Parents' Visit!

At Ogden point with Mom & Dad!

So many things happening these two weeks! Thankfully I'm off of work due to March break in the primary schools, but if I wasn't I don't know what I would have done! My parents came to visit, me and Jon's anniversary is today, we're heading to Tofino for whale fest on Friday, and then Jon's birthday is next Wednesday! Wheh! 

A lot packed into such short period of time, which summarizes my parents' visit fairly well. With only two full days and two half days, there wasn't a lot of time to spend with them, but I'm happy with the time we had together and everything we got to see! 

At Butchart Gardens

The first day was fairly low-key with a small trip to Fantan Alley and then to Beacon Hill Park and the log beach. They lucked out with very little rain for the whole trip, so they got a fantastic view of the Olympic Mountains the entire time! That following day we spent at Butchart Gardens where everything was just about coming up. I decided to get a year membership to the gardens so I can visit again in a month. Even though there weren't as many blossoms as I was expecting, my parents loved it there and I think it inspired my mom to start working on her garden! Afterward we took a short drive up Mount Douglas to catch a great panoramic view of Victoria and the surrounding islands and mountains.

At Mount Doug with Mount Baker in the distance.

On Friday we went to the Royal BC museum and then walked around the Inner Harbour to see the Parliament building and The Empress hotel. My parents loved the look of the Parliament building, especially all lit up at night! Friday was spent browsing some comic shops and other cute stores and ended with a bittersweet goodbye at the ferry terminal. I was sad to see them go, but hopefully they'll come out again while we're still here to see some more of the island! The farthest away we drove was to Butchart Gardens, and I would love to show them the wild nature of this lovely place.

In other news, I just wanted to mention was a sweet, thoughtful gift my friend Gillian gave me! She read my previous recipe blog post about my lack of avocado in my kale salad and decided to give me an avocado the next time we saw each other! Maybe because it was such a lovely and unexpected gift, but I believe it was the best avocado I've ever had.

Avocado bliss!

Christmas & New Years

Welcoming our guests with Canadian cheer!

Christmas turned out to be one of the most relaxing, fun, and different Christmases I've ever had. Not spending it with family, although at times was sad, proved to a relief in the annual routine of gifts, breakfast, family coming over, dinner at another family member's house, then bed. It was the same every year so it was kind of fun to mix it up this time around! I've also never spent a Christmas away from my family, but I was so happy and thankful to spend it with some of Jon's. 

The warm weather lead to some rather un-Christmas-y activities, like hiking to waterfalls, mountains, and stopping by the beach a few times. If anything, I think this adds to my love of Victoria and this beautiful place, because at home I think they had snow around Christmas! I love being able to get away with just a jacket and a light scarf and hat (more for fashion than warmth). Along with our outdoors-y adventures, we also got to visit the new board game cafe in the city where we played "Ticket to Ride" and we also had a lovely Christmas dinner in our apartment.

Jon Mini-Niagra Falls in Goldstream Provincial Park

Jack at the top of Mount Douglas

Jon and I on Beacon Hill Park's beach, surrounded by driftwood and seaweed

It was only a few days after they left until New Years Eve where Jon and I were invited to a Roaring 20's themed party. Even though it was fun getting dressed up and I don't think I've ever gone out before for New Years, I think we'll probably spend the night in next year. I loved spending time with my friends, but there was 200 other people in the place that made it crowded and hot. Ah well, Happy 2014!

Oh my!

Tourists

Butchart Gardens

Jon's mother and her partner were with us last weekend, and they had the special honor of being our first guests out west! It was so so nice seeing them and catching up while finding new restaurants, showing them around town, and exploring new (to us!) parts of Victoria. Jon and I haven't done much of the tourist-y stuff so far, so it was great getting to explore some of Victoria's well-known gems. Typically when people get here they do two things: have high tea and the Empress hotel and go to Butchart Gardens. I was happy to check both of those things off my "to do" list, but I'm sure we'll be back to both places as other guests slowly trickle in and out of the region. That being said, it was magical to have those experiences for the first time, and I'm so happy we had Laurie and Ralph to join us. 

We also got to watch the salmon swim up stream to spawn, which is something while not super tourist-y, was still very interesting and exciting. It was sobering to see some of the fish struggle up the river, and some of the fish who weren't as fit laid on the river banks dead. I went to the stream a few days later with another friend only to find more fish expired along the edges of the river, signifying that their trip uphill was possibly wrapping up. Jon had some morbid philosophical ideas and thoughts about the whole process, but I'll leave that job to him.

Our lovely guests

The Japanese garden

Friends, Unemployment, Plane Ticket

The Parliament Building at night

Big and small things have been happening to me here in Victoria. I guess the first biggest change is that I was laid off of my job and am currently unemployed. Thankfully Jon will start getting paid soon and we have some savings left in the bank, so we're not completely screwed. I'd also like to think of this as a sort of blessing in disguise, since I missed several opportunities to work with temp agencies that would have possibly led to full-time employment. There were also many philosophical beliefs that I clashed against with the restaurant owners (vegetarianism, feminism, sensitivity, etc) that made the job a bad fit. Also working there six days a week made it hard to volunteer, meet/see friends, or do anything besides work, due to the physical exhaustion of it all. So for the most part, this has been a good change.

About a 20 minute walk from our place

Totem pole by the sea 

Look-out point

The next development is that I've been striving to meet new people and build stronger connections with the people that I have met already. I hung out with some people that I met on a water taxi pub crawl for a game night, met a grad student and his partner of his for a dinner night a week or so ago, and just today met some of Jon's friends to go ice skating. I signed up for volunteering shifts at the local sexual health clinic, so I hope to meet some people through there, and I want to start rock climbing again. I felt like when I've been rock climbing in the past, there's always been a really healthy, supportive, and friendly group of people in the climbing gyms, so it'd be nice to also met some people through there and develop another hobby. The only issue is that climbing is pretty expensive, and being unemployed doesn't help...

Participants for the AIDS walk listen to speakers on a gloomy Sunday

Beatle friend at Goldstream Provincial Park

Mist rolling in. Only a 20 minute drive from downtown Victoria. 

Natalie and I at the top of Mt. Finlayson 

And then on top off all of this news, I've been feeling horribly home sick. Despite the fact I had one of the best weekends this weekend than I've had probably since moving here, I still have this insatiable desire to talk to friends and family from home. Hearing about the challenges that my friends are encountering and not being able to hug them or help them physically pains me, and I hate not being able to spend time with my family at engagement parties, picnics, and wine nights. Don't get me wrong-- I'm thoroughly enjoying the dinner parties, ice skating, exploring, hiking, and beer tasting with Jon and the friends that I've been making, but my heart aches for the familiar. 

So after finding out that one of my dearest friends is getting married in November about a week ago, I semi-impulsively bought a ticket home for the week of Thanksgiving. : ) Jon won't be able to come with me due to his super-packed schedule, but we decided that we'll be spending a romantic Christmas together here in Victoria.

More graceful on the ice than I.

Olympic & Beyond

Whole lotta miles

After we left Yellowstone, our trip-o-meter flipped over to 3000 miles. That's a long way! It was exciting to see that milestone in the emptiness of Montana.

Brush fires in the distance

We crossed through Montana and Idaho with relative ease and before we knew it, we were in Spokane, WA that night. We ended up staying in a motel and thanked the great indoors for internet access, a mattress, and pizza delivery. 

Driving through the eastern part of Washington was very interesting, and it's easy to forget that the state borders a sliver of Idaho that rubs up against Montana. Eastern Washington had a lot of plains, a view that contradicted my vision of lush forests and pines. We passed numerous brush fires, and learned that the summer has been very dry for this section of the country. 

I tried to soak in Washington as much as I could, knowing that this would be my definition of my home country once we were in Victoria. I know that sounds silly, since Victoria butts up against some Washington-owned islands, but this state would be my ticket home back to the east coast whenever I needed it.

Olympic beauty

Getting into Port Angeles and Olympic National park was exciting. This would be the last stop on our road trip. About two hours north-west of Seattle, Port Angeles has a ferry route that can take cars and its passengers to Victoria's inner harbor. After finding our way around a bit, we staked out a camp site in the beautiful Olympic national park. 

Olympic consists of a varied terrain, including rocky coast line, temperate old growth rain forests, and beautiful snow-capped mountains. While we didn't get to hang out by the coast, we saw some old growth around our camp site and got to have a terrific view of Mount Olympus and its surrounding cousins.

The Cascades

Beautiful old growth trees

In the morning we took the early ferry over to our new home. The ferry was fairly old in terms of boats (from the 50's), and rather slow, but it got us there in one piece. Finally our trip was over; we were in Victoria!

Goodbye, U.S.!

Leaving everything we know behind

So we finally meet!

And that concludes the cross-country road trip portion of this blog! I still intend on posting west coast adventures, recipes, themes, and other things, so stay tuned!

Road Trip Map!

Leaving today and this is the map of our road trip! You can see the Google Maps version here to get a closer look of our stops. For the lazy, we'll be going to:

1) Chicago

2) Minneapolis/St.Paul

3) Badlands National Park

4) Yellowstone National Park

5) Olympic National Park

6) Victoria!

For those who are curious, stops B and G are arbitrary-- we'll probably just stop by a camp ground or motel in that vicinity, but that's about where we want to be during that time.

So excited!!

Apartment Hopeful

Jon and I are filling out an application for an apartment this week. The balcony has this view...

Looking Forward: Victoria & Vancouver Island

The Inner Harbor with the British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Fine Art America

So the purpose of this blog is to give myself a creative outlet while I prepare and move to Victoria, BC. As mentioned in the first post, my husband Jon was accepted to a PhD program there, so we're packing up everything and moving west. We've never been there (the closest we've been was Portland, Oregon!) but from what I've seen and heard it's supposed to be beautiful. I'm an avid adventurer and with the moderate climate there should be hiking and camping available all year round on this mostly remote island. There seems to be a lot of water sporting to be had, lots of hiking on a mid-sized mountain range, and access to beautiful parks and trails.

Victoria itself is mostly known as a vacation town, with the motto that it's for "the newly wed and nearly dead." Its retired population is reportedly large, but with a lot of younger hippie-types enjoying the beauty of the island. I'm a little worried about finding work there, but the island will probably offer a lot of distractions if I'm unemployed for a bit.

Butchart Gardens

Cool Picture Gallery

Downtown Victoria

Photobucket

Juan de Fuca Trail on Vancouver Island

National Geographic

Orca Whale Watching off the Coast of Vancouver Island

Canada MSN Travel

Long Beach, Vancouver Island

Flickr

Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island

Yahoo Image Search