Travels to Canada

We were up early this morning and on the ferry to Sidney, British Columbia.

It was a smooth ride, although we slowed once to avoid a pod of dolphins and again, when we passed into Canadian waters, to switch flags.

Once past the very chatty (and slow) Custom's agent, we broke out the old-school navigation system - no cell phones or data plans for us for the few days we are in Canada!

What should have taken us 15 minutes from the ferry terminal took almost an hour, and we were well past Butchart Gardens before we realized our error.

But we made it and it was well worth the effort. This sunken garden was originally a cement quarry.

It sure looks better today! The grounds are filled with statues,

art works,

- this snail was my favorite -

water features,

hidden paths,

and gorgeous flowers everywhere.

Although the sky was grey and overcast, the rain held off while we were there.

But it was obvious that hadn't been the case earlier.

It didn't seem to bother the bees,

one way or the other.

Next stop was Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria.

Built for the coal-rich Dunsmuir family in the 1880's,

the exterior is beautiful . . .

but the interior is stunning.

Stained glass in almost every window, on every floor

All four levels have inlaid wood floors,

detailed wood ceilings,

and gorgeous banisters, walls and curved alcoves - all in beautiful dark hardwoods.

Hubby was in heaven. It really was an amazing house.

We both want to know how they got a 6'x12' billiard table up those winding stairs to the third floor!

Tonight we are staying in Victoria,

around the corner from Parliment,

a block from the harbour,

across the way from the Empress.

We've been really lucky with the weather so far, only getting sprinkled on tonight as we walked back from dinner. Hope our luck holds!

A Whale of a Day

Today was all about whales. We started at the (literally) world renown Whale Museum in Friday Harbor

We learned some cool stuff,

admired the street art octopus (I love octopi),

and found out about a talk to be given that night by a visiting Orca researcher.

Which we, and an SRO crowd, attended. Interesting stuff.

Fish lights at our lunch spot, Blue Water Bar and Grill.

And in between, we took a boat

out past San Juan Island's second lighthouse,

to do a bit of whale watching.

Our hopes of seeing whales weren't very high;

the two naturalists on board told us no Orcas has been spotted on the previous day's trip.

But it was nice and relaxing to be on the water, so no big deal, right?

Instead, we hit the whale jackpot.

The J Pod we were looking for decided this was the day they should reunite with their pals from K Pod and L Pod.

We saw at least 20 individual Orcas (those with stars by their names on the list above),

and since pods always travel together, there were probably 70 - 80 whales in our vicinity. There was lots of breaching, splashing and general whale high jinks. And our boat's hydrophone captured some amazing whale vocalizations.

My little camera got a few shots, mostly through blind luck, but the naturalists each had big cameras, with huge lenses, and said they will email their pictures to passengers in a week or so. Can't wait to see those!!

2015 saw five baby Orcas added to the resident pods.

And how do they know which whale is which?

There's a app book, just for that.

Pictures, identifying markings, lineage, last sighting - it's all here. All the whale watching boats - and other individuals - track which Orcas they see each day, then turn that info over to the Whale Museum for use by researchers and the Orca Survey. Lots of people working together to better understand these majestic creatures.

On The Road Again

We flew out of LAX Tuesday night, headed for Seattle, San Juan Island and a brief jaunt into Canada.

Land of lost luggage at Seattle airport.

We were up early today to claim our rental car, then headed north to Anacortes

where we boarded a Washington State Ferry for the hour's ride to Friday Harbor.

What a great way to travel! I even had time to work on my vacation project.

We did a little sight-seeing this afternoon - circling the entire island in less than 3 hours.

The Lime Kiln Lighthouse (below) was my favorite - no surprise there, right??

but Roche Harbor,

with its old lime kilns,

pretty buildings,

and gorgeous scenery

was nothing to sneeze at.

Some history on the island's lime kilns.

Tomorrow we're hoping to go whale watching. Stay tuned! And also?

Pretty flowers!

Oh, The Memories!

Leia had her first soccer game on Saturday.
 
She's really into it - racing up the field, always in the thick of things, always with her hand up to volunteer when the ball needs to be thrown in or kicked off.
Leia is far left, in the light blue.

I love how hard she played and how happy she was, even though her team technically lost. (They don't keep score at that age, but the other team made a lot of goals.)
Pancakes with her best friend after the game. 

It brought back so many great memories of the years Gary played soccer, both AYSO and All-Stars. Hope Leia has as much fun, and good times, as Gary did. 

Ballet Girl

Today was Leanne's first ballet class.
 
I took her with me to sign up last week and she has been beside herself with excitement ever since.
 
She LOVED class. Leanne was the oldest, tallest and most coordinated in the 3-4 year old's class (Leanne is 4 1/2.)
 
And every girl needs her own dance bag, right? 
 
It took me most of last night, but I finished this accidentally reversible hobo-style bag. Leanne picked out the fabric and is thrilled that she got Elsa and puzzles together. 
 
I had most of the dancewear Leanne needed from when Leia took classes at CAPA, except for ballet slippers (I had one and that's not going to work when you have two feet . . .)
 Class attendance card with stickers!

One of Marie's neighbors heard me talking about buying new shoes and offered up her daughter's out-grown, used-once tap shoes, ballet slippers, tights and dance skirt. Score!! Very grateful for friendly neighbors.

Crab Feast

We found a new favorite restaurant in Ventura, called Crab n Spice. I guess it's a traditional 'crab boil' type place, but neither hubby nor I knew what a crab boil was.

Ohhhhh, have we been missing out!

Tonight was our second visit and we took little Miss Leanne along - mainly to see her reaction to the food.

She wasn't upset by the eyes, whiskers (antennae) or legs, but that didn't mean she was going to eat any of it either.

A bowl of rice with soy sauce, a glass of water, and Leanne was a happy camper. Which left just that much more seafood for the big kids. Yummmmmmmm.