My Vacation, Part 2

Maybe I should be getting back to this saga. :) Let's see, where was I?

Saturday - my family got up early and we headed to the ferry to Victoria. It was a beautiful day. The ride took us through the San Juan Islands and into Canada. We even went by the island that some good family friends vacation on every year. When we arrived, we spent time wandering around the downtown area. Found a Christmas store, so we all got some nice ornaments. I even found a guitar that looks just like mine. Got one for me and one for the Durons. We also found a place selling real European Gelato! Naturally, we all had to get some of this different kind of ice cream. It was wonderful! But the highlight of the trip was seeing a pod of orcas on the way back. There were about 10 all swimming in a row. I snapped a ton of pictures. Hopefully a few come out.

Sunday - We finally slept in. Frankly, I didn't do much all day. We had dinner with the entire crew and then some of us went to watch fireworks. Quite an impressive display, and it was really neat watching them over the water.

Monday - Mike and Zoe had to leave. :( I tried to meet up with everyone to ride the go-carts, but that never came together, mainly because the golf group got back so late. I would have liked to do that except they left at 8 AM! That afternoon, however, Mom, Dad, my uncle, aunt, and one of my step-counsin's kids went for a sailboat ride. It was loads of fun. We all agreed we'd love to have a sailboat. Now to be able to afford it.

Tuesday - Woke up to the sound of steady rain on the trailer. When we got up, it was still raining. This was a problem because we were taking the ferry to Victoria again, this time with the rest of our group. Thinking I didn't want to risk ruining my camera, I left it at the trailer. By the time we got on the boat, it had stopped raining, and it was actually sunny in Victoria. Mom, Dad, and I headed out to Butchart Gardens. We'd gone when we were there 20 years ago, and it was just as spectacular as I remember. And I loved seeing the Ross Fountain again. In fact, I bought two post cards of it since I didn't get one 20 years ago. My biggest regret is that I didn't have my camera to take pictures. I could have taken a million. We tried to get back in time to get more gelato, but we didn't make it. :( The ride back was pretty rough, but we made it back just fine. Did see a couple orcas, but nothing like the trip before.

Wednesday - I had to leave. Read about half of Slip Cue. My plane was delayed about an hour, and I was an hour and a half early to begin with. So I walked the terminals. Walked to the end of all the terminals in the main airport. Didn't head out to the two that are separate, however. Figured I wouldn't be able to clear security out there, anyway. And, on the plane, I started Mansions of the Dead. I'm currently almost half way through and am enjoying it as much as I did the debute in that series. Got into LAX and headed out to wait for the bus back to my car. I thought I'd have to wait about 30 minutes, but there it was 10 minutes later! Fortunately, I got on when I did because we filled up at the next stop. It was a standing room only ride, and thanks to traffic, we were going for over an hour. All told, it took my 12 hours to get home.

This wasn't a trip were we did tons of stuff, although I enjoyed greatly what we did. And it wasn't a completely relaxing trip with having to set alarms all but one day. But it was a great trip and it was nice to spend time with my aunt's family. Sure wasn't ready to come back Wednesday.

And that completes my vacation diary. Now, I'm going home to a nice quiet evening.