Adam Cole (Part 2)

Adam made his triumphant return Friday night from his week of exploring the island. He covered a lot of ground, making it as far as Mount Cain in the north. He had some fun stories and some great pictures to share, as well as a great thirst for beer. We haven't really mentioned beer here on the blog, but there are so many great beers being brewed out here on the island, it's awesome. Perhaps we'll dedicate a future post to beer, there is a beerfest in the fall. Anyway, back to the drinking. . .

Brenda and her Vodka Cran.

Crazy drinks, as seen from table level.

We went out to the Reef to meet up with Sophia and Josh and for Sophia's birthday celebrations. Happy Birthday Sophia, hope you enjoyed it and had a lesser hangover than us.

Sampling the Johnny Cakes at the Reef.

After a lazy Saturday, we hit the road for Sombrio Beach on the Juan De Fuca Trail. It was hardly beach weather (the Sun has been absent for many days), but we had a fun day exploring the beach and chasing after little crabs.

Look out! It's Ariolimax columbianus!

Brenda strikes a pose on a bridge over the Sombrio River.

Trees are tall here even when they're sideways.

I'm the king of the rock . . .

. . . And this is my dance!

Brenda on the funky porous rock.

Say 'hello' to my little friend.

There was a lot of life to explore at the beach. We heard more crabs than we saw, you can hear them constantly scurrying away under the rocks. We also that big slug, some nymph-like things, lots of snails and lots of other weird-looking little things.

Rock juice.

More falls.

Where the Sombrio meets the Pacific.

Adam Cole (Part 1)

Adam spent the week touring across Canada and pulled into Victoria Thursday evening. We wasted no time commencing with celebrations. We headed down to the Skafest at Market Square and spent the entire night in the beer garden.
We can't say much about the bands, because we paid far more attention to our beers. We can however say that the organization was poor, Cam was kicked out of the licensed area for the grievous sin of having to pee. Eventually their license was pulled, and we went home.

Reunited . . . and it feels so good.

Brenda had to work Friday, but Cam and Adam cruised up to Goldstream for a small hike, and drank some beer down at Gonzales Beach.

Train! Freight Train!

No! Don't do eet!

Chillin'.

Saturday was decreed unhealthy day. We spent much of the day wandering around and drinking at different bars. In fact we spent so much time wandering that unhealthy day probably wasn't too bad for us.

Relaxing in the morning at the Oak Bay Marina.

Adam will drink anything.

Sunday morning we all went out Goldstream to hike up Mt. Finlayson. We definitely had a full weekend and we were pretty tired by the time we got home. Adam left to explore more of the island this morning, but we're expecting to see him back here next weekend.

Taking a break on the way up.

At the summit.

Mariners 8, Blue Jays 3

Pretty much since MLB released their schedule for the year we have been planning a trip to Seattle to see the Jays play. Lucky for us they scheduled the games on the long weekend so we didn't have to take anytime off and we could spend some time exploring the city. Through no great planning of our own we caught some ridiculously good luck with this trip, here is our story. . .

We looked into booking a hotel downtown near the stadium but they were all out of our price range. We ended up settling on a place at the opposite end of downtown that was still pretty pricey, but rooms were filling fast and we didn't want to end up in the 'burbs somewhere or near the airport.

Friday night we boarded the Victoria Clipper in the inner harbour and were shuttled to downtown Seattle in less than three hours.

Brenda on the ferry.

The Seattle skyline from the boat.

We took a short cab ride to our hotel and settled in for a minute. Turns out the hotel we booked that we were worried was far away from the stadium was near a whole bunch of other great things. The Key Arena, where the Sonics play, was just two blocks away, and the Space Needle wasn't much further.

The Space Needle at night.

Downtown from the Needle.

The Space Needle is a rip off by the way. On the way up the elevator the guide says that it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi when it was built in 1962. What he fails to mention is that there are taller buildings IN THE CITY. We were definitely looking up at tall black one in the distance.

After the Space Needle we hit the Experience Music Project which is kind of museum for modern music. They have a big exhibit on Jimi Hendrix and a lot of stuff on music from the Northwest like the grunge movement and did you know that the Kingsmen came out of Portland? Crazy eh.

The Experience Music Project from above.

"Excuse me sir, you can't take pictures in the museum."

That really only took us up to lunchtime on Saturday, then the real fun started. Because that hotel we booked, the one that was too far from the stadium, was right by the SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL BEERFEST!!! What luck! We plan a trip months in advance, and they throw us a beer festival.

We spent a solid four hours sampling from beers from all over the place (except Canada??). Cam even got free drink tickets from some dude for wearing a Jays T-shirt. (Free beer at an unexpected beer festival, could this be the greatest day ever?!?)

Cam doing what he does best.

Nothin' says Seattle beerfest like . . .

We are happy travellers.

Here some beer reviews from the festival, Brenda in pink, Cam in blue:
Kapziner Weisse - Looks like urine but doesn't taste like it.
Jenlain Biere de Mars - Okay, but not out of this world.
Samuel Smith Organic Lager - Am I drinking water?
Melbourn Bros. Cherry - Very sweet and tasty, but I can't imagine drinking six.
Kulmbacher EKU 28 - Makes my liver hurt, but isn't very tasty.
Traquair House Ale - I am Bob Dylan, I mean this beer tastes like the last, I mean you know what I mean.

Tsk. Tsk.

Yikes, it looks like Brenda had enough to drink. Remember kids, know your limits.

After a day of beautiful Sun and beer we headed down to Safeco Field to catch the game. It was a pitcher's duel until Halladay gave up a couple of two-out runs in the sixth and the bullpen came in and imploded. The stadium itself was pretty awesome, and they had so much different food in stark contrast to the SkyDome.

Plane overhead.

Too little too late for the Jays.

Whew. Saturday was a busy day and we sure had a lot of fun. Sunday we did a little shopping and wandered around downtown. Oh yeah, and Seattle has a monorail! (What'd I say? Monorail! What's it called? Monorail!)

Yippee!

The monorail track actually goes through the Experince Music Project.

The weather was perfect in Seattle, so guess what it was like when we got back to Victoria - that's right overcast. (So far this week the weather has been fantastic, here's to hoping it stays that way for a couple of months.)

My God, the glare! (Finally some Sun. . . ahhhh)