jody

So I've been back from vacation part deux for a few days now, so I should probably update my journal. You know, since stuff actually happened over the last few weeks.
Note: SurlyMike has dubbed my boy Lord Huffington, so I will now refer to him in that manner.
We couldn't take an extended time away from the store so we split our vacation into two portions separated by a week back at work.

Trip 1: Lord Huffington and I decided that we should take our dog (Indy) on the first trip. Ok, mostly I decided because I didn't want to kennel him for very long. Anywho, we headed out towards Vancouver, not really knowing what where we were going, but with camping gear in tow. We didn't get away until after we got the new comics for the week, so we didn't get a very early start on the first day. We made it to a campground in Kamloops, having made a brief stop in Banff to get some yummy treats.
The next day we headed to Vancouver (mostly to hit Fluevog and Golden Age comics on Granville). We dropped Indy off at puppy dyacare and walked around downtown for a bit. Lord Huffington and I both got a new pair of shoes from Fluevog.



Then we sped over to Tsawassen and just managed to catch the 6pm ferry over to Vancouver island. Lord Huffington lost his hat when we were walking around on the outside deck. There was no wind until we rounded a corner, then woosh. Off goes the hat, catching briefly on the railing (to give us false hope), and then tumbling into the ocean. It was my favorite hat. Oh well.

We found an awesome restaurant, called Wild Saffron, in Victoria that night. I highly recommend it if you're in the area. That night we camped by Victoria. The ranger told us that there was a cougar with cubs in the area and to keep our dog on a very short lease to avoid him being kitty lunch. We heard all sorts of crazy animal sounds outside the tent that night. I was super freaked out. We used the car key fob to beep the horn, but we could still hear rustling right next to the tent. If it was the cougar, I'm sure the lights and noise would have scared it away, but I wish I knew what it was. Eventually it went away. Lord Huffington was already asleep, of course. I was up for a while hearing lots of strange noises.

The spent the next few days checking out some of the area beaches. Indy loved the ocean. He was a bit confused by the salt water at first. He tried to drink some, made a funny face, moved a few feet away, and then tried drinking the water again. We threw a stick into the water for him about a million times. He was wary of the waves so he would try to time it so when he ran out he could jump the wave coming in. So cute! We stayed in a small cabin at Gordon's Beach B&B. It was on a hobby farm that had a large house with a few suites and a completely separate cabin (that we stayed in). It was so awesome! The cabin was super cosy and pet friendly.

We went to Sooke Harbour House Restaurant on the Saturday night. It is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Canada. My rating: Meh.
First off, we had to wait 20 minutes for our table (we had made reservations over a week in advance). Then, we were ignored for another 15 minutes or so. I mean, we didn't even get water. Then when our server showed up, she wasn't apologetic at all. She just asked us, rather brusquely, if we were having fizzy or regular water. It didn't get much better. On Saturdays the restaurant has set 4 course menus (meat, seafood, or vegetarian). Lord Huffington ordered the seafood and I ordered the vegetarian. He thought his was okay, although not worth the price. Mine was not great. Let's just say, I was still hungry after having all the food and the dessert course. I won't bore you with all the details, but for $205 for the two of us (one drink each) I was unimpressed.

We also went to Butchart Gardens. It was pretty cool. Also, dogs were allowed as long as you kept them on a short leash so Indy got to come with us. I have a few pictures, but not digital. I might scan some in sometime, but I might not.

Then we headed home. I convinced Lord Huffington that we should just press on until home so we caught the ferry at 2pm and arrived home at 3:30am. We made a few stops. We stopped at bridal falls for about 30 minutes and we also stopped for ice cream. yum.

Trip 2: 5800 kilometres round trip. Holy crap.
We didn't really have a plan for this trip. All we knew is that we would stop in Seattle to see SurlyMike. So we headed south and then west and made it to Moses Lake the first day. We camped that night. So freaking hot! The next day we headed to Seattle and Lord H. got a speeding ticket right before we got there. Oops.
We checked out Pike Place, Fluevog (yes, I'm an addict) and then we went to Green Lake so I could run. The park was really nice. I only ran 4 miles and then we sped off to meet SurlyMike at an awesome vegan restaurant. It was great meeting him. Now I'm demanding that he comes to Calgary so we can go to a hockey game together. Or maybe I'll have to come visit him again. We put in a few more hours driving that night because we had come up with a plan. We were going to Disneyland.

The next day we drove from a bit north of Portland to Anaheim. Yep, 15 hours of driving with feeble air conditioning and a heat wave. Then we had trouble finding a hotel because there was a big sports convention in Anaheim. The next day we headed to Disneyland! Yay! A bit of a recap:
Splash Mountain x5
Space Mountain x2
Grizzly River Run x3
California Screamin x2 (I would have done this 10x but Lord H. doesn't like roller coasters)
and many more.
We spent two days in Anaheim. Before we left we bought this at the Lego store


Yes. 3104 pieces of Imperial Star Destroyer. We're starting it tonight. Holy crap, we just opened it up and the instructions are in a giant spiral bound book! Awesome.

Then, we drove to Vegas! We stayed overnight at the Venetian. We looked at some stores and played the Star Wars slot machines. Lord H. ended up -$170 and I was +$270. The force is strong with me.
After spending about 30 hours in Vegas we headed home.


Ok, I can't say much more because it's lego time! To sum everything up; A good time was had by all.