the flower bed

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What better place to spend the Victoria Day long weekend than.... Victoria?

My daughter had a gymnastics competition on the Island this weekend, so we decided as a group to make it a mini-holiday. We booked a hotel downtown, and started looking into various activities the girls might enjoy. Because the girls got moved from a Sunday session to a Friday session, we had to do a little scrambling, but fortunately most were able to make it because they were off school due to a Pro-D day. Friday is also my early day, so by arranging to leave an hour early and having another mom drive my daughter and walking on myself, I was able to meet the group on the 2:00 ferry to Victoria.

The meet was in Saanich, so we drove directly there and let the girls play on the playground before their warm-up time. They all did really well, injuries and all, and had a lot of fun. After they got their goody bags, awards and pizza, we drove downtown and checked into our hotel. Since the girls had already eaten, they were anxious to hit the pool, so Linda and I decided to see if we could find a place to grab a late dinner, since it was already after 9:30. One place looked to be full of "kids", and another said sure we were welcome to look at a menu but the kitchen was closed. We finally found Moxies, and asked to be seated out on the patio... and please don't turn on the heater - it was such a nice night. We split a chicken rice curry bowl, which was fabulous, but even better was the drink we had - it was made with rum, lime, 7up, and the selling feature for me.... a ginger liqueur. It was so good I had another.

Saturday morning I woke up really early - 6:01 - to the beep beep beeping of the alarm clock. I couldn't find an "off" switch, so I was reawakened every 9 minutes... and then again at 7:30 when "alarm 2" went off. After inadvertently setting the clock to "nap" - which made it go off every 20 minutes - I finally figured out hot to shut the darn thing off.... cancel THEN alarm 1. I had been doing it the other way around.

After showering we joined the rest of the group in the hotel dining room for breakfast, then we walked downtown to shop a little before meeting everyone again at noon at the Wax Museum. I'd never been there before, and I was very impressed. I chatted with one of the guides about the Royal Family - in particular the 6 wives of Henry VIII. He had also read "The Other Boleyn Girl", and we agreed that we wouldn't have liked to have lived back in those days, particularly being a woman.

The wax museum has a "chamber of horrors" but the display I found the creepiest was the one of the presidents and prime ministers. It took me a little to figure out why... most of the displays had averted eyes, but in this one, they were all looking directly at me. They're so lifelike, it's more than a little disturbing.

When I exited the museum, I was surprised that an hour had gone by. We wandered around the harbour looking at what the vendors had to offer and watching a couple of performances, then walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory for a late lunch. The waiter spilled the better part of a glass of ice water down my back, but other than that, everything was great.

After lunch, the group split up again, with some opting to go feed the seals, others chose to do some more shopping, and we went back to the hotel so the girls could have another swim. Once everyone returned, we drove to Boston Pizza for dinner - fortunately they could accommodate our group of 15 on such short notice.

We were the last to check out this morning, so after having a light breakfast at Starbuck's, we drove back to Sidney and caught the 1:00 ferry home. Since tomorrow is the holiday, ferry traffic was light, so we were among the first on and the first off the ferry. One benefit of living where I do... once we're off the ferry, we're pretty much home.

My daughter went to her friend's to pick up the dog, and I went to my friend's to pick up the bird, and now we're home relaxing and making plans for tomorrow.... until we have to get her brother from the airport in the evening.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend... whether you have big plans, small plans or no plans at all.