Chocolate Covered....

Child!! She loved the brownies I made with Ch. chip icing.

Day 5.

Day 5 was the only day on our whole trip that we were able to sleep in, at the B&B's breakfast is served early and we had a plane and a ferry to catch early in the morning the other 2 days, so we did. We headed down to breakfast at 9:30 and found some of our fellow ferry people also enjoying the restaurant. Oh I almost forgot. Most of the people we traveled with spoke English as a 2nd or 3rd or possibly even 4th language. It was very hard to talk to anyone. Several groups or couples had only 1 person who spoke English at all. And then not always very well!! There was a lot of languages being spoken all over the place. Papa and I didn't even know what a lot of them were. We heard Spanish, french, several different Chinese/Japanese, and maybe some Italian!! Some sounded the same to us but it didn't seem like the 2 groups could communicate to each other at all!! We were quite confused many times trying to figure out what language they were speaking. There was quite a lot of hand jesters being used when ordering and speaking. The hotel restaurant (quite well known all around for good food.) was over the water and we watched boats come in and go out as we ate. We also saw some sea planes take off. After a breakfast of fried potatoes, ham, bacon, toast and eggs we grabbed the camera and went for a walk down in Cow bay. I guess the story goes that the first dairy farmer in the area had to make his cows swim across to the island that is now Prince Rupert. They landed in what is now called Cow bay. Cow bay is a couple of streets of small shops and cafes and stuff like that. A lot of it is painted in the black and white of a dairy cow. While wandering though this area we picked up some gifts for Grandma and the little people we'd left with her. At one point we looked up and saw an eagle sitting and looking at us from the top of a 2 story building. Papa snatched his picture!! We looked into going on a whale watching tour but decided not too when we found out it would only be humpbacks. We really wanted to see Killer whales (also called orca's) but the season was over for them so far north. If we'd known that in Victoria I'm sure we would have done a tour there. Oh well something for next time. We walked to a nearby grocery store and bought a couple of bags of easily eatable food for the train ride the next day. We walked back to the hotel several hours after we'd left it with sore feet and arms and Papa's back hurt him so badly he called around and found a masseuse that was open and set up an appointment. While he was gone, it was a bit away and he had to walk there and back and had an hour long session, I dozed and watched some daytime TV which we never do because we don't have a TV. It was called The Last 10 Pounds and was a neat sort of way to think about losing weight. Though I have more then 10 lbs to lose. Papa got back limber and ready to go out again so we headed back to Cow bay to the little sushi place we'd seen there. When we got there we found out it was closed for the afternoon so we bought a few more little things and headed back to the hotel. We were almost back when we noticed a lot of people looking out into the harbour. So we looked too. A cruise ship was docking! A HUGE ship that held about 2,700 passengers, we found out later. It took them over 45 minutes to unload just the passengers that were getting off!! And they had 2 walkways to shore. Papa snapped more pictures. By this time I was getting woozy on my feet. It was after 3:30pm and we'd not eaten since 9:30!! The movie store was right by the motel and we did a quick peek and came out with 2. THEN we headed back to the hotel and some long awaited food!! We ate again looking out over the water. I had a fisherman's chowder and a penne pasta dish and Papa had oysters and some other kind of seafood. He ate seafood the whole time!! I did for most of it too. YUMM. After I started to feel alive again we had a nice romantic dinner! The rest of the night was spent relaxing in our room watching movies and getting ready for the next day and another early morning. A tug boat pulling a small crane.

A sea plane.

Humpback whale Statue at the waterfront.
The view from the room.

A neat long canoe that we later saw filled with kids and paddling across the bay.

The Eagle.

The hot tubs in the front of the cruise ship.

The Cruise ship.

Day 4

5am came all too soon and by 10 to 5 we were packed up and waiting out side for the school bus shuttle. We found out after we got on the shuttle that there was a $7 fee per person and we had to quickly find some cash. It was a short ride though and soon we were getting our passage and stateroom finalized on the ferry. We walked on the ferry and went right to the our state room. Both of us wanting to go take a good look around but not wanting to haul our 4 bags with us. So we dropped them off in the stateroom. (sorry it's the only room we stayed in that we didn't get a picture of. It was pretty much 2 twin beds with a bedside table in the middle. Over the table was a window where you could look out over the water and everyone else could look in!! And at the foot of the left bed there was small desk and then a closet and on the other side there was a bathroom with a shower. On the wall of the bathroom there was a TV hanging so you could see it from the twin bed. ) We joined most of the other walk-ons on the decks over looking the water and later the car passengers as well. Papa got a great picture of a eagle that was calling for it's mate. We watched the ferry pull out of the harbor and took a picture of our hotel and then the fog rolled in and I got a bit seasick and had to head back to the room to lay down so we headed back to the state room to catch up on some sleep!! We woke up at about 9 and went for a walk a bout, taking some pictures and exploring the ferry a bit more. It had 7 levels or stories. The top one was only for crew and the bottom 3 were for cars or storage or engines. But between decks 4, 5 and 6 there was 2 restaurants, a gift shop, a movie theater, several seating areas with pretty nice chairs facing out, a paid seating area and a ton of staterooms. There was also a very obvious amount of life jacket storage containers and life rafts and rescue boats. This being because this boat is only a 2 year old boat as the last ferry sank in the last two years. At supper later we overheard a waitress telling the table beside us where it sank and what had happened to it. It was a bit eye opening as both of us had forgotten that the ferry had sank. But we were safe and all was well. We had breakfast in the cafeteria type restaurant and sat by the window and looked out while we ate. After breakfast we headed back up to the back of the ferry and a deck there. Right when we got there there was a bit of excitement and Papa and I saw our 1st whale!! It was a humpback whale and it blew air out thru the water out in a large stream. VERY COOL!!! Over the day we saw about 15 humpbacks and Papa got several pictures of them. He even got ones tail as it hung out of the water!! We watched whales all thru lunch sitting and eating by the window. We sat in the cafeteria for a good chunk of the afternoon and watched and took picture of the whales and the scenery. It was beautiful. By mid afternoon we were out in open-ish water again and my poor tummy decided it needed another lay down. (I was mostly fine the whole trip because we were in between islands and land. Only the open ocean made me sick.) So we headed back to the state room and another nap. We probably missed some whales but at that point I no longer cared!! When we woke up Papa had a quick shower (He thought the shower was really cool as we were not expecting to have one and had to try it.) and we went for a walk around the ferry before supper. Now just a note here. There were 3 stories we walked every time we went anywhere and at one point while looking for Papa I searched them all 3 times. There is a elevator in the ferry but we did not use it ONCE!!! We did a LOT of stairs!! And what with all the walking we did in Victoria and Port Hardy we had a regular work out every time we did anything. We also walked all of Rupert but I'll get to that. We had supper in the 'posh' restaurant and wow was it good. It was all you could eat buffet style and very good. Papa had a beer with his meal but it was only so so. We saw several more whales while we ate. After we were done eating Papa had to run for something and I asked the waitress if he could get a tour of the engine rooms. She told me how to arrange it and so I did. About an hour after that, and another walk around all decks and more pictures, we were just getting ready to head for the movie (there was very little to see as it was just about dark) when the phone rang. They were ready for the tour. So Papa grabbed the camera and took himself and his grin to see the engine rooms. I grabbed my book and headed to the movie. I was a bit early so I read while I waited. I laugh even thinking about the movie. Not our normal type of movie and very corny. Sorry I don't remember what it was. But BOY was it FUNNY!! I laughed and laughed. Papa came in after his tour and sat for a minute then got up and left!! But I watched the whole thing and still chuckle when I think of it. Papa went for another walk a bout but didn't take any pictures because it was dark. When the movie was done we hurried back to our stateroom and I packed up so that we'd be ready when we got to Prince Rupert. Then we headed to the top deck to watch the ferry go in. We saw the new container dock there close to Rupert and watched them loading and unloading a HUGE ship with 3 different winches putting these big truck length containers on or off the ferry. 2 Unloading and 1 loading. And then suddenly we were in Rupert and the captain parked that big boat just like we parallel park cars in to the dock using his side jets and we had landed in Rupert. 15 hours on that ferry in all and 15 whales. After walking off the ferry we had to wait for a train to go by (the same place we were to load up on the train the next day but we didn't know it.) and we jumped in a cab for the 5 minute drive to our hotel and a good nights sleep!! There were able 75 walk ons on the ferry. Only a few of these seemed to be locals most were tourists. The hotel in Port Hardy.

Sunrise.


Fog coming in.



The tail of a humpback whale!! One of the 15 we saw.

A pretty place.

The prettiest lighthouse we saw.

A sepia picture Papa took.

A fishing boat. There is a man on the boat taking a picture of the ferry!!

Snow covered mountains on the mainland. We flew over these mountains on the way down.

A cirque. We saw a few.

A pretty picture of a boat around sunset.

The container dock at Rupert. A better picture.

What they called the most picturesque lighthouse on the trip.

Dinner on the Ferry.

The Engine Room. The big silver things are the engines. The are 9 headed.

The container dock at Rupert. Too blurry I know but I can't seem to get it off. Sorry.

Bread.

I've started to put oatmeal in my bread recipe and we love the extra goodness that it brings to the loaf!! The recipe before was

2 cups warm water
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp yeast
4 tbsp lard or butter
2 tsp salt.

Then let it proof and add

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups white flour.

Then I let my bread maker mix it up and rise it before taking it out to form into balls or bread and rise again before baking it at 350 F for 15 minutes for buns or 30 minutes for bread. The original recipe had a egg in it but I found the bread molded really fast and it was a lot softer faster. Mushy in about 24 hours.

Now I'm doing the same thing at first then adding 1 cup of oatmeal to the water ( softens it up so it blends better) and only adding 1 cup of white flour and 4 of whole wheat. We love it and it's much more filling and I'm not having to make bread or buns quite so often. The bread is WAY better this way as it makes a more compact loaf and doesn't fall apart so easily.

Swiming with Kids.

We took the kids swimming in the "City" the other day and we had a blast. The best time yet swimming with the kids. They have a water slide at the pool and Papa took the boys down a few times and before I knew it both boys were going down completely by themselves!! Way to go boys!! They both had life jackets on which was good because the water is quite over both their heads. Papa would go first with E and wait for the boys at the bottom. Boy did I ever wish I had my camera. E and Papa have the same grin and it's so great to see them having so much fun. L would come SHOOTING down next BEAMING and after he bobbed up Papa would give him a little push to the right side of the pool. We found out that L can swim but only on his back doing a back stroke... it's very hard to do at the bottom the water slide. Then J would come FLYING down and go completely under water before coming up and dogie paddling to the edge of the pool. They were both so excited!! The lifeguard even told J "And you didn't want to go by yourself!!" because I guess Papa had to talk pretty hard to get him to try it. As soon as J did it so did L. Then I'd take R down which she loved!! I don't think she'd ever gone before (they all had life jackets on) and she loved it. She didn't stiffen up once. The 3rd time she giggled and yelled at the bottom. Other times we've gone Papa and I take turns taking one child at a time down the slide while the other adult watches the other three. The pool will not allow more then one child at a time with a adult down the slide even though Papa did it several times and it was great. This way we can all go and it's a LOT more fun. Then E, R and I headed to the kiddie pool to watch the boys. Papa took J and L to the DIVING board. While we were swimming with A&M and kids awhile ago L got a chance to jump off a diving board into my arms. It was really shallow water and he loved it. J did not. At the pool Papa jumped off first and then both the boys jumped off the board into the water in front of him. It helped that there was a little boy smaller then L that was also jumping off to his Papa. L LOVED this and just grinned like crazy. J not so much. I told J he had to try it three times and if he still didn't like it he could stop. He didn't like it and quite. L I think could have kept going except there was a boat in the kiddie pool he really wanted to play with. The third time they jumped off L got up on the board before Papa could so Papa just told him to jump. L walked out to the edge. Looks down. Bounces. Stops. Looks at Papa. Papa leans over to talk to him. L shakes his head. Papa laughed and jumped in the water. Then and only then would L jump off. So much trust!!

Day 3!!

Well day 3 saw us leaving our B&B and heading North again in the rental car. We had to be in Port Hardy by 1 ish and we made it. Barely. The drive was about 4 hours and it rained almost the whole time. On and off. We stopped at one town to buy more batteries for the camera and spent almost a hour looking for a fuel station and buying batteries. The town was amazingly short on fuel stations. Port Hardy was worse. They only had 1 that we could find. Oh and the price of fuel jumped 12 cents between the 2 towns. (about 2 hours apart!!) There was quite a bit of traffic on the road mostly truckers and RVs pulling boats. Papa passed LOTS of them and managed to get out in front and then it was clear sailing all the way to Port Hardy. When we got to Port Hardy we checked into our hotel (honeymoon suite!!) and topped off the car before bringing it back. The car rental guy was the friendliest guy we meet on our entire trip. He chatted about everything. Telling us a lot about Port Hardy and what to do and where to eat. He suggested we take a trail down to the river and watch the bears come out to eat the salmon that were getting ready to go up river. Papa and I thought about it for a bit but ultimately decided NOT to. In a car... yes. On foot 20 minutes walk from the nearest town?? No thanks. We've seen lots of bears and didn't feel like being prey. Though it would have been fun in a car. Instead we found a local diner and had lunch and walked along the few streets that had little stores on them. But it really was a foul dock area. Smelly and growing and gross and we didn't spend too much time there. Of all the docks we saw this was the worst. The people were not super friendly and there was very little to do. Thankfully we only had the afternoon and evening to spend there. So we headed back to the hotel and watched the wharf from the balcony and took pictures of the boats where we didn't have to smell gross rotting fish. On the other side of the bay from us was a cannery and a log yard. The cannery had fishing boats unloading (though we couldn't see much.) but the log yard was COOL. They had these little tough boats that blew BLACK smoke (which is how we noticed them.. you could barely see them in the logs) and they worked as skidders and moved the logs here and there. Then a self loader loaded his truck with these logs that the skidder boats brought him. It was neat to watch them move the logs around in the water. The salmon were congregating in the harbor and doing a lot of jumping. We could hear them every few seconds..Plop. Plop. It was cool. Even when it got dark we could still hear them. They will go up the rivers soon. The room had a big tub and we had a nice soak to get the smell off us. Watched TV for a bit (They had a VCR but no place to rent movies?? Weird town.) and went to bed early so we could be ready for our Ferry shuttle at 5 am!!! The room at the hotel.

A salmon jumping.

The little skidder boats.

A Port Hardy sign.

The wooden carrot. If you can, read the sign. Kinda neat.

A huge sail boat that came into Port Hardy while we were there. The man working on the boat below thought that the sailboats mast was at least 110 feet tall!!

A character boat in dry dock.

On the road to Port Hardy.

At Port Hardy... See the guy running to get into his picture!

A rain speckled view of a mountain on the way to Port Hardy.

We saw this view a lot during the 1st few hours of our drive.

Some cute signs at our B&B.

Our B&B.

Day 2.

The next morning we ate chocolate crepes at the Bed and Breakfast with about 20 other guests and visited with our table mates from Dallas Texas who though we were amazing to have 4 small children and on our 10 anniversary trip. They also thought it was funny the way Papa and I shared our fruit cups. Papa doesn't like pineapple or kiwi so he gave all of his to me and then after eating all his and most of mine I handed over the rest of my fruit cup for him to finish. After breakfast we left the B&B and headed back down town to take some pictures and have some lunch at the Swans. Papa found the Swans on the Internet before we went and they have micro brews so he had to go!! They also have great food and a beautiful deck to eat it on. Papa got a 6 sampler of beer and loved them all. I had one of their root beer and it was wonderful too. After lunch we headed out to Butchart Gardens over 55 acres of flower gardens. We took a LOT of pictures and (sorry Mom) decided we would pass ever going with Grandma Griggs. LOL. Seriously we walked through it in about 3 hours and Grandma Griggs, we are sure, could spend DAYS there. We would have liked to see it at night too but we had to get a move on. Don't worry Grandma we are planning on putting the pictures on CD and sending them to you!! The Gardens are wonderful. Awesome even. What is also fabulous about them is that part of it (the sunken garden) is in an old pit. There used to be a cement factory there and they completely obliterated any signs of the factory. Oh actually there is one left. There is an old tower standing behind the sunken gardens but other then that. Nothing.
After leaving the gardens Papa and I headed out North up the island to find a place to stop for the night. We had to get to Port Hardy by 1pm the next day or they would charge us for an extra day on the rental car. We had a booklet of B&B's and we drove to one in Nanaimo and they had a room so we left our stuff there and headed out for a night on the town. We went out for supper, we went to a brew pub and Papa had a few samplers. After supper we headed to a movie and then to bed. What a great day. The movie was "The Time Travelers Wife" and it's very good. We both enjoyed it. If you liked "The Lake House" you'll love this one!!

I really like Tugs. Here is another one.

Where we had lunch.

A house I loved!! They were working on it but boy was it nice!!

The Bed & Breakfast. It was build in 1912. I think. :)

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