Victoria, Canada

The time finally came when we felt we needed to step our road trip up to a whole new level: International Travel. We were afraid you all might be getting bored with the USA blog. With a three hour Victoria Clipper ride to British Columbia from Seattle, we couldn't say no to this opportunity!

 Equipped with tables, I was thrilled with the idea of playing cards while we rode. But... then Rebekah and I fell asleep for two hours. That was nice, too. 

Oh, Canada!

Rebekah's most quoted lined on this trip is, "That's like REALLY famous." So, she reads about something in a guide book and then proudly proclaims to all who can hear. "There's the Empress Hotel! That's really famous. Everybody knows about it." 

Victoria is full of statues. Looks like Irwin Belk has made his mark here!

The highlight of our day was renting mopeds and driving the scenic route on the island! At first we thought, "We better not... we'd probably kill ourselves." Our next thought was, "That would be hilarious." So, of course, we did it!

 Fran thought she was extra cool. Clearly, she was right. 

The customary helmet pose. All legitimate bikers know it. 

"Renting mopeds will be hilarious" took on a whole new meaning for Fran and Rebekah. As in, it's hilarious that while trying to keep up with them,  I got pulled over for not yielding to pedestrians! YIKES! I felt like the paparazzi was following me when from around the corner came two sneaky photographers laughing.  

Since the cop decided to let me off with a warning, I joined in on the chuckles. The $169 ticket he decided not to give me wouldn't have been so amusing.

 The view from the stalker around the corner. 

After an exhausting wind-blown day, we finally crashed at our B&B "Hemingway by the Sea." I always like to throw at least one bed and breakfast in on every trip. We got our money's worth by taking a three hour nap AND sleeping a nine hour night. 

It will be hard to go back to granola bars tomorrow, for sure. 

Ferrying is one of my favorite forms of transportation!

We thought it might be a good idea to head out to Mt. Rainier when we returned to the city. The cold and rain couldn't stop us!

It wasn't a good idea. 

 Especially since we got lost for two hours. It was my fault. I was hungry and got distracted by my Dairy Queen hotdog and blizzard. I decided to let the GPS do all the work. The good news is, we all know now that I am smarter than the GPS. The bad news is, we ended up in the middle of nowhere. On the way by I was back to being vigilant by combining my map skills with 21st century technology. We made it to Seattle again without a hitch. 

Steven and Miriam have been a DELIGHT to stay with, and they even tolerated our split shift nights of staying with them not in a row. If they were on Trip Advisor, we would rank them a FULL five stars! (And include extra comments about their tasty lasagna and chili!!!)