The Last Couple of Weeks

I've been quite busy. Too busy to blog! So bear with me, this is going to be a very long entry. But there will be some pictures! I'll go through day by day.

Monday, June 14th
I woke up after slipping into a sort-of jet lag coma on Sunday night. I got up fairly early, at 6-ish. I lounged around for a while until Jess woke up, then we had breakfast and went through a walk through James Bay. It's a beautiful neighbourhood, and it's cleaned up a lot since I was last there (years ago, before I left Canada.) I met Corrine for coffee at Ogden's Point Cafe, which is a lovely cafe right on the point, overlooking the breakwater. Afterward, we walked all the way down the Breakwater. It was quite windy; I felt like I was going to blow away! Great views though. In the evening I ate sockeye salmon with Jess, then Jen came over to watch DVDs (Center Stage and Down With Love.)

Tuesday June 15
We got up early-ish to go wine tasting. Only two wineries were open, but both were well worth it. Church & State was a bit more "commercial" but they had a couple of wines I really loved (I bought a bottle of the rose, which surprised me because it was quite dry.) Muse was eclectic and there were some interesting notes in the wine (the bottle of Pinot Gris had distinctive apple notes.) You don't think of wine when you think of BC, especially coastal BC, but Island wines are actually wonderful. They're very artful. I think they have to put the effort in because they don't have the large productions and reputations that more well-known wine regions have. People who open wineries over here are also extremely dedicated to wine-making and know a LOT about wine!
We went to Red Barn (a farm market) and got some fruits and veggies for dinner, and Jess hosted Jen and Ryan, and Eric (as well as myself of course) for appys. We chatted, had wine, and some great food!

Wednesday, June 16
I spent the day with Matt, which was really awesome. I bussed over to his place, and then we went over to Sooke Potholes, which is a place in the Sooke River that has these deep spots and is great for swimming (http://www.sookepotholes.com/) We didn't swim, because even though it was warm weather, it wasn't super hot, and the water was still freezing cold. Also, I forgot my bathing suit in Berlin :( We had some junk food, and basically hung around in the sun. Then we went back into Victoria and cooked me an awesome steak dinner and we played Trivial Pursuit, which is the awesomest game ever.

Thursday, June 17
Headed over to French Beach. On the way, we stopped at the Meadery, which was interesting because I found the mead a lot different than the mead I've had in Europe. It was a lot drier. It was really cloudy and windy, but we had a nice picnic and goofed around on the beach and playground (there were no children there.) That evening, we ate at Ferris's Oyster Bar, which has amazing food and drinks. If you're there, the downstairs is more of a pub style, but if you go to the second door (on the outside), which leads up some stairs, that's where the actual oyster bar is, and the space is AMAZING. I really can't describe it because in words it doesn't sound all that cool, but I'll upload my pictures later.

Friday, June 18
We had a fun day of shopping, then went back to town for some gelato and salt water taffy (my HUGE guilty pleasure. I love it so much!) That evening, I went to my aunt and uncles house for dinner, which was really nice because I haven't seen them in years. My cousins, Louis and Colin, are SO much older than I remembered! I couldn't believe it...nothing will make you feel old than family members you remember as children suddenly popping up as teens.
After dinner, I met up with Jen, Ryan, Jess and Mandy at the Sticky Wicket, and we had some nachos, which I barely touched, but BC has this stupid law that EVERYONE in the food area of a pub MUST be eating, or else you can't sit there, and it was too crowded in the rest of the bar to sit there, and Jen and Ryan really did want food. Afterwards, we were going to go out dancing, but everywhere in the area was SO incredibly crowded, and waiting in the long lines really killed the mood, so we just went home.

To be continued....