the Island ... part 2

June 29 ... Tuesday ... after a fantastic 2 hour ferry ride to Nanaimo, a tour of Spruston Road Bible camp, a wet (& memorable) hike to the swim hole, and a stop at 7-11 for a much needed Slurpee (a tradition of the Rogers family while growing up), we drove on to our final destination of our excursion and said ...
hellooooo, Victoria!

Victoria is the capitol of British Columbia ... and getting to visit was well worth the price of the trip!  I'm sooooo glad we were able to spend some time in Victoria and do the fun things we were able to do ... there is so much more to do & see, we'll have to go back for another visit!

We arrived at our beautiful, historic (I'd also say ... fancy-pants!) hotel ... The Empress ... and it truly a beautiful building inside & out!  Ashley's sister, Amber, works for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts (which owns The Empress) and she hooked us up with an amazing deal on the rooms ... otherwise, we'd not have been staying at The Empress in a room that normally costs $350 per night!  (Just a fun little fact about The Empress ... when the Queen of England comes to Victoria, this is the hotel where she stays ... it is also where she is served afternoon tea.  You can also enjoy afternoon tea at The Empress for $55 a person ... which we did not partake in, but Huni made us promise to ask how much it was now ... many years ago, Huni had afternoon tea at The Empress, when it was $6.95.  There were pictures hanging around the hotel of many famous & political figures throughout history that have stayed there & enjoyed tea there.  At least we can say, we stayed there ... ha!)  We got all checked in and got settled into our fabulous room ...

our awesome hotel for the night ... The Empress!

our fabulous room which was bigger than we were expecting

our "Empress Baby" (eating a Mum Mum) with her crib &
Empress Baby monogrammed sheet

... and don't worry, Kendall made herself right at home at The Empress! She kept herself quite busy exploring our room & checking everything out, by whatever transportation means necessary ... crawling, cruising & walking (3-5 steps each time) ... (and some Little Miss obviously found her hair-rubberband & pulled that out ... so her hair is, once again, a crazy mess!)

We all met up for dinner ... and enjoyed walking a few blocks to restaurant & seeing a little bit of Victoria ... we ate at The Noodle Box ... and it was yum-o!  (Amber & Tobias had lived in Victoria previously while they worked at The Empress, so we relied on her Victoria-expertise of showing us all around!)  Everyone else decided they should take their food back to their hotel rooms as a couple of the kids were melting down  ... we decided to stay there, as it's really easier for for us at the stage Kendall is in for her to be in a highchair and eat ... she does really good hanging out in a restaurant (which I hear from many friends that it will not last for many more months, so we are enjoying it while we can!) ...

Daddy with his Noodle Box

our sweet girl at dinner in the inner-harbor of Victoria

Mommy with her Noodle Box

After dinner, we hit the (indoor) swimming pool ... the kids had been talking about getting to go swimming for the last 2 days ... and they had so much fun!  Ashley & Brandon played games with the Hannah & Sadie in the bigger pool while the rest of us sat in the (warm water) baby area with the younger kids.

Kendall swimming at The Empress!

After swimming, it was bedtime for everyone ... for we had big plans for the next day in Victoria! (While on a hunt for a Dr. Pepper, Ashley took some pictures that night of the city ... he wasn't able to find a Dr. Pepper, but he did get some great shots!)

The Empress all lit-up that night

the Parliament building (the Capitol building) & the marina

some of the boats at the marina

June 30 ... Wednesday ... Since everyone got to bed so late, we all slept in a bit ... and then we were off to see Victoria! We had originally planned on visiting Bushart Gardens, but didn't feel like we had enough time (to get our moneys worth out of it for $30 a ticket), so we walked around "the inner-harbor" and got to see the heart of Victoria, instead!  (The next day was July 1st ... Canada Day ... which is Canada's Independence Day, so we had been told we needed to catch an early ferry (which was 45 minutes away), since we were driving on ... more on that later, but we are really happy that we listened & cut our touring of Victoria a little earlier than we'd originally planned!)

us in front of the beautiful & historic The Empress

Brandon & Mary and girls

Amber & her boys

"Welcome to Victoria" written out in red flowers in
a garden in the inner-harbor (the Parliament building
is across the street behind it).

huge beautiful hanging baskets of flowers lined the streets ...
I can't imagine how many gardeners they must employ to
keep everything looking so beautiful!

 

Daddy & Kendall in the marina in the inner-harbor

the Parliament building

 

me & Hannah, Daddy & Kendall with our newest friend ...
a black bear Mounty!

For lunch, we picked up food at Sam's Deli (a very popular spot to visit & super delicious) and ate on the front lawn of the Parliament building. There are lots of people who hang out, nap, eat lunch on the lawn ... supposedly, it's the softest grass ... and well I don't know if it is truly the softest grass, it was very soft and made for a great place to have our picnic lunch in Victoria! The kids also enjoyed the fountain and running around ... and watching the horse-drawn carriages ...

all the kids (& Brandon) checking out the Parliament's fountain

 

Jude

Kylie

Hannah & Gabe

in front of the Parliament building ...
Ash, Kendall & me with Hannah & Sadie
(the girls wanted to get in our picture, too)

After lunch, Amber took her boys to meet an old friend of her's, so we decided we'd check out the horse-drawn carriages we kept seeing ... and possibly get a little ride. We found out we could all go in 1 carriage & the girls were so excited about it (and both Mary & I have always wanted to ride in a carriage, but never have) ... so, we all did it!

on our horse-drawn carriage ride ... it was the 1st time
any of us had ever experienced a carriage ride ... it was
really fun ... the girls LOVED it & so did Kendall ...
so much so, the trotting rhythm put her to sleep!

Hannah, Sadie & I next to our horse ... Moonlight. 
After our ride, the carriage driver let us pet Moonlight &
showed the girls her horseshoes (which they asked to see) ...
they had never been that close to a horse before!

Daddy & Kendall (asleep) with Moonlight

After our carriage ride, we had to leave Victoria to catch the ferry back to the mainland.  We had a blast & the girls (and us, as well) did not want to have to leave, we were having such a fun day!  We drove 45 minutes to the ferry ... just barely made it in time to drive on & board ... and 1.5 hours later we arrived back in Vancouver.  We had a great 2 days and we definitely want to go back to visit Victoria again!