Oh, Victoria

Well, it was a walk down two memory lanes that ran parallel at points, but never crossed until years later.

As it turns out, T&Me have both gone on a number of family trips to the west coast - both via air and land. Tom, however, has done this more so in his adult life (or maybe it's because he has had more adult life), and I've probably only reached the coast once since turning eighteen. His family is more centered around Victoria, and I've always continued the journey up island to my cousin's in Ninimo. It was fun to talk about our numerous previous trips, but it was amazing to have one of our own.

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We stayed at Tom's Granny's for all three nights. She is a wonderful woman. I went in with some pre-conceived notions of how amazing she would be based on everyone's comments and love for the woman, but even that didn't prepare me for the stories she shared, jokes she told, and just pure love that shone through her. And no, she doesn't read this blog, so that's not why I'm saying this! How can it be that you're only somewhere for a few short days and leave with more family than you arrived with? I honestly feel that I have another grandparent now.

Tom also has numerous cousins, aunts, and uncles on the island, which we were able to get together with for Sunday night dinner. The size of my family expanded (or should I say 'exploded'?) again. Maybe we have to move out to the west coast now???

Aside from all the visiting, we were also able to get some photography lessons from my father in law. Not only is he really knowledgeable in that kind of stuff, but our camera used to be his, so he know exactly how she works. Which makes things really handy. I never cracked open my work once --> it was a true holiday!

We also, of course, took in seafood a plenty (I love crab!), the scenery, and the seals at the marina. We drove up the Malahat to take in the view, caught a waterfall, and grabbed some lunch. We visited my in-laws beachfront trailer, drank good coffee, played with Dave's (Tom's cousin) silver Olympian medal, and learned a lot of history. I enjoyed hearing stories from the far past as well as the recent past. I really feel like I grew closer to my relatively recently-acquired family.

In conclusion: We had a wonderful, wonderful time. Lu and Tim, thank you for an amazing weekend.


Pics to come - I'm just in class right now!