I am BACK!

I survived our little min-vacation to Vancouver Island.

The weather was nice and nothing disastrous occurred.

Granddad is looking his age.  He has lost a lot of weight and his heart is not doing so good.  But it was nice to see him.

Their home in Sidney is lovely and in a lovely neighbourhood.  But there are too many stairs for them and a HUGE yard to maintain.  I still do not know what they were thinking.  Specially when down the street there are scads of Senior residences and all closer to the main drag.

The best thing is they have public access to a little beach just down the road.  Needless to say the kids were happy.

Going on any sort of trip with kids is fun.  Seeing things through their eyes always makes things fun.  Even staying in a hotel was this MASSIVE novelty.  Caity was boggled. 

Victoria was quiet.  It was sad to see how many stores in TOURIST CENTRAL were closed up.  Not a good thing.  We got a great rate on our room.  About half of what is usually is.

Yesterday was for the kids.   We went to Miniature World.  Caity freaked at first since the first exhibit is in darkness with black light, but she recovered and was loving it.  For Adam is was like a Night At The Museum with all the little dioramas.  He LOVED it.

After that we wandered along the Inner Harbour

And went to check out the Undersea Gardens.

This was a HUGE hit with Adam.  It is basically a big boat in the harbour with protected tanks surrounding it.  You go down stairs under the water and can check out the local flora and fauna.   They have a little show with a scuba diver showing off the wonders of the deep, including the local Octopus.   Again, Adam’s head was going to explode.

After that we headed over to Beacon Hill Park….which is lovely.

And then after that headed back towards the ferry terminal with a side stop at this Island View Beach.

The kids were overwhelmed.