Day 1.

Well we hopped on the plane and enjoyed the view from above for the trip. We saw rivers and lakes, mountain and houses. We even saw some smoke from fires. Then all of a sudden there was only water below us and we were dropping dropping and Oh look land and then we were down on the ground rolling along the run way!! What a rush!! We grabbed our bags and headed out to find a bus or something to take us across to the Island and to our rental car. An hour later we were on board a bus and heading for the 1st ferry ride of the trip. We got off the bus on the ferry and spent the next 90 minutes taking pictures and gawking at the scenery. 15 minutes before we docked we ran back to the bus and hopped back on to finish out the trip to Victoria and the rental car. It was only a block from the bus to the rental and 15 minutes later we were on the road exploring Victoria. We had a great day. A seafood lunch on the pier, walking downtown, we stopped and watched a street performer and Papa walked right by another performer covered in white stuff holding so still like a statue and didn't even know it wasn't a statue until I told him later!! We toured the Parliament building, and bought coffee, chocolates and ice cream. We went for a drive along the coast and saw some incredible houses and some neat trees before going and settling in to a B&B for the night. That night we ate a wonderful seafood dinner and totally enjoyed ourselves. Oh and we took pictures. Though we didn't have the camera the whole time so we have no pictures of the inside of the Parliament building or the beautiful stained glass windows. The Parliament Buildings at night.

A piece of farmland on the way. This was pretty much the only piece we saw from the ferry. Papa fell in love with it.

The rest of the piece from above.

Papa and I on the Ferry.

A beautiful place.

A Ferry like the one we were on.

A lighthouse.

A Tug Boat in the Harbor

A Wonderful Thing!!

Papa and I have been married 10 years this fall and we planned a special trip for our 2nd honeymoon/10 year anniversary trip. We knew what we wanted to do but had a really hard time finding a WHEN!! Our anniversary is on Sept 6th which is usually close to a long weekend so we were wanting to go then but we couldn't find a babysitter for that weekend. No one could do it. So we felt God was saying WAIT! So we messed around for a bit thinking and finally came up with a week that would work for our babysitter (my mom) and Papa's work and us!!! When it came all together it was incredibly fast. We got our tickets a mere week before we left. Thankfully we got a travel agent to get them and they did a great job!! So we left our kids with Grandma and Grandpa went home to have a good nights sleep before getting up at 4am so we could drive an hour into the 'city' so we could hop on a airplane and began our 6 day trip!! Here I am with some huge flowers at Butchart Gardens in Victoria.

Here we are on day 2 after our haircuts. Papa's gift to me was his bare upper lip!!

The Easy Way....

Papa borrowed this bobcat to move cow manure from our wintering area to the front so we can mix it with peat moss for the raised beds. This was the 1st attempt. He is going to try it again with the forks of the bobcat and hopefully be able to get it out. The area he's cleaning out is about 24 feet by 12 feet and is under a roof. Here he is in the taking dirt out!! A bit tricky as the bucket won't dig deep and the bobcat doesn't have a lot of traction.

Dumping it in the truck bed trailer instead of hauling it across half the property every bucket full.

Pulling the trailer to the dumping area. Tricky work but Papa's got it down pat!!

Dumping.. Oh wait trying to dump. It refuses to fall out. He had it completely upright!! The next load he tipped it over from the side which he said worked better as it all fell out.

And the Hard Way. Papa had to pitchfork the last half out as it would not come out!! I told him I was taking pictures for proof that he can shovel shit with the best of them!! LOL.

This is the 3rd old one that needed pictures. And actually this project is NOT finished. We only got a few loads done and then it rained. This will be our project for this weekend. Got to get that area ready for winter. Have a wonderful day all!!