Anniversary Vacation

DH and I were having our 17th anniversary, so we spent the weekend on Vancouver Island while the kids spent the weekend with their paternal grandparents.  We first drove the kids to their house with the intention of staying overnight on the peninsula and crossing at Port Angeles to Victoria, but we had to turn around and go home to get our passports.  Whoops.

So the next morning, we headed out to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Sidney, BC, which is a small town just north of Victoria. I was able to get a little sewing done on the red tunic that I'm making for Tyrssen, but the 90-minute trip has a great view of the islands, oceanic life (no whales, but I saw a sea otter!), and general people watching on the boat.  Upon arriving safely on land, we went through customs, then we headed south to Victoria, and north on the Number 1 highway around the bay, through a series of small towns.  We stopped for lunch at a rather bad little cafe--the clientele seemed to be of the over-the-hill variety who like food of the less-than-seasoned variety.  The crab sandwich I ordered was bland; it tasted like bread, not even like crab.

We arrived at the resort a little after 3:00 pm and checked into our cabin (it wasn't this one, but one that was very similar--this was named "Amelia").  We had a mini kitchen, a big bedroom suite and a HUGE two-person jetted tub.  We met up with Mom, Tara, Laura and Val for dinner--they all went to the spa, too, and it was a great weekend of getting massages, facials, mani/pedi, and renting some scooters to goof around in town.

I took a lot of pictures of the foliage around town, particularly these Madrona trees, also known as Arbutus Menziesii, named for Archibald Menzies, who sailed with George Vancouver in the 1790s, exploring the Pacific Northwest.  I love the way the dark outer bark peels away to expose this rusty red bark, then peels further to show a bright yellow-green core.  It's only found on the coast of the Pacific Canada and US, mostly in BC and the Puget Sound, and are just a fascinating looking species that always seems to have a 30 degree list to one direction.  I want to find a small one and plant it in my yard.

On Sunday, we rented eco-scooters, these little electric scooters, and drove into town a little ways.  We found this amazing miniature golf place that, had we stayed a couple more days on the island, we would have checked out a little more closely.  We also found a little local museum that was closed on Sundays.  We passed several other motorcyclists, and I decided to try out the respectful "motorcycle wave" on one of them.  He nodded at me, then waved and laughed as Kelly passed.  Unfortunately, we had to cut our scoot short because mine was running low on battery power.  They offered to swap out the battery so we could go out a bit longer, but it was getting close to dinner time, so we headed in for a dip in the pool, then an amazing tapas dinner.

We sailed back to the States on Monday, sitting front row on the large BC ferry.  We made a quick stop for some duty-free alcohol, then crossed back into the States in time for dinner and attend my quilt guild meetings in Bellingham, while DH went around visiting friends in town.  The speaker that night was from the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum who showed some beautiful pieces from an upcoming display as well as one of the most valuable pieces in their collection--the red and white quilt hanging in the background.  It dates from the 1860s and is in pristine condition!  Afterwards, DH and I met up in front of the meeting location, then headed home.  It was a wonderful weekend away to celebrate our 17 years of marriage.

On Tuesday, I drove down to pick up the kids at the ferry where I found the tide was WAY out!  I don't think I've ever seen the tide this low, and, being a curious sort of person, I ventured out to look at the life tucked in the rocks at the end of the jetty, finding all kinds of star fish and soft corals that were starting to get a little dry.  

Tuesday also began a two-day Yurt-building Marathon.  We discovered that the tono we had built for the 18 foot yurt is TOO SMALL for the structure.  Either that or the rafters are too short...but we figured it would be cheaper to build a new tono from four 2 x 4s than to buy a whole stack of 10' poles.  We'll have to re-do the math at some point to figure out where things went terribly wrong.

Today we spent a bunch of time sewing the roof for the yurt from the roll of canvas, and cut the length of fabric for the walls.  Avelyn will be spending the day putting grommets into the walls to hang on the khana.  Hopefully we will be able to finish the tono for them tomorrow--we have the tools, Kelly has the expertise, and I have no idea when my yurt will get finished.  Soon, I hope, but not for this weekend.

I have a quilt to finish tomorrow...it shouldn't take too long to do the stitching, but the set up will take some time.  Wish me luck.

K