Victoria/Vancouver Vacation Pt 1/Victoria

I have been home nearly a week, and I have yet to post about our trip!! I have LOTS of pictures, both on my camera, and on my phone. If you are my friend on FB, you probably "came" along with us, and saw a lot of our pictures, but for those aren't on my friends, here is a bit of a recap.

WARNING: A long post with LOTS of pictures ahead!

To make it so that you don't want to rip your hair out and/or make your eyes, bleed, I will post this in two parts.

This will be about the Victoria part of our trip.

Friday.

We woke up and finished packing and as we were leaving, we discovered a screw had somehow gotten itself embedded in our tire,

Anker was pretty sure he could fix it with just a tire patch kit, so off we went to run some errands, and went to CT to buy a patch kit, went to another gas station to fix it (where there is also air), and found out that it had only gone through a bit of the tire. Yay! We grabbed some coffee and off we went. The day was SO gorgeous!!! I would have taken even more pics, but I drove for half the way. Here is one that I did get..

Gorgeous, right? And it stayed that way throughout the entire trip! After a quick stop for gas and coffee, we started up again. Got into Vancouver/Tsawassen around 2, and we could have got the 3pm ferry, but we ended up just killing time at the terminal. We left our car at the Park n Go (Best decision, EVER),  and got the free shuttle to and from the ferry, which was great, and it decreased the cost of our trip. Going on as foot passengers is a great way to travel. Oh, and did I mention the FREE baggage claim? Yes! After eating our lunches I made at home, people watching and paying for our tickets, we went to the Ferry Market (usually every ferry terminal has one), and wandered around.

                                                              Inside the market.

It was so cute in there. I had been in there before, but we were a bit rushed. Even this time we didn't stay very long. We did grab a couple of treats at the Rocky Mounatin Chocolate Factory, though. I even managed to evade the Starbucks, while we were there. I got a coffee on the ferry, where they served SB coffee :)

The ferry ride was great! We were outside for most of the trip. The weather and the sailing were great!!!

I actually wanted to do "I'm at the King of the World" pose..haha. Just as we were leaving the Mainland Harbour.

                                                                    Me n Hubs.

 His sister met us on the other side, and we all took the scenic drive to their house. We had pizza that night.  We also tried some Cupcake wine. Yum! They watched MIB 2, which I thought was boring, so I had a bath, and said goodnight and went to bed.

Saturday:

Woke up, and went out to their garden (I forgot to take some nice pics of her garden..oops), and journalled and read my magazines. We had a great breakfast of eggs and turkey bacon and toast! Yum! Then it was off to do our activities for the day. K took us to a public market, (where I didn't get any really good pictures, but I will touch on a bit on my FoF) and to Fan Tan Alley in China Town, and it was SO cool!!!

                                                               Isn't this cool??

                                                               Loved these umbrellas.

                                                                 ..and this door. 23 1/2.

 There were some "back rooms" that they used like a museum, and constructed scenes from the past. Very cool.

                                  The alley. Not the best picture...but still kind of a cool shot.
There were lots of little shops; clothing, variety, spas...I could have spent HOURS just there alone!

Anker and his sister went to Royal BC Museum to see THE VIKINGS, and I went off to play tourist in Downtown Victoria. I took WAY TOO many pictures!!!! It was actually embarassing; both on how I looked (big floppy hat she made me wear...lol), and I sounded and acted, and at the amount of pictures I took. I definitely looked and acted the part, that's for sure!! I did have A TON of fun, which was the main thing!!!  I had been downtown a few times, but we were always rushing, so I hadn't really had a lot of time to browse the shops before. I explored Munro's Books, Murchies' Tea and Coffee (which my friend told me to and see), and I would have gone to The Christmas Village, but they were closed for the month of June. Boo! Plus there were your usual suspects; Souvenier Shops, Coffee Shops, and even some mall - store shops were downtown.  There was even a Ten Thousand Villages! The weather was great, and I had fun exploring.

Here are some of the pictures from that morning...

                Murchies. One side was a store, and the other side was a cafe. SO COOL!

                                                        I loved this wall of china cups.

                                 I love Munroe's walls. Oh, and the books were pretty cool, too :)

I ended my excursion with a float The Soda Shoppe (no real link, sorry). I was a bit disappointed, as I forgot (Anker and I went there a couple of years ago) that it was only soda from a can, and not from a fountain (or at least not the good soda). But it was still good anyway, especially since I was hungry and thirsty. And it WAS very good!

                                                 One of the MANY souvenior/gift shops!

Here are some more pictures of the harbour and the street that we explored nearly two years ago.

 There are vendors and musicians playing on/in the harbour. We wandered around this two years ago. Loved it!

 FYI: This year I did Government Street. LOVED this!!! Pretty much the only street you'll ever need..except for maybe the one above..I think it's Harbour Street, or something.

I ended my excursion on the Parliament Building Grounds.

                                                           The Empress Hotel.

                                                            I look ridiculous! LOL

 My new shoes that I bought. Yes, I walked in those. Yes, my feet were sore. No, I don't like them at the moment. LOL

After meeting A and K at the museum, we all met with C and we went for a drive along the ocean, to Oak Bay. On the way, we stopped at Oak Bay Marina, and saw the seals. Or were they Otters? I can't remember. For two bucks you can buy fish and feed them.

                                         Then it was off to have a picnic/bbq on the beach!!!

                                           Veggie dogs, potato salad and coleslaw. YUM!

It was such a wonderful day...I LOVE the ocean. It wasn't nearly warm enough (for me) to swim, but I did put my feet in, and it was lovely!!!

Then we went down the boardwalk/promenade to the Oak Bay Tea Party!! There were live bands, rides and of course, your usual fair food! I had my mini donuts. I was happy. I am good with fairs for the year!! Of course, since it was a tea party, I HAD to buy iced tea!

Oh, and we had perfect temps!

We went home, all tired, but happy and we watched movies. They watched TV downstairs, and K offered me her laptop for me to watch movies (the ONE time I didn't bring my Laptop, which is usually WHY I bring it everywhere..so I can watch movies...usually DVDs that I bring with me). I watched ENOUGH SAID, which was a bit odd, and AUSTENLAND, which was pretty funny.

Well, it has taken me a couple of hours to write this out (mainly thanks to the hyperlinks that I am choosing to use...), and it is 11:33 PM, so I am going to end now, and finish up tomorrow.