Last Days in Victoria

Ok, tomorrow turned into the day after tomorrow, but nobody is following as of yet, so we're all good. Saturday morning Marc and I made a big pancake and bacon breakfast. Very yummy. After, the mom's headed out to do some shopping while the men-folk took the gaggle of kiddies to Sooke, which is about a 40-50 minute drive to the Southwest of Victoria.

There we visited "Big" Owen and his Will who is not quite two. Mama Al was in the states ... shopping. (You catching a thematic element here? ;-). There Owen and Will showed us around the place (very nice new digs out there), the kids watched Elf and the manly-men watched college football and drank Steinlagers.

We barbecued some dogs for the kids and some burgers for the adults. Lynn and Amanda walked in the door in the nick of time to have lunch. (Catching another thematic element?)

I drove the Wensauer's van with Kiefer in the back and Marc asleep up front. The girls were all in the same car along with "Little" Owen who was supposed to get a nap, but fat chance of that on the way back into Victoria.

When we got back Lynn and I took the Mackenzie, Rae and Sloane back to the Commonwealth Pool for a short swim while the boys took a nap.

We got out early from the swim, rushed back to the house, woke Owen up and made it to the Macaroni Grill for our 6PM reservation in the nick of time. We were celebrating our last evening together, but more importantly, Mackenzie's birthday (Dec 1) and Rae's birthday (Dec 8).

Wild Man Owen with Kiefer in the background

Dinner was pretty good, but what made it fun was a couple of the waitresses were trained Opera singers who sang arias a couple of times throughout our dining experience.

Marc and I shared a bottle of wine while Lynn whined that we should have shared the pitcher of sangria which the table next to us was enjoying. Next time, baby.

The Dads

At the end of the meal while our waitress brought out ice cream with candles in them. One of the other waitresses came back and sang the birthday song in Italian while they stood on their chairs.

The Birthday Girls

We all went home with happy tummies, put the boys to bed and watched A Christmas Story; this was a first time for the girls. They loved it--we're going to have to watch it every year now.

Lynn, Marc and I played a little more Password, the dads drank some scotch and then we went to bed.

Lynn and I roused ourselves early Sunday, got the car ready to go, then woke and fed the kids. We rolled out around 8:40 and made it to the ferry dock by 8:55. We had reservations again and made the 9AM cut off to make good on them.

I have to admit, this was a much easier way to travel due to customs being just a review at the dock Canada side and again stateside. Easy-sneezy. No lines at the truck crossing or Peace Arch.

The crossing was uneventful, save the same rollers we experienced heading up on Wednesday. We met a nice family who was heading to the Great Wolf Lodge. Their eldest daughter was just a tad younger than Rae, so they had lots of waterslide and wanding goodness to discuss. Owen was throwing down on snacks and grape juice and being his usual two-year-old self.

When we got back to Port Angeles, we stopped at the Wendys fueld up on fatty goodness but were concerned to see signs to "Save Our Pool" along the road. Lynn and I had swum at meets at the Port Angeles pool growing up--Lynn again in high school. I found something terribly awkward considering a storied port town losing their (currently) only means to teach future ship-fairing folk how to swim. Sad.

We drove back to Silverdale to Lynn's parent's place, picked up some stuff, and were back on the road again in less than 30 minutes. We finally made it back home around 3:30 PM. It was a relaxed all-day affair, for sure.

At 5, after showers, we walked to our friends, the Hundelt's, who have just had their kitchen remodeled. Great lasgna and salad and I was d-u-n, done eating. Well, that was until after the piece of pumpkin cheesecake I managed to ram in there somewhere.

We walked back home with our flashlights on, ooed an ahhed at the Christmas lights starting to appear in the neighborhood and snuggled up in our beds--happy to be home, but sad it would be another month to see Marc, Amanda, Mackenzie, Sloane and Kiefer.