Well, we're back from our trip. I wanted to post some pics, and I finally got them all uploaded and organized. I renewed my Flickr pro account for the year, and I'm already making good use of it. I have more to upload today, too.

I kept thinking of all the things I wanted to say about Victoria, but the reality is that the trip was too good to talk about. I may keep working on it for future reference, just for myself, but for the most part, a short sum up is good.

We had a great time. We were relaxed, we had gorgeous weather, and we got along the whole time. It was nice to be away from the stress present in our daily life together. It made it possible for us to be "new" for a while, and that was really, really nice. I already wrote about how good my birthday was, and then after my hungover boat ride to Victoria, we had 3 days of "adult beverages" as my uncle Ajay calls boozeamahol, along with sunny sunny weather, and relaxing with no plans. We played it by ear for most of the trip, and that means we didn't spend any time in the city of Victoria, proper. We did go on some amazing drives, saw some beautiful scenery, and spent a good deal of time with my uncle Ajay and his husband, Tom.

Ajay and Tom are were gracious hosts, accommodating and generous, and we really enjoyed their company. It felt good to be connecting with parts of my family, building another bridge where I have too few. They were hilarious, loving and kind. They very nicely let us borrow their car on Sunday, and John and I spent the day driving the island by ourselves. We drove to sandy, warm beaches, huge forests with trees 800 years old, and a funny old import market where the roof was completely covered in grass and they filled it up with goats! (Goats on the Roof! Crazy, but so cool!) We went to a Cidery and brought home some apple cider mead stuff that is 4 times distilled and tastes sort of like what Port would taste like if it were made from apples and honey instead of grapes. We can't wait to break into that.

I won't subject you to the whole slideshow, (we took about 300 some pics) but if you want to see the pics from the trip, they're on my Flickr under the Victoria '08 collection, right here.

But, seeing as how this is my blog and I really want to put them on here, here are some of my favorites:

This is what the weather looked like when we started out for Victoria:



I kept doing self portraits. Many from the trip looked like this. John is squinting because it's too bright and he's being cranky.



This is the porch swing in my uncles' huge backyard. Uncle Ajay loves to garden and be outside, creating landscaping. Uncle Tom works on operating systems, installing them for the Hospital system in Canada, so he pretty much leaves Ajay to play with the yard as much as he wants. I sat on this swing in the mornings with Tom, while he did cross stitch and I knitted.



I love their Koi Pond



On Saturday, we went to Cowichan Bay, a seaside town close to Mill Bay, where they live:



I want to live on a houseboat. Ajay says this is a really economical way to live, in Canada. This little cottage was under $100,000 and it was about the size of our house.




Some of the more interesting storefronts around the boardwalk there





On Sunday, we took our drive. Here is some of the countryside, as we're going. Victoria is full of farms:



Here I am, hamming it up while driving



We passed some kind of Biker Convention at a random Pub



Ended up at Rathtrevor Provincial Park, where the water was warm and shallow and wonderful





It was full of hundreds of thousands of these little snails:













After the beach, we drove by THIS lake (I don't know the name)



To get to HERE



to see 800 year old Douglas Fir trees that were described like this:



and they're not lyin'!

Here is John at the base of that particular tree. The log he is standing on is taller than the top of my head, on its side.



It goes up 76 meters!



There we are in the forest. Some German tourist took this for us. He took 8 different pics and this was the least blurry of them all.



From there, we headed back towards home and passed through Coombs, the place with the Goats On The Roof Old Town Country Market:

Here is the roof:



and there are clearly goats on it:







Next to the market was a bizarre statuary garden in the middle of nowhere. So, of course, we climbed on stuff.

This picture is called "John Loves Big Cock" which is exactly what my uncle said when he saw it:



But I guess, so do I







The last day in Victoria, we finally got some pics of my uncles. When we were getting off the boat, John asked how we'd recognize him, seeing as how I haven't seen him in over 7 years. I told him to just look for the guy that looks like me. Well, it wasn't a problem. This is my Uncle Ajay



Can't tell we're related at all, can you?



Here is the fam, Ajay, his husband Tom, and me





we are eating at a pub called "Christie's" were John had a delicious beer with a funny name. He ordered the one on the top line:



and it was super black and heavy



We went from there to the top of Mount Douglas, a hill in Victoria that allows you a 360 degree view for hundreds of miles







We went to Beacon Hill Park to see some of the gardens









This is a Tobacco plant, believe it or not! It smelled so good!



We went to the promenade to wait for check in time for our boat home.





Saw the Empress Hotel



Checked out a tallship in the harbor



and boarded our boat. As we were leaving, we watched the Empress fade into the distance



and this was my view for a good part of the way home. I sat on the upper deck, knitting in the breeze, watching the sun go down



We had a great time!



That's about it for the post, it took over an hour to get all these up there. Sheesh, no wonder I don't blog much with pics, it's so time consuming!

:)