O Canada! continued...

I know I left everyone hangin' on that last entry but I want you all to know that everything worked out and Jason was able to come back into the US. It did have me worried though, I kept imagining him being denied as we got on the ferry back to the States and I was going to have to run home and get his birth certificate and drive back to the border or apply for an expedited/renewed passport as he sat in a hotel in a different country all alone. Believe me, my imagination ran wild with all different scenarios. You may think, why didn't you just contact the US Embassy and get things straightened out so you didn't have to brew about it your whole vacation....well, little did we know that the next day, July 1st, was CANADA DAY!!!! And nobody was working....and the next day nobody was working either.....and the next day, was the day before our US Independence Day and nobody was working and the next day, July 4th.....yep, you guessed it nobody was working. Those darn workers at the US Consulate in Victoria, they were double dippin' in both Independence Day pots and so ....we didn't or I should say we couldn't contact them.

Our hotel was amazing! It was a 2 bedroom suite with a kitchen that had a double balcony that opened up right over the main harbor in Victoria. (I found a guy in CA desperate to sell his time share because they were no longer going to be able to use it and so we got a great deal.) It was perfect for watching all the seaplanes and for watching all the great fireworks on Canada Day. Above is a picture of us standing in front of the harbor, a little ways down from our hotel. Behind us is the famous Empress Hotel.

We spent the first evening walking around the city and getting acquainted with some of the famous buildings right around the harbor. The picture above it a life-sized cut out of famous people from Canada. You can go and stand behind it and have your picture taken. Do you see my parents and our kids? ;)
This was a park filled with a whole bunch of totem poles we played around here while we were waiting to get into The Old Spaghetti Factory which has been a favorite since I was a little kid. Once we found out Victoria had a Spaghetti Factory there was NO question where we would dine tonight.
As we walked back to the hotel, the Parliament Building lit up. Come to find out the light the whole building up every night. It was really cool!

The next day we took a city tour on a double decker bus. There's just a bit of British influence here. :) It was fun and we got to see a bunch of stuff and hear interesting facts that we wouldn't normally have learned had we just gone off to see the stuff ourselves.

Then we went and took a tour through Craigdarroch Castle. It was really interesting, but our kids were getting a little tired by this point and they were running through the rooms and trying to get away from us. This is me, holding Dallin in a vice-grip trying to get him to hold still for a picture. Needless to say, we didn't fully get to read about each room and a lot of the history we found out later as we read through the brochure while waiting for the bus. That afternoon we went to Butchard Gardens. My Dad said that he wasn't all that excited to go see some gardens (Jason felt the same way) but they were amazed and glad they had gone by the end of the trip. The kids even had fun, because there was a lot of winding paths and little streams for them to play around. This garden was my favorite. It is called Sunken Gardens.

Even though this picture didn't show much of the gardens, I thought it was a cute picture of my parents.

Dallin found his favorite part in the Japanese Gardens....

It was Jason's favorite part too. :)

The gang hangin' 10 in the Italian Gardens....

Dallin decided to feed Thatcher some of his muffin...

The next day was by far the most fun. See, the great thing about going on vacation with your parents is that if you want to do something that the kids can't do, then they stay with Grandma and Grandpa. :) Jason and I went on a huge zip line in the morning while my parents watched the kids and then that afternoon my parents went on the zip line while Jason and I watched the kids. It worked out perfect and it was SO much fun!

And then by the time we got home, we needed a vacation from our vacation.