Victoria

The Duke and I have been married for 5 years, can you believe it? Here's what we did to celebrate

Day 1
- First order of business, change car battery which died as we boarded the ferry - much thanks to the lady who saved us with a jump!
- Lunch at Barb's on the warf. . . best fish and chips in Victoria - we don't know exactly what haddock is, but we like it.


- Beehive Wool - http://www.beehivewool.com/index.htm - You will see from their website that they have a lot of acrylic yarns, which was suprising, but to my great delight, they had more fleece artist yarns than I have ever seen in one location. Here is what I got. Ok, so you can't see the colors in this at all, but it is an oh so lovely colorway of deep reds, purples, and golds. It is from fleece artist and it is a superwash merino in sock weight. It is just too nice for socks (pardon requested of my faithful sock knitting friends.) It will be combined with a nice color of kid silk haze and knit into something lace.


-Checked into our B&B, The Ashcroft House
http://www.ashcrofthousebandb.com/index.htm
We stayed in the Cotswold room, and after getting up at 4:00 am, the amazingly comforatable bed called to us and we took a nice nap
- Dinner at the Flying Begal Pub - it was ok for pub food. I had a BLAT (BLT with Avacado) and pesto mayo and Link had a Toad in a Hole . . . the only thing you need to know is don't bother ordering it.
-EVITA - put on by the Victoria Operatic Society at the McPherson Playhouse. It was opening night and we just happend to stumble upon the theater and buy some of the last tickets. It was stunning with one very unfortunate exception, the orchestra was too loud. The Duke, having never heard Evita, had a hard time understanding the singers sometimes.

Day 2
-Breakfast- to die for (see B&B link above)
-The Royal BC Museum - http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/
We really liked thier century of change exibit, but this was hands down the coolest. If you click on the photo you will see the sign in the lower right corner reads "John Lennon's Yellow Submarine." It was sitting in the lobby of the museum.
-The Bug Zoo-http://www.bugzoo.bc.ca/
This might seem a little strange, but we LOVED this! It was so facinating and unusual. Here are a few pictures to creep you out

A milipede on the Duke's Face



A giant scorpion in my hand









A tarantuala taking a nap on me
Isn't she beautiful? - her name is Emma


Oh, and yes, they are all very much alive.







- Muffins and Tea at Murchies (we were in Victoria after all)
-A little window shopping and the purchase of our traditional piece of local art, which is also our anniversary present to each other this year. It is a small box that fits inside of the larger box, that is the larger peice of irregular wood. The smaller box was carved out of the inside of the bigger box. It is carved out of old growth Big Leaf Maple that was cut down by loggers on Vancouver Island, this part was discarded by the loggers because it is irregular. Jason, the artist recovers these peices (they had a name, but I can't remeber) and creates some of the most beautiful peices.
- Dinner at Danieli's - Italian - phenominal - order the chocolate almond pate for dessert - trust me.

Day 3
-breakfast - yum again
- ferry
- stop in Mt. Vernon on the way home to see the ALPACS!!! They are SO CUTE I want one or two or three!!! There is a little shop there where they sell thier raw fiber and yarn, and on the yarn band it says the names of which aplacas 'conntributed' the yarn! Isn't that fun! It was Sunday so I didn't buy anything, but I can't wait to go back!