Canadia! And also heaven

Ooohhhh Caannaaadaaaa....
Whenever I think of Canada, I think of peace, quiet, weird food, and uplifting people.
I got all of that.

(PS this is a few months ago... Ive been slacking on my blogging. Oops).
I took the Clipper boat from Seattle to Victoria, and it was lovely. The hot sea dudes worked hard right in front of my window seat, and I enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate all the way there. Bliss.

I was picked up by my Aunt Jill, her daughter Kristen, and Kristen's daughters Elise and Lily (who were visiting from Las Vegas).

We stopped at Costco. Jill warned me before going in that all the women employees have an interesting dress code. It's called showasmuchcleavageasislegallypossible. This is the best picture I could get, but I'm serious. They were all borderline pornographic.

I got my first taste of Canada at the cafeteria in Costco: French Fries and Poutine! It was so weird. It's brown gravy and these chunky white cheese curds. I was the only one that ate it.

That night we made pizzas :)

The next morning I woke up to... THE BOG!!! This bog is the most gorgeous bog my eyes did ever behold. The picture will never do it justice. I grew up hearing about The Bog from my Canadian cousins, so being in front of it, in person, was an amazing experience. Half hype, half awe.

After I got my jaw all picked up from looking at the view, Kristen's fam and I went to this park that had this beautiful suspension bridge. I love those.

We threw rocks in the river

Swunged. Swanged? Swung?

Then ate a delicious lunch

We returned to find Uncle Jackson loading canoes on his truck. I've only been here once before - about 5 years ago - and his canoes are a big part of my memories. He builds/mends/loves canoes and kayaks.

We loaded up, and after a quick stop at the butcher....

Drove to Lake Cowichan! Have you ever ridden in a canoe with a 3HP outboard on the back?

Jill - being amazing - made an incredible dinner for us all while she squatted in the dirt over her little camp stove. It really was incredible.

Kristen's hubby Bryan cruised us around the lake

Eating dinner

Then Elise got hold of the camera....

I'm glad she caught this shot. We all thought Jackson was going to sink out there. We laughed our dirty faces off.

They are so cute

This is Jackson's latest pride and joy. Native Canadians have the strangest sense of humor. I have never seen a man so proud of such a... um, gorgeous vehicle. Have you ever seen a Subaru Minivan before? No? That's because you can only get them in Thaiwan. And Duncan BC, obviously. I just love this car. It's my dream. I could fit so many midget kids in there. And probably pigmy horses.

I wish my library had totem poles protecting it. (Is that dude sitting on his child? Or is it a mother giving birth? And I can't imagine how short the left baby's legs must be, with a mom like that)

Eh hem... moving on... Jill and I took a tour of the University of Victoria, but I was too busy having dreams about going to school to take pictures:/
Jill and I spent a couple hours in Victoria before I got back on my boat, and it was awesome. That lady is seriously the best. She pointed out how much she liked this picture because of all the flags there together.

We walked down to the waterfront. Stunna.

Parlament! There were a lot of chinese tourists, and random people making out on the lawn.

This is walking into The Empress hotel. Someday I will have afternoon tea at The Empress and I will wear a big dress and a silly hat like everyone else there. I can't wait. Stay tuned for that post in a few cajillion years.

Inside The Empress... (Still having that big dress dream... also right about now I was picturing a hot pink dress with the huge butt that bobbles up and down like Drizella's)

After all those flattering dreams, we drove over to the bay and watched the kite surfers. You can't see them here too great, but they were nuts. There were probably 15 of them, jumping off the huge waves 40 feet in the air. Dear lil Aunt Jill almost lost her eyeballs cuz they were poppin out so far.
After she got those darn eyeballs under control she drove me back to the Clipper and I went home! The end!