passports.

The parliament building

Parliament at night

After customs we walked to our bed and breakfast to drop our bags off and then walked around Victoria for a bit. We stopped by a soda shope and ordered a Ruby Slipper (vanilla ice cream with peach and raspberry flavored soda on top) it was really good. As we were walking out two older ladies were walking in and said, “My what a pretty baby girl you have.” At which point Connor starts crying and screaming. I told them that he was offended that they called him a girl. They started apologizing profusely. I then told them not to worry, he’s fine, he just gets that way when strangers come up to him. We all had a good laugh. They then said, “He has a very pretty face.” I thanked them and then we were on our way. This wasn’t the only time people thought he was a girl.

Totem poles were a big thing here and in WA.

Hanging baskets were also everywhere. We took many pictures of various different hanging baskets as they were so neat to look at. This boat took the cake of having the most hanging flowers on it.

Some boats

The Empress Hotel view from the ferry

Pretty flowers

Look I see whales!

More flowers

hanging flowers

We made it back to our bed and breakfast and got ready for bed. Connor had to sleep with us as when we made the reservation we told them we would bring a pack n play with us. When plans changed and we didn’t have a car, we left the pack n play behind. The inn keepers were away when we arrived so we couldn’t request one for the first night. It was an interesting night’s sleep, but we managed. The following day at breakfast we were told we needed to be moved to a different room as they somehow double booked the room we were in. Basically we upgraded a room for no extra price. Our second room had a spa tub (which we didn’t use) which looked neat. We also got the pack n play which was wonderful for the second night.

Getting ready for bed the first night

So that leads us to Monday and the main reason for our vacation in the first place. We walked to a bus stop, got on a city bus for $5 total (sure beats the $57 they wanted for a bus with a direct route) and went to BUTCHART GARDENS! The gardens were absolutely amazing. We walked several routes a couple of times so we could really see everything.

Connor fell asleep on the bus ride to the garden

Connor is ready

Why yes I did take a picture of the garbage can!

Snail fountain

Water wheel near the entrance

Path leading to fuscias

Aren't they pretty

The Sunken Garden

Mandy and the Three Bears

Grazing deer

Every little part of soil is taken up by plants. It's hard to tell they're on a rock wall since you can't see the rock/cement part.

I loved this fountain

Connor and I went on a carousel ride…best $2 ever spent! The ride started up with about 10 children on it. Within the first minute a 4-5 year old girl started screaming and crying hysterically. She wasn’t thrilled with the ride. The ride stopped and she and her mother got off and then the ride started again. Connor was all smiles and squeals. He absolutely loved it. Strangers kept laughing at how happy he was. They took his picture too. He enjoyed every bit of it. Yes best $2 spent!

This is the best picture we got as our camera is a tad slow.
Check out the expression on Connor's face!

So we stopped to feed Connor some food and a Chinese tourist asked if he could take a picture. We thought, yeah no problem, we'll get out of the way and you can take a picture. Then he pointed the camera at Connor and took his picture...um okay. A bit strange, but oh well. Do you see the squirrel?

Do you see the butterfly?

Little bunny foo foo hopping through the grass...

The Rose Garden

Fish leading to the Japanese Garden

Connor loved the running water

He could've stayed here all day

The Italian Garden

Gotta love those hanging plants

Inside a greenhouse

Whew! What a Day!
And I'm not even tired!

Well we spent several hours at the garden and when we felt sufficiently exhausted we headed back to the bus stop. Once back we strolled around until our legs had turned completely to jell-o. We stopped by a cute park, but Connor really wasn't interested in playing on the grass and it was a bit chilly out too. We walked along Fisherman's Wharf, watched this boat with singing pirates on board.

Then on our way back to the B&B we ran across a little grocery/post office shop and bought these:

I bought extra aero bars because I remembered them tasting extra good. Well, they weren't bad, but not nearly as good as I remembered. Maybe I ate something else? So we munched on the mint one which was super good and then went to bed totally exhausted.

Tuesday morning we had to be out of our B&B by 11, so we decided to take the first ferry back to Port Angeles which left at 10:30. We arrived at the ferry and noticed people were still unloading, so we ran back to the grocery/post office shop to spend the remaining $7 and something on Canadian candy. We got three boxes of smarties, a cadbury cerises (chocolate with cherry filling) and something else which we already ate and therefore I don't remember what it was called. It was a really long bar with chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel I think. Whatever it was it was good. Then we ran back to the ferry and walked on with some time to spare. (Though I'm sure we looked funny running with all of our stuff in tow.)

Some fun creatures we found when we got off the ferry

The cars boarding the ferry to return to WA

(I wonder what coho big would've looked like)

We got back to WA, where Peter's grandpa picked us up and we enjoyed the rest of the day lounging around and relaxing from our adventures. Peter went shopping with his grandpa while I stayed home with a sleeping kid...I got a little snooze in too.

Tuesday we woke up at 5am!!! Connor was not happy to be woken up. We hopped in the car and set off for the Kingston ferry. We needed to catch the 7:00 or 7:45 ferry in order to make it to our flight on time. We caught the 7:00 one and were plenty early to the airport.

Connor is checking out the other ferry as it went by.

Right as we're going through security I feel and overwhelming warm feeling on my stomach...Connor's diaper leaked all over my shirt! We get through security (Peter had to go through one of those body scanner things-hahaha) and then we went to the bathroom while Connor got changed and I found a somewhat clean dirty shirt that I could go home with. I had to choose from turtleneck sweater that was clean, one that was barfed on last night, the pee one, or one with food on it. I chose the food on it one. It was either that or I was getting an I love Seattle shirt from a gift shop. During the flight Connor enjoyed eating snacks and getting me all messy again.

As the flight was landing while everyone was getting the butterflies in their stomach feeling, Connor was squealing with delight...it looks like we have a thrill seeker on our hands.

Well that concludes our trip! We had a great time and can hardly wait to go again!

Saturday morning we hopped back in the car and did A LOT of driving. We drove to Olympic National Park. Walked on a few trails and said hello to the deer. There were two baby deer grazing next to us and one walked directly in front of me. From here we climbed back in the car and drove FOREVER (3 hours one way) to get to the Hoh Rainforest. After being cooped up in a car for so long, we took two of the hiking trails-mainly because I didn't want to get back into the car and neither did Connor.

The view from one of the look out points

A deer along the road

An absolutely amazing view-and not a cloud in sight either.

A family portrait

Baby deer at play

Sometimes I think snow is very strange-this was in the parkinglot

Some snow covered paths, while two feet away were totally green paths.
The trees in the back were burnt in a 2004 fire.

Walking to the car

The Hoh Rainforest

I loved all the moss everywhere and how it just hangs on the trees

More moss

I thought the broken trees were pretty fascinating too

A little river

Another family portrait

We eventually got back in the car and drove back to Grandpa's house. For dinner we enjoyed some yummy deep fat fried calamari and fish (yes I ate both and liked them both-I even told them I like Calamari ahead of time so they made it for me).

Dinner was very good!

Sunday morning we decided we needed a bit of a break. We were all tired of driving so we hung out and took it easy for the most part. It was a really hot day (up until this point their area had 79 minutes of the year of temperatures above 80 degrees. So unfortunately all I brought with me were long sleeved shirts and sweaters. We had to make a quick trip to Walmart to buy t-shirts and then I was much happier. (I only packed cool weather clothes because we were told that the weather was pretty cold there, and the days that I was able to see the weather forecast said highs would be low to mid 60's, hence long sleeves and sweaters sounded like a smart plan.)

In the morning we went to see the house that Grandpa is building. It's beautiful! It looks amazing on the outside, has floor in some of the areas and the kitchen was being put together, but that was about all that was done. Looks like it is going to be a great house. We're invited back when it's done as he will have plenty of space and extra rooms for us to use. (While staying at Grandpa's house he gave us his room and he stayed at the new house on an air mattress.) After seeing the new house we drove out to the famous spit and saw bald eagle nests.

Then we headed home and took a walk to go feed a goat named Crocket. It was a long walk and it was super hot outside, I was oh so glad to have a short sleeved shirt. We fed Crocket a little bit of lettuce and then continued on a trail to this cute bridge. This is where Amy and Anthony were married last year so they call it the marriage bridge. It was pretty. On the way back to the house we stopped and fed Crocket some more. Crocket's owner even brought him out to where we were so Connor could get a closer look.