Dragons, and Butterflies, and Flowers, Oh My!

Our adventures today took us to the limits of our abilities to deal with each other (we've decided all future trips will institute required "alone time" on the third day), followed by a jaunt on public transportation to the Butterfly Gardens and Butchart Gardens, both north of downtown Victoria.

Before leaving town for the day, we separately watched bits and pieces of the Dragonboat races that were being held all day in the harbor and did a little shopping.
As a gay couple said to the proprietor of the Woofles store downtown (in which we found nothing for Ripley), town was "Messy with tourists," so we didn't watch long. After leaving the crowds behind we headed out of town.

The Butterfly Gardens were very cool. Actually they were quite warm and muggy, and filled with not only over 3,000 butterflies, but several types of tropical birds and ginormous goldfish.

We were dive bombed by several butterflies, and I and a couple other folks I noticed were actually landed upon.

This is a butterfly incubator of sorts.

The crysalids that the gardens import get placed here every week, then the butterflies hang out here until they're ready to fly out.

These guys are eating bananas in the tray, and the ones on the left have beautiful blue tops to their wings, but are very shy about showing them.
This is my favorite picture of the entire trip.

The Butchart Gardens were 2 km down the road and were built on the site of an old limestone quarry. Rubbing the boar's nose in this statue is supposed to be good luck (which is why it's so shiny).

Walking into view of the Sunken Garden took my breath away. This was the actual quarry, and in the upper right of the picture you can see the stack from an old cement factory.

This is looking back up to where I took the picture above.

I was drawn to the unusual plants - the black leaves,

and the hanging flowers of the Fuschia plant.

This hole in a huge bush looking out to the water was unfortunately the last picture I managed to take before my battery died, but the entire garden and the fireworks display were amazing.

Everyone told us this was a must-do in Victoria, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Day 2 in Victoria

Our day got started around 11ish, and we headed to the Empress Hotel for tea at noon - about four hours too early, but hey, we're Americans. We can eat whatever we want whenever we want it.

Our finger sandwiches and sweets were excellent (Kerriann while munching: "What do they do with all the crusts?"), we were given two canisters of the house blend of tea to take home, and will be instituting our own tea services on special occasions soon. Too environmentally conscious to ask for a to-go box for the only sweet she couldn't manage to eat while we were there but couldn't bear to leave, Kerriann smuggled the strawberry preserves jar into the bathroom, washed it out, and stuffed her little chocolate truffle-like thing into it. (She's been very happy about the four chocolates we get on our bed for our turndown service every day too.)

Kerriann struck up a lengthy conversation with an older couple sitting next to us, also having tea, who have convinced her that her next trip should be a ferry ride (NOT a cruise) to Alaska, where she can pitch a tent on the deck of the ship instead of paying for a cabin (this may be another one of her traveling alone escapades).

We then decided to rent some bikes to burn off some calories (Kerriann's still in training for her triathalon, folks) and headed to Craigdarroch Castle, home of the Dunsmuir's, Victoria's coalmining/railroading millionaires of the early 1900s. The place was gorgeous, full of dark woods, stained glass windows, and rounded doors.
At the bottom of these stained glass windows is an organ, all on a landing in a stairwell.



Can you believe people once painted over this amazing handpainted ceiling and made it plain white? It's being restored.

Kerriann was in heaven. One of the stranger items in the house was a wreath made from human hair, supposedly a lost art. Did we need to keep that one found?


Our bike ride home was a bone of contention as Kerriann was content to feel her way around, while I was unhappy about the potential of getting lost without a map. We did find a lovely set of gardens around a government building by accident (there are so many beautiful flowers planted all over the town, it's amazing), and asked about which way to go to get back to downtown at just the right time. Thanks to Kerriann for being so understanding of a comparatively unadventurous nontraveler the likes of me.

Our evening was rounded out by a phone call home to some close friends who just welcomed their baby boy into the world, of course while we were out of town. Congratulations to the Double D!

Victoria, British Columbia

Kerriann is calling this our first vacation ever since: 1) it's longer than 3 days, 2) it's not in conjunction with a visit to family, and 3) we're traveling alone. I guess with all those qualifications she's right...

I had very little to do with planning this trip. I asked Kerriann to make the all-important decision of where to stay and promised she would get all the credit if it were nice, and that I wouldn't complain if it was lame. The Delta Ocean Point Hotel is awesome. We've had some bad hotel luck in the past, but Kerriann hit the jackpot with her choice this time. We can to downtown Victoria from the hotel by walking five minutes across a bridge,

or by taking what we like to call a "water taxi" for $4. This is a view of our hotel from our boat (below).

We wandered downtown today and around the harbor (the building over my left shoulder is our hotel from downtown),

took a peek at the Empress Hotel and gardens,

where we'll have high tea tomorrow, and spent some time in their miniatures exhibit, one of K's biggest pleasures. Check out the window washers in the upper left corner of this huge city/circus scene.

Blackwell's Boatshed

There are tons of totem poles around the Royal BC museum where K's leaning - and other places in town. The super tall one is near our hotel.

We also wandered around the Fisherman's Wharf area and along some floating streets between several very humorously decorated house boats.

There's so much to do here, and we had no plans when we arrived. Now we wish we had another couple days. Of course, with all the available excursions, we ended up going to a casino tonight. It was, however, the most fun I've ever had gambling. Kerriann was on fire tonight and she actually doubled her money, and to top it all off, you can't smoke inside. God bless the Canadians.

And after all of this, the absolute highlight of Kerriann's day was opening her Kindersurprise package to find a fire engine. Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Blackwell Family Reunion

Here's a quick post from the Tampa, FL airport parking lot. I'm waiting with the grandparents to pick up Nikki who's coming to town for a conference. I've been stealing internet access from Nana's driveway all week (it's hot out there!), and now from the airport. I guess it's not stealing if they're giving it away...anyway, haven't seen the fam in awhile, so I'm looking forward to dinner.

Shake, Rattle, and Snore

Kerriann, Ripley, and I were wakened by another earthquake this morning. This one hit at 4:42 AM and jarred us out of deep sleep. US Geological Survey says it was a magnitude 4.2 and was located about 4 mi from our house as the crow flies.

Check out the epicenter in relation to our place - our house is the start and the end is the closest intersection to the coordinates provided by the USGS I could get. Mapquest is pretty cool that you can map a place based on latitude and longitude. Now if I could only figure out how to lift the image directly from their website...

Ripley Swims! (sort of)

After growing up with Labs, it's been a big blow to now own a dog that really just hates the water. It's been a long process, but with help from her BFF Tia, who seemingly was born in the water, she's finally started swimming. If you can call it that. Really what Ripley's doing is trying to touch the bottom with her back legs while thrashing wildly with her front paws to keep from drowning. While our friend's dog, Tia, is very quiet when she swims, you can hear Rip from a mile away. At least she's learning and doesn't need her water wings anymore.

Summertime, and the living is easy...

....and we're back! It's been so long since I've posted to this blog that I thought I'd lost it. They've upgraded through Google and I didn't have access for a few minutes there. Crisis averted though. Get ready to be updated - if anyone even remembers that this blog exists that is...

So let me tell you, I love being a teacher. This summers off deal is the best. I work as much or as little as I want, and still get to read books, go to concerts, and play video games on our new Wiiiiiiiiiii! Kerriann and I saw the True Colors concert last night at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. It was awesome, headlined by Cyndi Lauper, with proceeds going to the Human Rights Campaign. Go see it when it comes to your town.

Since we're on the topic of summer vacation, everyone needs to see pictures of my last day of school. Our student government brought in big jumpy rooms of various types for entertainment during the barbeque lunch and yearbook signing. Students (and faculty) got into the bungee cord race, where you strap on a vest with a cord attached to your back and race down a track trying to get farther than your opponent. Helmets were included, but they had no protective effects. When you can't move forward anymore the cord whips you back to the start, you fall on your head, and get rather hurt as your brain rattles around in your skull from the impact. My department chair challenged me to a race. He won, but he's crazy, so I don't mind.




Then there was the boxing ring.



In the Blue Corner, weighing 150 lbs. without her glasses - Blind, Bethany Blackwell!!!!




And her opponent - in the Red Corner, the Fabulously Fit Francophile!!!!!


The gloves were so heavy that we got tired from holding them up, not from getting hit by each other. I'd asked a student to watch my camera for me, and she was savvy enough to actually take some pictures of us.



We called it a draw.

The Countdown Has Begun

Only 49 hours until Kerriann arrives in Oakland, starting right..........now! I've taken the day off from work to celebrate this fantabulous occasion. I've cleaned the house, I'll wash the dog, I may even do some of HER laundry. The first thing she wants to do is shower, but THEN go out for Zachary's pizza and a big ol' salad. And then probably sleep. If I let her. I have so many questions about what the hell she's been up to.

We are not good at maximizing our information transfer during our extremely brief phone calls. During our last call we made the plans I've outlined above, and talked about whether or not she made a four hour phone call to Iowa in November. Plus the calls are hard to have on my end, because every time I say something, I then hear myself repeat it in the echo of the phone. If my comment isn't brief enough, I start to hear myself WHILE I'm talking, and I get confused about what I'm saying. It's like she's on the moon or something, and I have that six second delay in transmission. Houston, I think we have a problem.

I just hope she doesn't get stuck in London on the way home. What's up with the weather these days? Extreme conditions everywhere. California got clobbered with citrus-freezing cold (say goodbye to your oranges and lemons folks), it snowed in LA, and the entire middle of the country, including TX, got snow and ice as well. All this while the east coast enjoyed weather in the 70s. Which in turn caused huge hurricane level wind storms in Europe that shut down the airports and trains and knocked out the power to millions of homes.

Now Kerriann has to come back west through all the havoc. I hope she arrives on time. I have to work on Tuesday.

News from India

Kerriann can't really post to the blog, so I thought I'd put some things up here that I've learned from the very brief conversations I've had with her, either through crappy phone calls or instant message chats.

1. London is very expensive, and you can gamble in the Heathrow airport (if you're rich).
2. The airline she took from London to India had tons of great TV viewing options and fostered insomnia.
3. A thirteen and a half hour time difference takes a long time to unjetlag.
4. Rail transportation in India is unreliable, and friendly people are not always trustworthy.
5. The Taj Mahal is breathtaking.
6. It's really f**king hot in southern India.
7. The locals think she's Japanese.
8. After eating Indian food for three meals a day, every day, for six days, you hit your Indian food wall (most things are pretty spicy).
9. Building houses for six hours a day, with breaks every 1.5-2 hours, leaves you exhausted at the end of the day.
10. Good health has been the norm, with a few queasy episodes.
11. The puppy is missed (I think I am too).

There you have it, folks. That's about all I've learned in twelve days from the other side of the world. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone out there has had a great start to their new year. Everyone's safe and happy, and all travelers made it to where they needed to go. Keep Kerriann in your thoughts for the next three weeks. She's on her way to London as I post here, and will be working to build some houses in one of the tsunami affected areas of southern India with Habitat for Humanity, after a brief trip to see the Taj Mahal.




We all love you Kerriann, and are really proud of the work you're doing. Stay safe and come home soon.

The Saga Continues

Ripley's tail is broken. Not in the she's-fractured-a-bone-and-is-in-a-cast sort of way, but in a it's-busted-and-she-won't-lift-or-wag-it-and-looks-depressed sort of way. Some sort of sprain or other such soft tissue injury.

I spent about 2 hours waiting for my pup to been seen, in a roughly 100 sq. ft. waiting area with three other dogs and their owners (I spent about an hour of it on the floor). Well, if you can call the chihuahua puppy that weighed about 4 ounces a dog. Its owner brought it in to the ER because it fell off her bed onto the tile floor and "hurt itself." COME ON, people. Get a real pet. This....ratlet was almost put on the floor in the waiting room, until Ripley decided it looked like a chew toy and the owner scooped it back up into her little fleece handkerchief.

Huckleberry was a very sweet boy who had gotten into a fight and gotten his ear torn up. He was a real dog. We saw a dog come in who had just had a seizure, heard about a cat with a urinary tract blockage, and a golden retriever who'd had hives for two days, among many other ailments. Who knew the pet ER would be so crazy?

Finally it was Ripley's turn. The emergency room vet "nurse" needed to take her vitals. She tried to get Ripley to NOT sniff around in the very odoriforous room since she couldn't get a good respiratory baseline (well, duh - 12 thousand other DOGS had been in that room that day). Then she took her rectal temperature (a dog's normal body temperature is apparently around 100-102 degrees F and Ripley was 100.2). Ripley has gained about 8 lbs. since we got her in July and now weighs about 41 lbs, but still looks lean. Then the very nice doctor came in to muzzle her and poke and prod her tail. He essentially confirmed that she's an Australian Kelpie during my conversation with him! He decided she didn't need an X-ray and that it was highly unlikely anything was "broken" but that we should put her on some anti-inflammatory drugs and see if she

Jan. 5

....hmm, seems like the final part of this story somehow didn't get saved and I didn't notice until now. I need a copy editor.

So how does it end?

Ripley's been on a doggie NSAID for four days, and she's been getting a little better every day. It's been very cute how her tail's been perking up a tiny bit every day. She's pretty much back to normal, but she misses Kerriann. She's....clingy. It's the only way I can describe it. And I'm playing with her MORE than I EVER do normally, 'cause I got nothin' better to do. I've watched a lot of movies and TV in the past couple days, and I'm making a list of new ones that are playing now. If I see anything extraordinary, I'll let you all know.

Wow, is that an End in sight?