There and Back Again

Well, we're all back from the Vancouver trip. I had a blast, and pretty soon I'm going to be gone again. I have some camping trip to go this upcoming weekend, and on July 29th I leave for Brunei and come back August 23rd. It was fun hanging out with everyone and the things we saw and did.

We left on the 25th of June and came back July 3rd.

Saturday

We left Edmonton at about 4 am. For the most part, it was pretty much a straight drive except for gas breaks. We did have a quick lunch break though, but there was a concerted effort to limit stops. In total the drive there was about 12-13 hours. I was crammed into the back with Kevin and Megan. Actually, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Pretty much the ways to kill time was to sleep, listen to music, or use Megan's portable DVD player. There isn't much to tell since nothing crazy happened on the drive there.

At about 5-6 pm B.C. time we found the place we were staying. There was an arrangement where my cousins would take the 7 of us into their home. They lived in Coquitlam which was a bit far away from the places we would see, but that was the only negative. There have a pretty big home housing my Aunt and my cousins Tess (who is our age) and Vince (who is 24). Tess was always the cousin I would hang out with during family gatherings since we were close in age. I didn't see Vince much during the trip, although that was kinda expected. But anyways, we arrived at the house where my aunt greeted us. She helps us settle in a bit and jokes that I'm useless in helping navigate us around in Vancouver. Since this is the end of a long drive, we're all hungry but can't decide on where to eat. We wait for Tess to come home from work and she also ends up joking that I'm useless in navigating Vancouver. Thanks guys. Anyways, we eat at Red Robins and after that, the day is over.

Sunday

So the plan was to stay in Victoria after arriving in Vancouver. To get to Victoria with our rented van, we were going to take a ferry. Everybody woke up and got out the door relatively on time, but we just missed catching the 9 am ferry. We wandered the shopping area that was close by and took pictures near the coast. Soon we heard a big loud voice telling us to get our butts back into ours cars to drive onto the ferry. At the same time they started unloading the ferry that had currently docked. The cars unloaded and drove down the road we had crossed to take the pictures. At first everyone was all excited about the ferry and we stood outside for a while, but then it started getting cold and windy. The ride was about an hour and a half before we reached Victoria island. After checking into the hotel we went shopping. For the most part it was just wandering around. It pretty much would come to splitting up, with the groups being the two couples on their own and Me, Dev, and Ant just wandering around.

Our next meal would be at a place called "Barb's..." well I don't remember anything else about its name. But it had very good fish (halibut) and chips. Good enough to come back the next day. What was very cool was that were floating houses right next to the place! I wish I had a camera so I could show pictures, but alas, I don't.

Next was Butchart Gardens. Although there were only about 2-3 hours left before it closed and there was some light rain, it was probably the best time to go. I thought the light rain added a really nice atmosphere to the place and with us getting there so late, there was no one else there. I really enjoyed the place there and this was also a place of some stupid fun. First off, we picked up umbrellas and for the most part, we used them as swords to fight. The funny thing was that Kev saw some wheelchairs for use, so he decided to grab one. About 30 minutes into the garden, the genius decides he is sick of the wheelchair ,and we ditch it somewhere. Later on when we go back we find that someone already took it back. The funniest part is at the end when Dev, Tom, and Ant decide to have a quick wheelchair race in the parking lot. Somehow, Ant goes veering off to who knows where, and some guy sees them all and busts them. He just yells out, do you need to use that? Ant looks at him, looks down, goes alright, I'll get up. Meanwhile, it seemed that Dev and Tom weren't spotted, so they quickly finished their race. Tom won by the way. That was pretty much the end of that day.