On Friday we got up early to meet Clark, Swathi, Soren and Meera at the ferry terminal to ride the ferry to Victoria.
Passing the border control was a little dicey. The guard asked us a bunch of questions and Jean was about to have a panic attack from how crowded the cars were upon exiting the ferry. Thankfully we got past pretty quickly and found a parking spot and a bathroom in short order.
When we got to Victoria, we ate lunch at the Spaghetti Factory and then headed over to the Royal BC Museum. I was, honestly, disappointed. I was also exhausted and finally just took Clarissa and Ammon to the car to nap because I was too tired to chase them. But Clark reports that the third floor of the museum, which I did not see, was very kid friendly and fun.
Then we went to our hotel, Hotel Zed, and checked in. It was kind of fun, quirky motel that called itself a hotel, and I liked it a lot.
Then we went to a beautiful beach side park with a petting zoo. The petting zoo was closing as we pulled up, but there were peacocks strutting around outside of it. Jean parked herself by the peacocks and Lydia eventually joined her for a long time. We met up with Clark and Swathi outside of the rose garden and all of the kids played together there. I loved smelling all of the roses with Clarissa.
After the park we went to dinner at a lovely sushi restaurant. It was so delicious and the first time I’d ever had crunchy sushi in a bowl. Then Jean got us some gelato while we waited in the car, and we drove back to the hotel. I was so excited at bedtime because I knew Abe was flying into Victoria at midnight, and if I could just fall asleep the next thing I knew he’d be coming into the room. And he made it! It was SO great to have him arrive.