To give the Reader's Digest version, we flew out of Toronto in order to avoid an international flight. DH does not have a passport and we figured we'd rather do it that way than pay $400 to get one expedited. According to the travel.gov website, it currently takes 10-12 weeks to get a passport for regular paying folks. I will not go into a diatribe here about the governmental snarl we as a country created, but I'm sure some of you have an idea of what I might rant about. Anyway, after a remarkably uneventful flight to Victoria, BC (on which we had the rare pleasure of watching Blades of Glory) we spent two beautiful days there exploring, eating delicious fresh fish, and drinking some of the many microbrews each restaurant had to offer. We also did the posh stage of our trip, staying in the sumptuous Fairmont Empress Hotel, right on the harbor:
So beautiful! We spent our time walking around town (or taking the harbor ferries and almost getting run over by a seaplane, once, as pictured below) and taking everything in.
On our first full day, a Sunday, we woke to find ourselves smack in the middle of
Deuce Day, an antique car show that primarily showcases "The Deuce", a hotrod built in 1932. Just tons of beautiful antique cars perfectly restored, primarily from that year and a few others.
One of our favorites included the woody driven by the warden of Alcatraz. Just gorgeous stuff; I'm not an old car fan, but these amazed us.We also (and I just have to throw in a few great pictures) went to the Legislative Building, basically the capital building of the province, Victoria being the capital of British Columbia. I could not believe a 25 year-old novice architect built this place. Here are just a few shots; DH took the terrific one of the ceiling of the place.
That last one is Queen Victoria's window they put up for her inauguration. After a glorious two days in Canada, we took the ferry to Lopez Island, where our friend M.'s parents let us use their house for the rest of the week. Lopez is one of the smaller San Juan Islands, less commercial 
than the other main ones, so the rest of the week had us wandering the rocky beaches and one Shark Reef Sanctuary (no sharks, but tons of harbor seals), kayaking, catching an 11lb. salmon that we ate for the next two days, and generally having the most relaxing honeymoon possible, with the exception of climbing to the top of Mt. Constitution at the end of the week. I found it hard to return, although now I'm hot in the middle of packing to move into our new house! And now I'll leave you with a few mountain pictures and one of the great sunset shots I got on our first night there.
1 comment:
Amazing!! So breathtaking and wonderful!! I said all of that already when you sent me the pictures, but I just have to reiterate. It sounds like a such a truly relaxing honeymoon, which is exactly what you want after all that planning!
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