Victoria BC

We are in Victoria, British Columbia. It's a beautiful island that must be just about the most southwesterly part of Canada.

We took a ferry over on Tuesday, a bright sunny day with promises of torrential rain for the rest of our visit. Fortunately, Canadian weather forecasters are not any better than those from other countries and we have had nary a drop.

We celebrated LK's birthday Tuesday night. I love the age we live in. She received birthday greetings from so many people - and not one of them knew where she was. There were e-mails, of course, and SMS messages. (And for those who truly know LK, the SMS were sent to my phone since they know she seldom turns her own phone on.) There were heaps of Facebook good wishes. But I think the biggest smile came from a Skype voicemail message where our favorite girl started out, "Hello, Armagh. Happy Birthday."

Our hotel, the Victoria Regent, is fantastic. It sits right on the harbor and is only a couple of blocks from the main restaurant and shopping area.

We have a balcony where we watch the extremely busy harbor as seaplanes take off all day, and cute little green shuttle ferries that scurry across the harbor looking all the world like toy boats.

We also have some beautiful views of the mountains off to the south and east. Yesterday we had a fantastic visit to the Butchart Gardens - one of the truly beautiful spots on earth.

That is best seen rather than described, but I cannot upload those pictures until tomorrow because we (OK, me) forgot to bring the charger and the camera went dead just about the time LK took her last picture. Of course, it wasn't what she intended to be the last picture but that's the way it is.

It was a great day, though, as we followed up Linda Day with Robert Day, celebrating his birthday. (There really are too many Geminis on this trip. Poor Jaki must feel as if she's traveling with six people.)

Today the sun is shining brightly, once again defying the forecasters. We have pushed back our ferry trip return to the US to late afternoon to have some more time to wander around this wonderful place.

Then it's Bremerton tonight and Seattle tomorrow.