O Canada - Victoria, BC

We wanted to do a big vacation for our 10th anniversary year.  As far as vacations for just the two of us, we have been on our honeymoon, a weekend trip to Mexico, and this year's weekend trip to Olympic National Park.  Every other week off of work, we've visited our families or a few close friends.  In TEN YEARS.  It was definitely time we had our own vacation.

Rich has always wanted to go back to Dominican Republic, but we wanted to stay within our budget.  That put my ideal European vacation out of reach too.  We looked into going on an Alaskan Cruise.  I thought it would be perfect, with my energy level at zero, to be able to simply lounge on a boat for a week.  But, 5 minutes before booking our cruise I learned that cruises don't let pregnant women aboard!  Longing for the thought of laying on a beach like a beached whale, we looked into Hawaii and Mexico, but darn that Dave Ramsey, we turned those down too.  We ended up visiting Victoria & Vancouver, BC, and staying well under our budget.

We took a ferry somewhere and this time I actually found the car in time to drive it off the ferry!  Last ferry ride was for our weekend excursion to Olympic National Park.  I thought I had time to go to the bathroom before the ferry docked.  Then, I couldn't find the car.  Picture the pregnant lady running down the aisles of cars all in a panic.  I even asked 5 of the staff and no one could help me find "Car Deck C".  Of course, I left my cell in the car so I couldn't call for help.  Rich had to drive off the ferry without me and I had to get special permission to walk off the boat.  I wandered the pier at 11PM until Rich found me.  He was not a happy husband.  Anyway, here we are on the ferry, together and happy!

 Claire enjoyed going to petting zoos

and her first ice cream cone.

We smelled flowers at Butchart Gardens.

with Dahlias the size of dinner plates!

We did a lot of walking, in the garden this day, and all through town sight-seeing and searching for restaurants that had gluten-free food.  Rich was on Claire duty the whole trip.  I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other and that's ALL I could do.  In the zeal of packing light, Rich confidently left the stroller at home, since our only stroller is a jogging stroller with huge wheels.  The first day Rich stated, "I'm only going to say this once.  I wish we had brought the stroller."  So, Claire got lots of shoulder rides from Daddy.

We enjoyed a picnic along the water with yummy gluten-free bread, muffins, and cookies from Origin Bakery, the best gluten-free goodies I've tasted so far.

and Claire was certainly Daddy's Girl.