Back to the Island

Our epic journey of summer 2014 is in the books. We were so excited to have 14 luxurious days away but they went by so fast. And we spent 4 of them just traveling. I am So looking forward to actually taking a vacation sometime soon that is 14 days long, involves not too much traveling, and is just staying in one place with the sole purpose of relaxing. I have a place in mind.......maybe next year.

Not that we didn't enjoy our vacation this year, au contraire. We had a great time, the kids in particular. But we managed to stay true to the theme of life these days, even during our vacation. A bit too busy.

Part 1 of our vacation was the really busy part. B/tw the two of us, during our week in Victoria we managed to have 7 meetings related to our plans to move as well as visiting friends and sight seeing and enjoying Victoria. Many "must-dos" had to be taken off the list. There were no visits to the Blue Fox or any other restaurants beginning with Blue. But as my friend Graham pointed out, The Blue Fox is for the "hip crowd" these days. I had to laugh b/c when I used to breakfast there regularly with my friends, we probably considered ourselves the "hip crowd."Or if not hip, at least, young.

I wondered how Victoria would appear now as I look at it with the perspective of someone with two young kids, looking to simplify life. Turns out it looks just great, only different than before. We stayed in Cordova Bay, an area I used to ride my bike through and think nothing more than "there are alot of families living here." Now, as I find myself in that exact situation and no longer a free-spirited grad student, Cordova Bay seems just what the doctor ordered for our little clan, trying to escape traffic, commutes, smog, sirens - big city density issues.

While sitting one evening at Graham and Margie's house in Cordova Bay they mentioned that folks were complaining b/c of float plane noise overhead. Then I heard it....a little zooooommmmm and it was over. Ah Victoria, you know you got it good when......

Yes, they do have to deer proof their yards, and it rains sometimes. They don't have time to check email at traffic lights b/c, well, there isn't any traffic. And it does get a bit annoying to always wait for pedestrians b/c people are always waiting for you when you cross the road and you have to pay it forward. But I think we can live with all that :-) And all of those forested running and biking trails, those could take some getting used to.

Enough of my chatter.....here are some photos which is why the Grandparents really check out the blog:

We rented the most absolutely fabulous place ever. It was a real family's home and not a vacation rental and they had kids the same ages as ours so they left all this awesome stuff for us to use, like this wagon. Came in very handy for our relaxing 7 minute walk to the beach.

More awesomeness at our Cordova Bay house. I kinda want to buy this place, for the gigantic lanai alone. And the big gate at the end of the driveway so we could let the kids run wild and not worry.

Teia was endlessly entertained by the variety of tricycles available for her lanai-cruising pleasure. The family left us a full set of bikes so we were able to cruise a little bit on the Lochside trail that runs right through the neighborhood as well. 

And here's that beach I mentioned. You know, just the neighborhood beach, nothing special. They're basically, like, everywhere. I know. They're everywhere here too, except they're packed and parking is a nightmare. Although one point for San Diego, the water is a heck of a lot warmer. But the kids didn't really seem to care and got in as much as they could anyway. 

And another stunning, quintessential west coast beach. We drove to the this beach and hiked about 30 minutes through the forest to get to it. It was well worth it for this view and the beach combing was fantastic. We found big pink jelly fish and large dungeoness crab running around. These made Teia a wee bit nervous but Kai thought they were quite cool. He was also quite taken with all the drift wood, something we don't find on the beaches here. 

Yep, that drift wood is pretty cool. 

The kids also really enjoyed climbing rocks on top of "Mountain Doug" as Teia called it. In fact, Teia was so crushed by her inability to climb the first time we went due to a poor choice in footwear (flip flops), that we had to squeeze in a return trip. The best part of it though was that we got to go with our dear friends Tavi, Derrick and Jack the second time around. 

I was up early everyday while we were in Victoria. I guess I didn't want to miss the cool summer mornings and quiet tea in the hammock. Or runs like this one, around Elk and Beaver Lake which was a 5 minute drive from our place. 

We did make it down to the bustling inner harbor to ride a water taxi and check out some of the action. 

The kids enjoyed pretty much every adventure they had in Victoria but I think Kai's highlight would have to be riding the super ferries. I really should devote an entire blog post to that except that I know that I won't, if I hope to have any time to document the other half of our trip. So here are a few photos of our departing voyage back to Vancouver. Sailing through Active Pass was just as gorgeous and incredible as I remember and we had stellar blue skies for both of our sailings. 

Waterfront dining at its best. 

This was one happy little boy. 

Now its time for a whole lotta patience, hard work and a wee bit of luck and we'll be back for good by this time next year.......