Oh, Canada!

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Adventures to the North are the latest thing new

As Victoria provided many enjoyable things to do

We walked and we ate

As the sightseeing was great

Plus we all avoided the "Moose" flu

We were able to get away for a nice 4 day vacation to Seattle and Victoria at the beginning of May to celebrate John & Sally's 25th wedding anniversay on May 1st and John's 67th birthday on May 4th. We drove up Friday afternoon with tempertures in the high 70's - quite a contrast to last year's commute in the snow. We had a wonderful seafood celebration at Anthony's on the waterfront in Edmunds Friday night and then took the Victoria Clipper hydrofoil to Victoria Saturday morning. A comfortable 2 1/2 hours later we made the 10 minute walk to our condo at Fisherman's Wharf, dropped off our luggage and headed out to explore Victoria.

As with our Hawaii vacation, things felt quickly familar and we were able to locate some favorite spots although we did add a new ice cream shop to our itinerary. A lunch choice from last year was closed so we had Chinese instead and then after browsing and checking in, we had dinner at the Marriott. We all gave positive reviews to our meal including the clam chowder and prime rib I had and our leisurely meal provided refuge from the storm that blew north from Portland and Seattle. By the time we walked home, the rain had stopped and we only had to fight the wind on the way home. The Church of Truth across the street from our condo was hosting Argentina Tango - and here I was without my shoes... We poked our heads in, but they could tell we weren't part of the in-crowd - Evan would have enjoyed it though..

Sunday dawned with possibilities as the weather system had moved through, so we booked a tour of Butchart Gardens and as the pictures above indicate, had a wonderful day of strolling through the flowers. Our dinner out was just across the street from our condo at the Superior, a hip jazz club with great food and unusual decorating style.

We originally had planned on staying until Tuesday, but John had an important conference in NYC that started Tuesday, so we arranged to take the 6:00 ferry Monday night. Since we didn't need to check out we lounged around our room and watched the DVD "Mame" and packed in fish and chips from Barb's on the Wharf. Packe dup and headed home and once again the weather hit during our commute but had stopped by the time we disembarked. Heavy rain hit Seattle overnight, but John made it to the airport by shuttling off at 6:30 and Dianna & I headed home by 10:00 AM. Smooth sailing by land through light rain got us home by 2:00 PM and we were able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Merry with dinner and cards Tuesday night.

I highly recommend a Canada visit - exchange rate is good ( 82 cents US to Canadian $), sights are plentiful and Canadians are friendly. We're already planning next years visit in early May before we head off to Iowa by May 23rd to celebrate Evan's graduation.

Still waiting for May weather to kick in before it turns rainy for Rose Festival - stay tuned...