Canada: Week 2, and the Drive Home

So Grandma and Grandpa flew into Victoria Friday evening, June 10, and Saturday was a whirlwind of tourism awesomeness. First stop was Butchart Gardens.

I biked to the gardens during my 2013 trip to Victoria, and I knew I wanted to bring my family back to see it.

First stop was the sunken garden, which is very green and has this cool tower in the middle. The only downside was the hordes of tourists from abroad who were completely oblivious to everyone around them as they took a bazillion pictures and yelled jokes at each other.

Then a quick stop at the rose garden

(Note the hordes)

Asa was less than impressed with the whole thing and mostly ran away from the group. But he liked this frog fountain.

And he liked the carousel. The kids had their pick.

The token totem pole.

The Japanese Garden was the favorite, I think.

Then we found a lunch place. The salad had flowers in it, and everyone was thrilled. They still talk about eating flowers in Canada.

After that we hit the Butterfly Garden down the street. It was pretty magical to see so many butterflies.

The Atlas Moth, the world's biggest!

Other creatures found at the Butterfly Garden:

We went back to the house to put Asa down for a nap.

Here's the house we stayed at the first week, by the way. It was awesome:

Grandma stayed with Asa and Leah, and Michelle, Grandpa, and I took Addison and Bryn to their first IMAX movie. Not wanting our children to forget who they were, we decided to spend an hour of time in Canada watching a movie about US national parks. In 3D! The kids were blown away, and frankly so was I.

That evening we went to a restaurant right on the harbor, and the kids did really well and especially enjoyed dessert.

The next morning we went to church (which happened to be in walking distance) and then to Willows Beach. From there we could just barely make out Mt. Rainier, had a nice view of the Olympics. The weather was perfect, we ran around and explored and even flew kites.

Monday morning I started up classes again and the grandparents took Add, Bryn, and Leah to Beacon Hill Park to see the peacocks and the daily "running of the goats." The results were adorable, to say the least.

After Dad left on Monday, the rest of the week was a blur. We moved to a different AirBnB house, not nearly as nice as the first. The owner had split their house in two to rent it out and his family themselves in an RV in the backyard.

Cramped quarters

Grandma, Michelle, and the kids visited a small aquarium. Grandma liked the jellyfish.

They also took a trip to a strawberry patch, and Michelle remembered one of the reasons she wished she didn't live in the desert.

And one evening I took them to the secret beach I discovered last year. It's called Balmacarra Beach and you get to it on a little pathway between houses, then down a huge set of stairs. We talked to a guy from the neighborhood and he pointed out all the interesting things, like Bill Gates's private island across the bay, the place where the navy was stationed during World War II (in case Canada was attacked?), and he asked us how in the world Donald Trump was a candidate for US president. I told him I had no idea. Our chat was cut short by a child who had had an accident. This was the third #2 accident of the trip. Must be something in the water.

Another day during class, the fam went to a nature center at a nearby pond. It was not a hit.

And another evening Michelle and Grandma went to Craigdarroch Castle, a Victorian-era castle in Victoria.

Meanwhile, I took the kids to walk on Ogden Point, a half-mile long breakwater with a lighthouse at the end. Leah saw a sea lion, but mostly it was stressful to try to keep track of everyone and have no one fall off the wall. One guy commented, "Well, you've got your hands full," and I'm pretty sure a half dozen people tried to call the Canadian equivalent of Child Protective Services on me.

And we had to take a couple more trips to Cadboro Bay and the octopus park.

And we took a walk through the woods on the UVic campus. We're obviously not in Utah anymore.

I'd been promising the kids since Day 1 that we'd ride on a double-decker bus, and Leah was heartbroken just about every day when it was bedtime and we hadn't ridden one yet. Finally we did it on about the last night. We jumped out of the car in the middle of traffic and ran to the bus stop just in time to jump on. Happiness ensued.

Friday came and it was time to leave. Michelle dropped Grandma off at the airport and came and picked me up, and we headed to the Port Angeles ferry. And then we were back in the US of A.

On the road in Washington. There was water everywhere.

We stopped and Andrea and Roland in DuPont. Roland was one of my best friends in high school and Andrea was Michelle's roommate at BYU, and we're so glad they found each other. Michelle's other roommate, Kira, and her husband, Jason, also came. All such great people. We had some delicious food and caught up while the kids all played. BYU doesn't seem that long ago, but life has sure happened since.

Michelle's other roommate, Allie, and her husband, Matt, live in Portland and were kind enough to let us stay with them that night. Again, so great to catch up with some of our favorite people.

The next day, we were staring down a 10-and-a-half-hour drive, which was daunting. We drove by Portland, including the temple,

then through the Columbia River Gorge, which was just stunningly beautiful with cliffs and green and waterfalls. We did a quick hike to Bridal Veil Falls, since the more-spectacular Multnomah Falls was packed with tourists.

Everybody was a little grumpy. Almost back to the parking lot. Asa ran out to a puddle as I hollered at him to stop. He slipped in an enormous mud hole, and he was mad about it. Then he slipped again and was just shrieking and covered with mud. So I did what every awesome dad would do: I took his picture.

Multnomah Falls as we drove by. It's 620 feet tall.

The kids were champs on the drive home. We finally pulled in early the next morning - after 1:00 as I recall, and by golly, we were in the pew for church by 11:00 (mostly because we had to be in Primary to teach and lead the music after missing two weeks). What a memorable trip!