Disneyland-California Adventure on St. Patrick's Day

We got to the park right when it opened and headed first to Indiana Jones, then to Pirates of the Caribbean, and on to all of our favorite rides and places to see. Craig had his frozen chocolate covered banana and I had my chocolate covered marshmellows on a stick. One of the highlights of our day was when the line for Soaring Over California was one hour long and, as the result of a chance encounter with a helpful "cast member", we were able to walk right on and then we were even on the end in the very front row. We seemed to just slide in and out of all the rides in record time even though the park was super crowded. This was the good part of only being a party of two, but the bad part is we kept missing all our darling little grandchildren (and their parents too) and wishing so much that they were here to see this and share this with us. After our legs and feet had walked many miles today, we rewarded them and the rest of our body in the hot tub on the roof of our hotel as we watched the fireworks at Disneyland.

Arrived in Anaheim

It was fun to spend a little time with some of our grandchildren and I even to dress baby Rose. She looked so cute, we just had to take her picture. We started the day with a nice breakfast at IHOP with Heidi and Rose, Heather, Ian, and Max. Trying to read the menu at IHOP, I realized that there was a problem with my contact and one eye was real sore. Obviously there was a problem so after Heather tried to find the missing contact in my eye, it was suggested I make a quick stop by Dr. Poulsen's office before heading out across the country. The people who were in his office are so sweet and in no time were able to retrieve the folded up contact hidden underneath my eyelid and I was good to go. We arrived at the Worldmark in Anaheim and decided to check out downtown Disney. So many wonderful memories flooded into our heads. We remembered how we used to camp in a place right across the street from Disneyland and I can still remember coming back to the camp trailer and making chili, we remembered when we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, we remembered the great time we all had when the whole family went even though the ceiling fell in Bruce and Carrie's room, we remembered the great time we had with Ben and Heather when we all stayed in Disneyland's Grand California--------soooo many fun memories. We plan to make some more tomorrow.

We're Off!

We are finally leaving for a long anticipated trip across the United States. Craig loves road trips and has wanted to drive the southern route across the U.S., down the Florida coast, then up the east coast to Canada, etc. Final preparations made, bags packed, house locked down, and we are finally off on our great adventure. Our odometer read 67,290 miles when we left Half Moon Bay and Craig thinks we may add ten thousand more to that figure. I guess we'll see.

We decided to leave a little early and make our first night stop in Clovis to get some hugs and loves from all our kids and grandkids who live there.

Cousins Blessing Day

Max Magleby and Rose Mason were blessed today by their fathers. As I sat in church I realized that 17 of our 20 grandchildren were here in church with us today.

Day 6 Final Day in Victoria

We decided to check out the little houseboat complex right next to the our condo on our morning walk. They are really very cool and each one was unique. I loved the sign on one which read "Boring Women Keep Immaculate Houses".

No trip to Victoria would be complete without touring The Butchart Gardens. We were a bit concerned about going since it is the middle of winter and it did snow yesterday. However the gardens were so beautiful and around every corner was something new and unique. Some of the spring flowers were just beginning to bloom and we could only imagine what the gardens must look like when everything is in full bloom. We even stopped by the historic Butchart home and enjoyed (that may be too strong a word to describe it for Craig) afternoon tea with scones, dainty finger sandwiches and desserts. It was so fun and I loved it! Craig really is such a good sport.

Late this afternoon we walked to town to check out the shops. It is still hat and gloves weather, but definitely warmer than yesterday. Victoria really is a charming place and we had fun wandering through the shops and a downtown mall. Craig's favorite was a very old bookstore called Munro's Books. We treated ourselves to a great dinner of fresh salmon and halibut in town at Nautical Nellie's and then walked back to our condo. Watching a movie in front of the fireplace and eating chocolate was a great end to a wonderful holiday in Canada. Eh!