Monday, July 27, 2015

Aerosmith!

















     Some photos from the Aerosmith concert we went to on July 16th. It was a great concert so I'll let the photos talk for themselves!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Whale watching

     Well my little buddy Donavan from Duncan turned 9 so I decided i would bring him to Victoria for a day. Had nothing planned but knew we would have a good time. The day before i picked him up I called good ol Captain Ron from SeaKing Adventures to see if any whales had been spotted recently and was told yes. So I booked Donavan and myself for an afternoon tour.

     I brought Donavan home for the night and we had fun playing video games. I must say he beat me fair and square in a hockey match 3 - 1. Of course i didnt want to play him again so i let him play the monster truck game. When he was tired of that i put on the TV for him and he decided to draw Patty a beautiful dragon picture. Well after a little commotion outside it was 1am and time to sleep. He must have had a good sleep because I had to send Dante in to lick his face and wake him up.

    We had a quick breakfast and then headed to catch the bus. Because someone slept in we didnt have time to hang out downtown we headed straight to Fisherman's Wharf.  We went to book in for whale watching then went and got something to eat. We bought some raw fish to feed the seal while we waited for the food. Donavan really enjoyed it although he did say he was a little nervous at first and could feel and hear his heart pounding.








     We went down to get ready to whale watch. Captain Ron said there was another group of 8 going out with us so it was a full boat. Always good to have more people especially first timers. I remember my first time going out and how exciting it was to see my first Orca. I've been hooked ever since! Well it was a good day out on the water and we found J Pod off of Juan De Fuca Island. They were pretty spread out but they were easy to spot. Captain Ron noticed it was all females we were watching so he decided to venture off and find a male. You can describe the males dorsal fin being 6 feet tall but until you see it, its hard to imagine. Well Captain Ron found one and there were no other boats around so we could just sit and watch it without any one getting in our way.














     On the way back the water was a bit rougher and Donavan decided to sit up front in the bow with 4 young ladies from the other group. They were all having a blast as we bounced off the waves. Some of the older ones were having more fun than the kids i think. It was high tide when we headed back and most of the seals were out feeding but we did manage to spot a few on the rocks as well as a couple young pups.










     Well it was an awesome adventure as always with Captain Ron and SeaKing Adventures. Every one enjoyed themselves and it was nice meeting everyone who was on the boat. I didnt get any names but it was fun watching the woman from the UK covering up trying to avoid the water splashing on her. Her family took pictures im sure to try and tease her later. Thanks to every one on board who made this adventure more enjoyable! And thanks to Captain Ron and SeaKing Adventures I cant wait to do it again!





     Thanks Donavan for coming and spending the day with me! I could tell you had as much fun and probably more fun than i had. Your a very well behaved boy and i enjoyed your company. Hope we can do something like this again some day!

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Jessica in BC

     Well the day had finally arrived and Jessica was in BC. I had so many things planned but knew there wouldn't be enough time. Her first full day in Victoria was spent at her grandmas place. They came over to visit that night. It seemed that Jessica's grandma had alot of things planned for her as well so I had to work around it. All I wanted was for Jessica to have a wonderful time out here and so i let her grandma dictate when we would get her. Also I'm afraid of her grandma lol.

     Jess was going for lunch and i was to meet them afterwards. I couldn't wait so i decided to go down town early. I missed my bus so decided to walk to town. Robert should remember that walk because we did it when he was last out here. It was a nice day and i had my camera so i was always looking for photo ops. I did get a couple so i shot away.




       After stopping to talk to some friends we noticed an otter swimming around splashing. It was pretty far out so i didn't take any pictures. After I left them I spotted another one so climbed out on the rocks and took some photos. It was out a little ways but i did manage a few ok photos. Then i spotted a statue of a mermaid with dolphins. I don't know why i didn't remember seeing this before although I've walked this path a few times. Probably because I'm always looking at the water. I walked all the way in to town then caught a 31 bus to Fisherman's Wharf. The 31 is one of my new routes so it gave me a chance to see it. I hung around the Wharf watching my watch, then took a couple pictures before catching a bus back to town.






     I was still early so I decided to go for a gourmet hotdog at a place Patty and I had been before. It was getting close to the time to meet so i walked over to check out some local stores. I got the text to meet her so off i went. We were actually pretty close. We said our goodbyes to grandma and we headed off to catch the bus. I was carrying jess' back pack and holy crap was it heavy! I thought she had brought everything with her for 2 nights! When we got to our place Patty was home so I said lets get this party started. We decide to go to Saxe Point to see if the Eagles were around but no such luck. So we went exploring and discovered a couple other interesting things.



Small Hermit Crab




 Small Fish




Another Hermit Crab with hole in shell


Almost forgot to add these. Patty spotted this sub heading to port. The beach you see way behind the sub is the Esquimalt Lagoon where we went next.





       We then decided to drive to the Esquimalt Lagoon where I knew we would have some luck with Herons. It only takes about 15 minutes or so but you drive through Esquimalt, View Royal, Collwood, and Langford. It was a nice day so it was a nice drive. As I had thought there were plenty of photo ops. Im sure Jess got a lot of pictures as well. We hung out there for quite a while then headed to Victoria and the Fisherman's Wharf for some Fish and chips from Barb's which Jess had requested. Jess got to feed the seal and being the good person she is, she made sure the kids around her got to feed them some of her fish. I had left my camera in the car but did take a photo with her camera of her feeding them.











       The next morning we got up early to head to Vancouver. We had to drop Dante of with his big brother Al and sister inlaw Nina as well as his girlfriend sookie and her brother Tidus. We drove to the ferry and parked the car and walked on. The ferry out of Dukes Point is a shorter ride than the Nanaimo ferry and has a lot better view. Of all the times I've been on a ferry to Vancouver or back this was the first time Iwe got to see some Orcas from the boat. They announced it over the PA and Jess and I grabbed our cameras and headed up to take some photos. You could see them pretty good but as the ferry got close they went under the water and hid. I did notice they had a little baby with them and if you look close you will see it.






       Now when i go to do stuff like this i worry about the big stuff like the tickets to the show, hotel booked and how we were going. Patty on the other hand would like a few more details of which bus we catch, where we transfer and where we get of the sky train. I got the feeling that Jess is the same as Patty in that sense. I said we gotta wing it, fly by the seat of our pants. I had a pretty good idea and I'm not afraid to ask someone but the people i asked on the sky train where we get off were way off. As soon as i looked at the map i knew! I got us there and the only problem we had is we circled the hotel we were staying in because they were both too busy giving me a hard time that we walked right by it. But we got there and after Patty checked over our room they were satisfied and we could stay there. Those two were having fun carrying on about bus pants and hotel pants and the such. We did have a nice view out our window where we could see where we were going to see the Lion King.




       After we had settled in our room we decided to head out on the town. First we walked over to BC Place stadium followed by trying to get close to the Garage where the Canucks play. I know its not called that anymore but I liked it when it was called the garage! They had big letters outside the stadium and we tried walking around the whole place so Jess could get her picture taken with the letter G but we couldn't get there as it was closed off for construction. We then started walking and i flagged down a cab to take us to the Olympic Flame.  We walked around there then started towards Gastown to find a place to eat.




     We did end up stopping to eat at a Brew Pub. It was a nice place and was full so had to be pretty good. The food and atmosphere were awesome! Jess also thought it would be a good idea to get her dad a souvenir from there. After we were done eating I sent the women on their way to shop and i stayed had another pop then paid the bill. I met them outside and we started walking down the street which was packed because they had some busker fair going on. We passed by a couple singers and Patty and Jess went shopping although I don't think they bought anything. We got down to the Gastown clock just as it started to whistle as it was 6pm. There were lots of people watching it. We decided to get off that busy street and walked towards the hotel looking for a cab. It didnt take us long but next thing we knew we were at our hotel and no cab was needed.



Shopping!






Not our hotel just a neat building.


       We got back to our room and got changed and freshened up. We then walked across the street to see our show. We didn't take our cameras and good thing as they were checking, so no photos. It was an awesome show! Right from the beginning it sucked you in with all the puppets and singing. They did a great job sticking to the original story but changed a couple songs and added jokes about Vancouver to keep it interesting. I enjoyed it more than i thought i might. We were all pretty tired from the long day and it didn't take us long to fall to sleep. Jess had extra pillows so she covered her ears and didn't hear me snore. Patty did but didn't complain too much i guess because she was having a good time.





     
       Well it was another early morning and a sky train, bus, and ferry ride back to the island. The girls were a bit more at ease and trusted me to get them there. When we got on the ferry Patty and Jess went shopping again and i tried to have a nap. They announced there were whales nearby so i jumped up and grabbed my camera and went upstairs with Jess. The whales were not as close so i didn't take any photos. I did stay up on the outside deck with Jess and took some scenic photos. It was sad cause our journey was coming to an end but we had to get Jess back to her grandmas and i had to have a nap before work. I did make arrangements to see Jess the next morning before she flew out to Calgary and an adventure that i was jealous of lol. We loved having Jess here and getting out and doing everything that we were able to do. Was dissapointed that we didn't get to see any eagles but if you want to get out here real soon we were told of another eagles nest that definitely has babies in it! I'm going to check it out soon and will post any pictures i get.

Jess we love you and miss you and hope you will come back again soon!