Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Old Man and the Sea(food)


We spent the past few days in Victoria on Vancouver Island. Mike had his annual Guide Outfitters convention. I was also my Dad's 60th birthday on Friday, so we convinced Mom and Dad to come over to spend it with us in Victoria. I'm sure glad we did. It was nice having Mom and Dad there to do touristy things with while Mike was in meetings all day. I got there two days before Mom and Dad did, so I was able to get my shopping fix taken care of without having to drag them around the mall oohing and aahing over everything I saw. When you live in the frozen north, far far from anything that resembles a mall, you kind of get overwhelmed when you are actually in one. SO! I bought, shirts! and Shoes! and Purses! and clothes for the kids. It was alot of fun. I even took the CITY BUS!!!! Okay, It may not seem like such a big deal to most people, but when you come from a town that has 3 stoplights it was kind of exciting.

We got to eat fancy dinners and wear fancy clothes and drink fancy drinks (okay, so now you know that one is not true - you can't get very fancy with beer, BUT I did drink it out of a glass - so I guess it was kind of fancy) and we got to sleep in a hotel and our room was on the 15th floor so we had a view and everything. We were living the high life!

Mom and Dad flew down on Thursday night so we were only able to see them for a short time in the evening when we went out for dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. I love that restaurant. You get lots of food and it is really good. Dad's birthday was Friday and Mike was in meetings most of the day. Mom and Dad and I walked around the harbour and went to Madame Trusaud's Wax Museum which was pretty neat. We also took in a restored castle (which was awesome!) We rode the CITY BUS!! to that too. This one was a double decker and Dad decided he would probably not get another chance (because he is 60 after all) so he headed on up to the top deck. And then like the yokels we are, Mom and I had to yell up to him when it was our stop. But the castle was so cool. It is called Craigdarroch Castle and was originally a private residence. The owner, who in 1908 had $20,000,000, had it built. That's ALOT of money in that day and age. Then we wandered around the city and found a Gelato Store that had 66 Flavours of Ice Cream. You heard me - Sixty-freaking-six! We were in awe. We even had to phone Mike on the cell and make him come find us because we couldn't believe our eyes!

Funny story, while we sitting on the sidewalk cafe eating our icecream I was showing Mom some pictures on my digital camera. She was looking at them and then handed me the camera back saying that she just got to a picutre of some guys in suits. It turned out the men in suits was a picture from the wax museum. She thought it was a picture from Mike's convention when in fact it was Jean Cretian, JFK, Nixon and Deifenbaker. Oh man, did we bust a gut!

THEN! we went for some seafood for Dad's birthday dinner. Now when I say seafood I mean, sea!food! We had platters with lobster, Alskan king crab legs, halibut, lobster stuffed mushroom caps and prawns! I even took a picture because it was so unbeleivable delicious. No, we don't get out all that much.

On Saturday Mom and Dad and I toured the Royal BC Museum, which is a pretty cool place. They cover everything from dinosaurs and animal displays to pioneer times. After that we sadly said good bye. Mike and I had to go to his banquet and we were flying out early the next morning. Mom and Dad went and ate some MORE seafood (do you get the title now?) and Mike and I had another fancy dinner and I even got to wear heels! We had to get up at 3:30 the next morning to catch our flight home so we had a very ealy night.

I hope Dad doesn't get alzheimer's too soon so he won't forget his awesome birthday for awhile!

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