Canada, eh

We went to British Columbia for our wonderful honeymoon...specifically Vancouver Island (home of Victoria). It was so fantastic. To start off our trip, we were sitting in the airport and this kid just starts dancing...it was hilarious! We had to capture it on video...



It was like he was practicing some sort of routine or something. Anyway, it was really funny. We got to our hotel in Brentwood Bay, BC (about 20 minutes from Victoria.) It was gorgeous. We had a beautiful view of the bay and it was so quiet and peaceful up there. Just look at the view from our room!

We even saw a raccoon one day in that tree out there. I loved how green and clean and serene everything was there.

We went to the famous Butchart Gardens. It was amazing! I especially loved the Rose Garden.

They had everything lit up at nighttime and it looked really neat. Here we are overlooking the Sunken Garden. Very cool.

We also went to the Victoria Butterfly Gardens, which are practically next door to the Butchart Gardens. My favorite part was they had a plumeria tree! I love plumeria flowers!

And we figured out the best way to get close to the butterflies. By holding a flower. They were just flying around everywhere, but they would land on a flower sometimes. It was pretty neat to be that close to a butterfly.

We went into the town of Victoria a couple of times. It is so charming! I loved seeing it all lit up at night. The little port with all the boats, the big Empress Hotel, the Parliament Building, and all the lights reflecting on the water was just so beautiful.

And there were bagpipers and dancers. And some funny street performers. And there were these gorgeous hanging flower baskets everywhere. Super cute.

They had little boat ports all over the whole island. It was so great!

It was fairly chilly most of the time we were there. I wore the two jackets I brought with me pretty much the whole trip. Matt even bought another jacket to keep warm.

We ate like kings. They seriously had the best food. We even went to a local market and got some fresh raspberries and blueberries, which were incredibly good. We had them for breakfast in the mornings. Mmmm....

We also found another breakfast treat (and treat for any other time of the day, for that matter)...Tim Horton's. It is a donut shop. It was very dangerous. We went there like 4 times. But it was SOOOO good. Probably some of the best donuts I've had in my life.

We went to this adorable little restaurant that was right on the bay. And I mean right on the bay. The restaurant itself was the dock. Complete with little posts holding the restaurant up out of the water. We had to go there because it was called the Blue Bayou Cafe, and that is the name of the restaurant we went to at Disneyland when we got engaged. So we had to for sentimental value. But it didn't hurt that it was delicious!

We had to get fish & chips one day. (OK, I had to get fish & chips one day since Matt doesn't like fish.) So we tried the Fish on 5th. And boy was it ever tasty. There's nothing like eating fresh seafood right by the water. I love it!

Matt decided that he needed to try lobster. He thought it was OK, but the steak was much better. And the Nanaimo Bars. After eating so much, we skipped to plenty of these....

It was so fun hearing the Canadian accent. My favorite was in church when the speaker was talking about "spouses". It sounded like he said "spose". It was funny. So then we kept calling each other "my spose".

We went on a lovely hike one of the days. There was a sign that said to prepare for a vigorous hike. We started along the trail and it was completely flat! We were scoffing at the sign when about a mile later we came to the vigorous part. And boy was it ever! It turned out to be a very steep path. But very cool nonetheless. It led down to the beach and back up through the forest. It was gorgeous!

We also went on a whale watching boat. It was FREEZING! We had to wear these big ski suit things to keep warm. But we were still cold. And we did not see any whales. It was quite disappointing. And it was raining, so the raindrops felt like little pins poking us in the face. But, we did get to cruise around the islands and see some porpoises, seals, and bald eagles. So it was still fun.

We did have a couple of really nice days when we first got there. So we took advantage of the really great weather and rented some bikes and rode around the island. It was so fun! We ended up riding for like 4 1/2 hours...and probably about 30 or so miles. We rode along the beach, up through the forests, into some really neat old neighborhoods with cool houses, and by an old English part of town. I even tackled some pretty good hills and felt very proud of myself. We only got lost a little, but Matt was very excited to use his new GPS to find our way.

We went sea kayaking one day, and it was so cool! We saw more stuff kayaking than we did on the whale watch. Here's me by some seals we found. There was even a little baby one that was so cute! One of them was very curious and was following Matt around...his nose right up against the back of Matt's kayak. So cute! We also saw tons of huge starfish and crabs. We have decided that kayaking is another thing we'd like to take up. Fun stuff!

Anyway, it was just a great, great trip. So beautiful and relaxing. Ahhh.