Sharing Victoria ( warning: lots of photos! )

...dang...what pictures do i choose to share out of 249???

LOL!

those of you who know our family of course will eventually see them all but for now, i tried to sum up our trip for EVERYONE for now as best i can...

...got your tea ready? pull up a seat and enjoy with us...

...ready for takeoff to start our trip...

...our first day there, courtney had a provincial rep rehersal to go to in the afternoon for the opening ceremonies that evening. on our walk to the Royal Theatre we crossed the ABOVE street and courtney thought it was pretty cool! ( note: we did LOTS of walking and crossed this street MANY times! )

...courtney and dance friend from winnipeg, kelsey, at the opening ceremonies - DAY 1
( this was a VERY proud moment of the event to hear our girls being piped out onto the stage by the Victoria City Police Pipe Band and see them carrying the manitoba banner! each dancer was called forward and introduced by full name and took a bow! it was thrilling!!

...after the ceremonies, courtney and i took a walk along the inner harbour for our first time to explore and of course....photo opp's!!

{ giggle }

...in front of the famous EMPRESS hotel, we found several carriage rides available. we did not go on one ( much to courtney's disappointment - 30 mins= $90 ) but the driver of this carriage started talking to courtney and told her that she used to highland dance too! kinda cool!


...thursday morning - DAY 2 - we went to the Victoria Bug Zoo!
we being courtney and i plus our roomates for our first 3 nights - sheila, daniel and kailey!
kailey takes dance lessons with courtney together at their saturday workshops!
this was a pretty icky place for myself, but the kids thought it was cool. they were allowed to hold some of the bugs too...ICK!

...yes, that is a MILLIPEDE on daniel's face...

NO THANX!

...after the girls' first competition, we went out for Mexican dinner that night!

it was so good...i really wish we had a mexican restaurant in winnipeg...i miss Chi Chi's!

HA HA KAILEY!!!

:O)

...after dinner we all went down to the inner harbour again for a stroll and to walk off dinner!

this guy dressed as Darth Vader playing the violin in the park was too cool to not take a picture of! like downtown winnipeg, and the forks, there were people everywhere around the harbour 'doing their thing' to make some cashola!

...you will see lots of legislative building picures to follow but i was captured by the appearance of it, especially right off the harbour, and couldn't stop taking pictures of it!!! hahaha!

...and hey, if anybody knows what they call the golden statue on the top of their building, please let me know!! ( like how winnipeg's statue is called 'the golded boy'...)

...on to DAY 3...

courtney and kelsey competed in their first Interprovincial Championships competition in the morning together! they both danced well and tried their best. unfortunately courtney did not place again this day but kelsey managed to win a couple medals!

(good work girls...we know how hard these competitions were and you worked so hard!!! )

...after a stressful morning, courtney and i headed out on the harbour ferry for a tour! we went all around the marina and got off at the famous Fisherman's Wharf for lunch and to see the sea lions. it was very relaxing and we have many great memories of this afternoon!

...Fisherman's Wharf is where you will find lots of 'floating houses' as residence's and a bunch of little lunch shacks and of course......

the sea lions!!!

we bought some herring and fed them too ( well, i did anyway...)

so, so cute!!!!

...and then of course back to the downtown inner harbour to go back to the hotel...

hey, may as well grab another shot of the legislative building....

( such a camera geek )

friday night ( still DAY 3 ) we had the Provincial Rep banquet dinner to attend.

so, here we are dressed for the 'ball' ....HA. worst dinner of the week!!( not kidding - thank goodness for granola bars and yogurt back at the hotel.... )

...hahaha...i feel i have a right ( along with the other 500+ people there to complain about wasting our $43 for this banquet...)

okay, i'm done now!

...saturday DAY 4...

after dancing so well this morning, and then coming out with no medals again, courtney's disappointment and discouragement was heartbreaking! we both knew and saw how tough her competition was but we still had hopes for her last day to place!

I took her for our longest day of walking yet and walked up to Beacon Hill Park where we found so many beautiful gardens and fountains, tons of ducks and so much beauty to make my camera go into overtime!

here's some of my fav's...

...in the park was Beacon Hill Petting Farm...

we saw a bunch of cute little animals and LOTS of new baby goats! courtney liked it in there!

...these little guys are only 5 days old!! so cute!

...a massive redwood tree outside of the petting farm...

...and then on we walked for more adventure...

we went to the famous Beacon Hill Drive In ( kinda like winnipeg's BDI ) and had some yummy dinner there and got ourselves a ribbon ice cream - bubble gum - each and continued on our walk.

we went to see the Terry Fox memorial and also the Mile 0 of the Trans Canada Highway!

pretty cool stuff!

..accross the 'street' from Mile 0 you can go down what seemed like a hundred stairs and go down to the ocean! so of course we went!

...this was a first time for both of us to see the Pacific Ocean so hand and foot dipping were definitely a requirement!

...sigh....

courtney made some friends while competing and exchanged emails with several of the girls from accross canada. but this little girl, rachel, became a good dance buddy to courtney and she is from scotland! her mom and i exchanged our contact and mailing information for the girls and as it turns out, they live pretty close to where we will be staying while we are in Glasgow in August!! the family has invited the five of us to come for a visit and dinner some time when we may have a few free hours away from the rest of our group!! i told lynn ( courtney's dance teacher ) about our invitation and she told me to make sure we do go for a visit!

the girls will also be competing again together at a couple competitions while we are in scotland!

very exciting to have made some new friends overseas!!!

( courtney is only about 5 months older than rachel...dang, my girl is getting so tall! )

this photo was taken on DAY 5, the last day of competition!

yes, the day courtney won her 2 medals to take home!

( see following post! )

after her last competition, courtney and i took the transit bus up to go visit

Craigdarroch Castle!

it was SO COOL!

man, what money can buy you....

i'm so glad we went to see it!

...here we are in the Tower of the castle...what a stunning view!

...below is the Tower from outside...

...this also being our last night in Victoria, BC, the dancers had a little 'pool party' in the hotel accross from us and invited courtney to come join in the fun!

we stayed for a coupel hours and then went on our last evening walk of our trip!

( L to R: rachel, courtney, madison, christina, jean, chloe and jillian from edmonton )

sorry leanne and tera, i missed you in the photo!

...yep, here we go agin with the leg. building...BUT this time it's all lit up at night!!

...monday morning, DAY 6, and our last day there, i took courntey on the Orca Spirit, a whale watching boat adventure!!

unfortunately, we did not get to see any whales on our 3 hour boat excursion, but we did see lots of seals, bald eagles, geographic landmarks and on our way back, we did see Dall's porpoises jumping and swimming along the bough of the boat with us!! ( they used to be called Baby Orca's because they look like them, only smaller )

so, it wasn't completely uneventful...we are on a 'no whale sighting' tour so we are able to go for another adventure if we ever go back to victoria, at no charge!

SIGH.

it was hard to leave this beautiful city. not one stinkin' mosquito in site. it was perfect.

courtney had the dance experience of her life ( well, until next month.....) and it was a learning experience and a wonderful adventure, one i will always cherish with her!

of course, my camera didn't stop working even while on the airplane...

hahahahaha!!

i couldn't resist the fluffy clouds...they look so welcoming and peaceful....

...and halfway to winnipeg, after keeping a close eye out my window, i got this beautiful sunset photo up in the clouds in our airplane!!

...i tip my hat to you for reading and staying to the end of our adventure!!!

hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our experience in

Victoria, BC

...i will remember...