July 2010 was a month of more goings than comings. We were only in town 7 days as Austin and I spent the first part in British Columbia and the kids and I spent the last half in PA and NY. Literally 587 pictures later, it is time to update the blog (*cringe*). Joy of joys. I'm going to do this in shorter installments. I'd have to have several episodes of time in which there was a day, a night, and a day as if they were one day to do this otherwise, but I would not choose to use that kind of day to update the blog. Also the major fail point on substantial blog updates is the photo upload interface on here is really clunky and slow and you can only upload 5 pictures at a time. So it takes forever. That is my primary excuse. Okay. Enough whining. Here goes...
Day One
After flying to Seattle we drove NW and took a ferry across the straight to Victoria. It was a little more than an hour to get across. We stayed out on the deck the whole time. Also it was about this time that I realized I was potentially going to freeze the whole time we were up there. I did not freeze. I did wear my Penn State sweatshirt the first several days, however. Also the Canadian niceness was already oozing all over the place even on the ferry ride over.
Upon arrival in Victoria it was perhaps 8pm local time, which felt like 11pm for us. Also, neither of us got much sleep the night before, and somehow I managed to get only 2 hours. But it was Canada Day, and there were festivities going on by the harbor and fireworks to come. However, the fireworks weren't until almost 11pm local time. There was just no way we were going to be able to make that late hour. We tried to go where we were staying to take a nap and get up again, but (one completely incoherent and delirious conversation later) I didn't wake until 5am. Needless to say, we missed Canada Day. Which was probably our one shot at it so it is a little too bad, but there was just no way.
This is where we stayed. Victoria is more Victorian than Great Britain.
Day Two
This was one of the most busy days of the whole trip. Then again we were up and going since 5am. We started out tracking down breakfast and eating along the harbor.
Then we went on a self-guided walking tour around Victoria. This was the first Chinese public school in Victoria. Which meant this was where the Chinese children went to school to learn English so that they would be admitted to the local public school.
After walking around, we had fish and chips on the dock for lunch. I would still rate San Fransisco's wharf fare better, but this was a strong contender and well enjoyed.
Next we did a tour at the Parliament Building.
There is some mysterious factoid about the lights that cover the building and illuminate it at night. The tour guide claimed they were the original light bulbs...um, no, not really. Perhaps he meant the original wiring?
Then we headed west from Victoria out to a park that, as it turned out, was pretty random and we're not sure why the nice lady at the tourist info center thought to encourage us to go there. Oh well. Here is Austin in the randomness.
Also this will be the first of several pictures funny signs that we encountered.
They would just like you to know that cliff jumping is not safe for the 5 listed reasons. However, you are not prohibited from doing this (and in fact there was a family there cliff jumping as we walked around). They will draw the line on drinking, though.
After that we went on a zipline tour with
this company. The way it worked was that we went with a group of 10 total people, plus 2 additional guides. The 8 others were all part of one family who were some of the few local Victorians. And yes, they were beyond nice and had super accents. After the bunny hill at the bottom to see if you would totally freak out, we took an ATV to the top of a hill and then you zip down. There were probably 8 lines and one suspension bridge. All 10 of you make your way from one platform to the next before moving on to the next line. At the end you are back at the bottom of the hill. Some were short and fast and in the trees, some were long (the longest was 1,000 feet) and out in the open with spectacular views.
This was Austin's favorite activity of the entire trip. And he's not just saying that. He was a maniac from the bunny-hill-equivalent warm-up run. His technique of the day was The Point. Check it:
Also, if you can tell, this is him completely upside down on the second line. That didn't take long.
Some companies use harnesses that would prevent you from moving around much at all, but we just had two clipped lines at each hip so you were free to go wherever you wanted. I did not take them up on this option. I did lay out flat a la torpedo, which gets you moving pretty fast. For me that was enough to call it good. For Austin, he continued flipping all over the place the entire time. At one point he said "I know why adrenaline junkies end up killing themselves." That's not exactly what you want your husband to say when you're far from home and tethered to a cable high atop the trees.
Although this ended up as my second favorite activity of the trip, my favorite 30 seconds of the entire trip were towards the end of the 1,000 foot line. The first 2/3 of this particular line are in the woods with trees close to the line, and then you come out into a clearing and the hill drops off quickly so you go from being in the trees to above the trees--all of them. And there was a jaw-dropping view back to the coast and across the water to the Olympic Mountains in Washington. And then you have the additional sensation of moving through this space with complete weightlessness. It was pretty much amazing.
So that was the update from essentially one day...my prediction is each day is going to get shorter or I will never finish. More coming...
