Victoria, British Columbia

Man, oh man! James and I just returned from our vacation to Victoria, BC and it was wonderful! It was our first vacation away from Case and we missed him, of course, but we had a great time together! I don't really even know where to begin there is so much to tell. I'm going to try and sum it all up, top ten style, followed by LOTS of photos!

The TOP 10 Most Fantastic Things about our Vacation to Victoria:

10. The Proposal was the in-flight movie on our flight to Vancouver! I knew then that it would be a great trip!
9. A guy on the ferry came up to James and just flat out asked him if he had any weed...what??
8. The awesome yoga pants I got at lululemon athletica!
7. The quietness of the hotel (all adults...for once, no loud teenagers and it was so relaxing)!
6. The weather was PERFECT! Sunny and upper 60's during the day and upper 50's at night!
5. The most awesome hike EVER along the coast in East Sooke!
4. The most delicious seafood I've ever tasted!
3. Seeing a spotted seal in the wild on our hike.
2. Whale watching...saw one humpback and many many killer whales!
1. Catching up with friends!

We flew in to Vancouver and then took an hour and a half ferry [thanks, Kendall :)] ride to Victoria on Vancouver Island. It amazed me how many buses, tracker-trailers, cars and people fit on the ferry. And on it there are stores for shopping, a cafeteria and a playground for the kiddos. It was pretty cool!

Walking through a park, we spotted this peacock. He was quite the domesticated bird. Look how close I got to him. There is no zooming in on my camera!!

Walking to the rocky beach through the canopy of greenery...

View of Parliament...

Pic taken on our East Sooke coastal hike. I got car sick on the way there, but made a full recovery and it was totally worth it. The views along the coast were amazing! So beautiful!

Here is our little friend that James spotted from way above the water on our hike. I have no idea how James saw him. I had to zoom in as far as my camera can to get this shot. This guy was fishing for his dinner. We watched him for a half hour.

And I stepped on this guy during our hike. It nearly caused me to pass out! I don't really care for snakes too much!

Us in front of The Fairmont Empress Hotel before dinner.

James and John (one of James' good friends from Pepperdine Law School). We hadn't seen him since our wedding over five years ago. He and his girlfriend, Courtney live in Victoria and we were there to visit them.

John and Courtney at the Bengal Lounge before dinner.

Suiting up for our whale watching adventure!

Although John and Courtney live there, they'd never been on a whale watching tour, so they decided to come with us. We had a great time!

This wasn't our boat, but we were on one just like it.

House boats...I can't imagine what it would be like to live in one of them...

Here was the first group of Killer whales we saw. Not a very good pic, but please notice the distance from the boat to those fins. We could practically reach out and touch them!! It was awesome!

Here we are a more proper distance away. The boats are supposed to stay at least 100 yards away from them...our first encounter was an accident!

It got a bit chilly when the boat was going full speed, so James had to bundle up!

We also saw hundreds of seals and sea lions and boy were they loud. You nearly had to put your hands over your ears!

View of The Empress from the boat coming back in to the harbor.

View of Parliament from the boat.

And that, my friends, concludes the tour. We hope to go back sometime soon...maybe for a wedding! :)