Day 5 vacation cont..

The next day we woke early. Jesse dropped me off downtown to walk the streets and shop. He went and picked up Nadia and the two of them had coffee and waited for me. We were going to spend the day going to Buchart Gardens. I'm not sure if it was Jesse's idea or Nadia's but we ended up getting 3 in at the price of 1. We stuffed Nadia in the truck and Jesse hid in the back seat on the floor board covered in a sleeping bag. I drove in and played the part of the dumb tourist. It worked!! It was touch and go for a little while as to how we were getting Nadia out of the trunk but it all worked out lolol... We strolled through the gardens for a few hours and explored one of the parks Nadia likes, Fleming Beach. Oh yeah!! Still no starfish to be found by the way.
I got to pick and eat black berries from the bushes. I wish we had stuff like that here.Finally we dropped Nadia at home and dropped the car at the ferry to make sure we were on the first ferry over to Port Angeles in the morning. Jesse and I walked the downtown and stopped at Big Bad Johns on our way to the bus. This bar was really cool. It's a little hole in the wall, very dark and the floor is covered in peanut shells. I felt right at home.
Everyone met back at the house where Jeff prepared dinner. Jesse was suppose to drive Nadia home but managed to re-break his toe before our hikes the next day. More to come....

Day 4 vacation cont....

Day 4 was a little rough. It started out ok when we left Jeremy and Kim's house. we were up and out the door by 8:00 am. Jesse drove us up island to check out some little towns along the way.
We stopped in Chemainus. This town is known for it's murals. Almost every store or building in this little town was covered in these huge murals. We got out and walked toward the water to check out the ocean side and search for creatures unknown. The whole trip I searched for starfish but that's another story. While on the beach side I marveled at the size of their seaweed. Everything there seems so super sized. The jelly fish were beyond enormous. After the beach we walked around the town and shopped a little.
We moved on to the town of Nanaimo. Our goal was to do some zip lining. We watched a whole bunch of people bungy jumped from the bridge and at the same time we were both feeling under the weather. It felt like we were coming down with something. We decided at that point to start heading towards Jeff's house. We stopped for a little lunch hoping it would make us feel better and then crashed for a few hours at the house.
When we woke we were almost back to normal. Very strange!! So we met everyone for dinner in downtown Victoria. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the restaurant but the food was excellent. We met Nadia's boyfriend Sam, which we liked very much. I think they are a good match.
Jeremy, Kim and Jeff were also there. After dinner we stopped at one of Jesse's favorite watering holes, Darcy's. Very cool place with a live band.
Jesse and I decide to end the night with a walk along the water back to his dad's house. Nadia gave me the number to the local cab company just in case Jesse had lost his mind... lol The walk was good but I was very tired when we got there. There were some cool sights along the way. More to come....

Day 3 Vacation continued...

On day 3 we woke early to catch the BC Ferry. The ride was about an hour and a half if I remember right. It was so cold I wore the rain jacket and hid behind the wind shield. We passed a lot of different islands. We arrived at Jeff's house (Jesse's Dad) around 10:30 and hung out for a bit before he went to work. We drove around to the different parks and went to Rinah's favorite coffee house. We were able to meet up with Nadia and walk the town for a while. Finally I got to meet one of the sisters.. Rinah, I have a special picture for you from Jesse. You will recognize it... lolol At the end of the night we ended up at Jeremy's house in the Goldstream Park for dinner and a bed. As Kim showed me around the property I caught my first glimpse of a slug. How cool!! Jesse suggested salt but I was against it. More to come....

Day 2 Vacation continued..

Jesse stayed up the night we got in, while I crashed out tired from the travel day. We woke and had coffee at Starbucks before anyone else even began moving. The game plan was to see the city of Vancouver. Jesse wanted me to get the whole experience by riding the sky train into town. Jeremy and Kim dropped us at the station and drove into town to meet us. It was very cool to see the town from above so I am glad we did it.

Once we arrived we waited for Jeremy and Kim and the 4 of us walked through Gas Town. Very cute!! There was also a bike show going on so that made it even more interesting. Once we were done walking around we then drove to Stanley Park. I was absolutely amazed by how many parks are in Canada. It was huge!! People were walking along the water and there was so much nature there. I was sad that Capone couldn't be there.. LOL

We finished up at the park and the 4 of us met Steve, Michelle and Ryder at Granville Island. You would be amazed at the size of the market place. You could buy almost any type of food imaginable there, including cooked and fresh food. Jesse was in heaven of course. We decided on the focaccia bread with olives and cheese, with a mushroom and spinach crepe. It was fabulous... The seagulls were a little more aggressive then the one's here, not to mention they were much louder.

Jeremy and Kim said goodbye and went back to the island so they could make it to work the next day. Steve and Michelle drove us around Vancouver and gave us some more sights to look at. We went back to the house around 3:30 for a short nap and did not wake until 7:00 for dinner. I guess you could say we were catching up from the time change. We ended up having Indian food that was very good and it came close to the restaurant here that we love. More to come.......

Returning Home.. Day 1 of Vacation

Well here we are back in Florida. Our vacation was great and I have way too many photos to post so I will make a post for each day we were away. This way I can make sure it's not too long and boring.

Day 1:

Most of day 1 was not too exciting. We flew all day and got into Seattle around 3:30. It took us almost an hour to get our car and on the road. We drove straight to Vancouver and stayed with Jesse's friends Steve and Michelle. They were nice enough to put us up for 2 nights. Jeremy and Kim met us there so that we all could hang out in Vancouver the next day. Here are a few pictures from day 1...
Jesse with the blues brothers on our stop in Chicago.Driving by Seattle on the way to Vancouver.


Crossing the border.. More to come..

Finally a room at the Hard Rock.......

We finally got our room. Capone joined us this time. Unfortunately he couldn't go anywhere in the hotel with us but at least he wasn't left out. Friday night was spent gambling and of course losing in poker. We rolled into bed around 4:00 AM and woke around 8:00 with a broken toilet. Needless to say we had 4 hours of sleep and some strange man snaking the toilet non stop for an hour while my head was pounding from the night before. Saturday was great hanging by the pool and swimming.
I tried taking a nap but was unsuccessful. Saturday night I shopped while Jesse played more poker. We did a lot of lounging in our robes. Jesse loved the mini bar but we brought our own things and made good use of the sink.Well we are now getting ready for Canada so it will be a few weeks until we post again. Until then everyone have fun!!

Saturday Pool Side..

We packed up and headed for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Saturday morning. When we arrived we received some bad news. The hotel had over booked for the weekend and we were unable to get the room that Lisa's mom had booked for us. That's was ok because we had a great day hanging by the pool. We swam, hung out and ate lunch pool side. I got a shot of Jesse coming off of the water slide. We brought extra clothes and changed before going to dinner. Lisa's mom ended up getting us a comp for dinner since they were unable to get the room.

We are happy to say that she did however, get us rooms for next weekend. The adventure will continue....