Renewing Friendships in Victoria

We arrived in Victoria and headed to the nearby town of Sidney to stay overnight with Brian and Peggy Losie. We met Brian and Peggy on our transatlantic cruise last fall. Although we never had dinner with them or really even spent much time with them on the cruise, we kept bumping into them on the ship and chatting and something clicked! So we kept in touch by email and made it a point to visit them once we reached the west coast.

So a few cocktails were required to renew our acquaintance...

Brian with the ingredients for our "blue martinis"...

Cheers!

Brian and Peggy moved into this house in August and it is beautiful. Look at the great projection room they inherited from the previous owner!! Now that's a screen for watching movies!

Lots of comfy chairs for everyone! Bring on the popcorn!

Here we are heading out to dinner. Brian and Peggy's daughter, Sabrina, joined us. No, it's not snowing...just some freaky dust spots on the camera lens (I think!)...

A few more cocktails were consumed, at which point Brian was cut off from using the camera...

That's better!!

A great evening at a family-owned restaurant, Bistro Suisse! Excellento!

The next morning we had breakfast with Brian and Peggy. Here is Henry, one of their cats, who had an instant love affair with Jim. Too funny! He walked over (well, limped as he had an unfortunate mishap with a mean person with a pellet gun) and jumped up on the couch and put his head on Jim's lap. I swear cats know who doesn't really like them...

And then there is Squirrelly Shirley who visits every morning as she gets a daily dose of nuts!

Brian and Peggy's beautiful kitchen...

We headed into Victoria and did some Christmas shopping. On the way back to the hotel, the lights were on in the city. This is the Empress hotel where Jim and I were married in 1991. I went out the following morning at dawn and took matching pictures for the night ones.

Empress Hotel at daybreak...

Victoria Harbour at night...

And at daybreak...

The legislature buildings at night...so pretty!

And at daybreak...

Our hotel complete with a gaggle of ducks...



The next day we went to Butchart Gardens with Brian and Peggy. That's under a separate entry because it was so gorgeous it deserved its own write-up.

On Monday morning before taking the ferry, we had breakfast with Rick Johnson, one of Jim's high school friends. Unfortunately, we only had an hour with him and there was lots for the two of them to catch up on!

Here is Victoria Harbour with the ferry arriving to take us to Washington...


We're taking the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington and making our way to San Francisco. We would like to get to Las Vegas before we really get rolling to make it home for Christmas., but we'll play that one by ear.

Our cross Canada trip was more than I could ever have hoped for. The best vacation ever...