A Family Vacation! Day 3

We recently returned from our family vacation in 

B E A U T I F U L

 * Victoria *

British Columbia

Canada

The morning of Day 3 began with

sunshine glowing through the dulled windows...

and we woke up

excited...

anticipating the move to our new hotel.

The shower head nearly blew off our skin...

but we cleaned up and dressed quickly...

singing!

Except for Robbie.

Sad Face.

Really.

I mean...

sad.

face.

Robbie woke up with his eyes puffed up, red and itchy...

ALLERGIES.

they struck him like a baseball bat.

Oh dear.

We let him sleep

while we went downstairs to eat breakfast

at the hotel's rather empty restaurant.

Why...Oh...Why?? 

Did we do that to ourselves?

Expensive.

A banana?

$3.75

Really?

We ordered some food for the boy

and took it up to him.  

Poor thing.

The girls and I brought the rickety trolley with us...

while Bob checked us out.

We loaded up the trolley and took it all out to our car.

We loaded up the car....

luggage, bags and boy...

and drove out onto the street, 

turned left,

turned left again and then right into the parking garage,

found a space,

and 

parked.

That was it !!

We left the boy in the car to sleep.

Our room...

ahem...

** suite **

wasn't ready yet...

so he needed to stay in the car

to sleep.

The girls and I went ahead to the Whale Watching tour office

while Bob got the boy some allergy medicine.

We were pacing the floor of the tour office...

watching the clock...

waiting for Bob to show up in time.

We had just about lost hope of getting onto the tour 

when...

TA DA!!

Bob came jogging up at the very last minute!!

We ran down to the dock with the guide...

and popped on our 

SURVIVAL GEAR!!

(what kinda tour IS this?)

I took some pictures of the dock area:

KOOL!!

A purple starfish...

AND

A huge crab !!

THEN

we jumped into the "Zodiac" raft...

and hung on for dear life as we zoomed off to see the 

some Orca whales...

The Victoria harbour is a seaplane lane...

when the whales are close in...

the lane shuts down!

The only one in the world to do that.

Along the way to the Orca Whales
we saw some house boats...
aren't they pretty?

a condo place that is entirely green and self-sufficient...



and the infamous Victoria Clipper....
you can ride on it from Seattle, Washington...
it takes 4 hours and it's fast!
But...you can't take your car on it.
We did this for our honeymoon...with a picnic lunch...
so romantic....


We gawked at a cruise ship docked in the harbour...

and saw a welcome sign on a building with "First Nation" fish symbols...

then headed for the open sea...

A prettyful lighthouse...


Rosie-girl's shoes....

and smile.....
looks mischievous....

Emmaline's happy face...

Then we started going
REALLY FAST !!
The sharp, cold wind made
my eyes puff up
and created wind wrinkles on my cheeks!!
Soooo glamourous....

and then we slowed down
because we were there...
so look closely...

ORCA WHALES !!

The whale with the tallest fin is the oldest male child
of the dominant mama...
she is
the leader of the pod.

He's a big boy!

The tiniest fins are the babies!

S O 0 0 0 

E X C I T I N G ! !

After, like 5 minutes

(actually 2 hours!!!),

the pod pushed a group of salmon towards a rocky island...

the guide explained that they were going to dive down and eat the salmon....

So...it was time to go back.

We stopped to see some wildlife...

an eagle...

CANADIAN geese...

and seals...

We got back to Victoria feeling so happy and bubbly...

from speeding around in the cool air and ocean spray...

we walked back to the hotel and checked in

and then...

we found our boy...
curled up in the car...

sleeping
(the medicine made him really drowsy)...

We had to unload our luggage and take it upstairs...

and when we opened the door...

we nearly screamed in delight at our suite!!

We had one room for the kids

(a sofa bed and roll-away bed)

and another room for us (!)

(hello fluffy king size bed!)

with a comfy seating area.

Each room had it's own tv armoire and a sink area...

and we shared a bathroom...

There was even a nook with a table.

We even had a sliding glass door to our own deck....

8 stories up in the air!!

The carpet!

Soft and comfy.

The towels!

Fluffy and thick.

The soaps!

Yummy smelling!

:: sigh ::

so loverly.

Oh dear....

we just realized it was 2 hours past lunch.

Let's go eat lunch!!

Our minds were numb with hunger as we tried to walk
to a local fish & chips place

the whale guide had told us about.

Turns out we accidentally took the 

SCENIC
-Laurel Point Path-

route.

The LONG way.

At Fisherman's Wharf, we ended up bumping into almost everyone
from the whale watching tour!

Even though it took waaay too long to get our
authentic.
world.
famous.
fish / chips...


look at the preeeettttyyyy plastic......


Our lunch was
A M A Z I N G !!

On the way back to the hotel...
we took the real route...
Much.
Faster.

Well...my eyes are trying to sleep...and there is so much more to tell about

our 3rd day in
Lovely Victoria...

tomorrow.

You will get to read about
taking High Tea at the Empress Hotel
and
A late-night ghost walking tour
and
perhaps even more....
Promise !