Victoria B.C.

Brook and I spent the weekend in Victoria B.C. to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. In some ways, it was also our "babymoon." Evidently it is the new fad for couples to go on one last wild adventure before having their first child. Well, we weren't very wild, but we did leave the country for the weekend.

We headed north late Thursday night and stayed at the Puckett Bed & Breakfast in Seabeck, WA. For those who don't follow along, that is my parent's house. We were able to sleep in a little Friday morning before heading off to catch the 12:00 pm ferry out of Port Angeles, WA.

The ferry is a passenger-only ferry and they advertise a 55 minute crossing, although Brook and I believe it is closer to a 70 minute crossing from our experience. We also discovered the weak link in our nations security. All in all, a great way to get to B.C..

Upon docking in Victoria, we made the three block walk to the Andersen Bed and Breakfast (see http://www.andersenhouse.com/). The owners of the house have been operating there for 21 years and they do a fabulous job. It is a small B&B with only three rooms. We stayed in the Casablanca room which was really nice. Besides being close to the ferry, it was extremely close to downtown (Parliament Building, the Empress, the Royal Museum, etc.).

On Friday, we explored the dowtown area. We toured the Parliament building, went to an IMAX showing, went into the Empress, walked the Boardwalk and all through the dowtown area. We ate at an Irish pub for dinner and then enjoyed our walk back to the B&B.

Saturday featured breakfast at 9:00 am. Afterwards we walked towards the Bus terminal to catch a bus to the Butchart Gardens. However, we saw the Budget Rental Car lot next door and decided to rent a car for the day. Turned out to be a great choice because we were able to explore every bit of the Pennisula. We drove the coastline to the Butchart Gardens (see post below) and then continued around the island stopping lots of places in between.

All in all, I think that Victoria became a favorite new place to travel for Brook and I. We both loved the feel of the town and all that it has to offfer. We would love to return and do some biking and kayaking.

Butchart Gardens

See post above for more information. Brook and I spent the weekend in Victoria B.C. celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary. On Saturday, we rented a vehicle and drove around the coastline of the pennisula, including a stop at the world-famous Butchart Gardens. Despite me emptying out my wallet in order to get in the gates of the garden, we had a wonderful time and were amazed by the amazing amount of acreage covered in flowers.

Enjoy the photos below.

Sunriver

A little late in posting, but wanted to share some photos from our weekend in Sunriver two weekends back. We were lucky enough to be able to rent a house from one of my bosses in Sunriver. Both the Morgans and the Sargents were able to join us and we had a great weekend. We visited the Lava Caves, Tumalo Falls, the Sunriver Nature Reserve and a little bit of downtown (including a stop at Goodies Ice Cream).

Stupid People

As many comedians and country music artist have lamented before, the world is full of stupid people. I think that I could probably start an entire blog full of random quotes heard straight from the mouth of the stupid population. But since that blog has not been started yet, I thought I would share with you a recent experience that deserves to be told. This experience took place at the Portland Timbers game a couple weeks back.

While eavesdropping into the conversation going on behind me, I overheard a guy (approximately my age) telling his buddy the different languages he studied while in school. He said, "I studied Spanish, a little french, a semester of German and even a semester of latin." His friend commented back to him that Latin wasn't a very useful language.

Expecting the guy to respond to his friend by telling him that Latin could be a useful language when studying for the SAT or in general usage since so many of our words derive from the latin language, I was dumbfounded when he responded in total seriousness this:

"Ya...Latin isn't very useful....unless you are going to visit Latin America."

The world is full of stupid people.