Wish You Were There

We have just got back to Vancouver after spending Monday to Friday on Vancouver Island with our friends, Claire and April. We rented a cottage in East Sooke, on the south-western coast of the island.

We were blessed with an free upgrade to a fabulous place, overlooking Sooke Harbour, right on the waterfront - a great deal for us students! It had a hot-tub and a private wharf (if we'd had our own fishing boat) as well as a wonderful house with almost all the mod cons. (I say "almost" because I went to use the hand-held electric beater to whip some cream but could only find 1 of the 2 whisks to put in it. I burnt off the calories from the cream as I whipped it by hand with a whisk!!!) The highlight was really being right on the waterfront. We spotted purple sea-stars (a bit like soft looking starfish), lots of crabs, a fish or two, a sea lion or seal, and had daily visits from a heron, who sat on a rock in our little cove to fish every time the tide turned.

We spent Tuesday in Victoria. We saw the government buildings (it is the provincial capital), had some great fish'n'chips, ate a "Canada Cone" (an icecream with cream and strawberries on top), wandered the streets, and watched an IMAX film on an African safari. Victoria is very "English-looking", and had multiple statues of Capt. James Cook, who claimed Victoria Island for the British in 1769 (or thereabouts!)

We spent Wednesday at the famous Butchart Gardens. The sunken garden and dahlia display were particularly spectacular. It was a hot day (in the 30s celcius) and it was great eating a picnic lunch in the shade of a tree on the grass. We even met a NZ couple from Lower Hutt as we wandered around!

We celebrated April's 33rd birthday on the 30th of August. We surprised her with balloons, party hats and candles in her breakfast pancakes. It was hard to keep a straight face during some "serious theological discussions" later in the day when we had these ridiculous hats on! Otherwise we rested, had soaks in the hot-tub, and taught Claire and April to play the card game 500.

Another highlight of our week away was establishing a "Kiwi-American Dictionary" with April. As the 3 Kiwis chatted, April would pipe up "I'll add that one to the list!" We ate 'hamburger'/beef mince, wore our flipflops/jandals, and wore our swimmers/togs in the hot-tub. It was against Nathan's instincts to eat Jif peanut butter, especially when he found some Vim (which looked remarkably like NZ's Jif cleaner) in the cupboard too!

Overall it was a fantastic week. You can see plenty more photos if you click on the link at the side. Now we need to slough off the holiday thinking and get ready for college.