Sunday ; Hope, BC
Sunny, +9° C. A very nice fall day in a lovely small town in the Cascade Mountains.
Today was a rest day. We slept late, got a late start, went for a leisurely walk through the large municipal park across the street from our current motel, walked around town, checked out a different motel, the one we will stay at next spring on the way back home, then got in the car and ran errands.
I refilled the minivan with fuel at Centex, then we went for lunch to a new Italian Restaurant called Mia Pizza & Pasta. No pizzas though, despite their name. Wood fired oven not installed yet. Lunch was overpriced and disappointing. Three staff ; one server and two “cooks” in the “kitchen”, server doing 80% of the work, two kitchen staff sharing the remaining 20% of the workload. My take on it was that the server was “hired help”, and the two “cooks” were owner and granddaughter. After lunch we drove to Save-On-Foods to buy something for tonight’s supper and tomorrow’s lunch on the ferry.
Back at the motel I processed photos and posted my weekly blog entry, and ... had a long nap with Apollo. At 4:30 PM we went for another leisurely walk through and around the park, until it got dark and chilly at 5 PM. I spent the evening reconciling October investment statements. We spent the late part of the evening watching last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
Monday ; Hope to Victoria, BC
Raining and +4° C this morning in Hope. Intermittent rain as we were driving. Mix of sun and clouds, +16° C in Lower Mainland (Vancouver area) around noon, sunny and +14° C on Vancouver Island in the afternoon.
We were out of our motel in Hope at 10 AM, continuing west once again on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1. Traffic through the Fraser Valley (Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Langley) was heavy and fast ! Speed limits don’t seem to apply in the Lower Mainland region. Especially for double trailer gravel trucks spewing rocks onto windshields !
We arrived at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal (Vancouver) at noon, too late for the ferry departing at noon. We were on the ferry that departed at 1 PM, arriving in Swartz Bay (Vancouver Island) on the northern tip of the Saanich Peninsula at 2:35 PM. We attempted to spend the ferry ride in our car to keep Apollo calm, but we were kicked out of our car (with Apollo) by staff as the ferry was departing, and sent to a small and crowded pet room. Apollo made a new friend with Louie the French Bulldog. Joanne and I chatted with a variety of other dog owners. The two cats in carriers spent the entire journey with BIG eyes, watching the room full of strange dogs. Poor kitties !
A few minutes off the ferry we stopped at a Thrifty Foods in Sidney, and bought some food for tonight and tomorrow, and filled our five gallon water jug. It took about another half hour of driving south to reach downtown Victoria. We checked into Royal Scot Hotel & Suites at 4:15 PM. I felt exhausted ! Apollo was THRILLED to be back at the Royal Scot, in an identical suite to the one that we were in last winter. I guess a 2500 km. cross-country journey was more than enough for all of us !
Tuesday ; Remembrance Day ; LEST WE FORGET
Mostly sunny, thin clouds, +9° C.
My father was a veteran of the second world war. Remembrance Day is a big deal to me.
At 10:30 AM we left our suite at Royal Scot and walked a half a block to the BC Legislature Building where Remembrance Day ceremonies were to be conducted at the Cenotaph. There were thousands of people lining Belleville Street in front of the Legislature Building, and on the massive front lawn, and all around the Inner Harbour. Too bad that the Legions, after probably a hundred years or so of organizing Remembrance Day services here have not yet realized that they need a sound system that transmits audio out further than a few hundred feet or so.
AND ... <sputter> ... too bad that people around our age (early 70’s) are still too stupid or too ignorant to STFU during observance of a few minutes of silence at 11 AM. TO REMEMBER ! I had to “shush” the couple standing beside us. Thousands of people around us and we have to be beside the self-centred ignoramuses that don’t know when to STFU ! ! ! ! !
<taking deep breath>
Apollo was extremely well behaved, surrounded by a lot of people and a lot of dogs. Good dog, Apollo ! After the ceremonies we walked back to our hotel, got the car, and went Wal-Martin’. Oh, joy ! <sarcasm> It shouldn’t, but it still always surprises me how large our first grocery bill is when we arrive at our winter destination, and we’re “starting from scratch”. Today we spent over $250 on groceries and supplies at Wal-Mart and Dollarama at Hillside Shopping Centre. You know ... where the two storey Wal-Mart is ! <rolling my eyes> What fun to ride from floor to floor, sending one’s shopping cart up and down the shopping cart escalators beside the people escalators. <more sarcasm>
Back at our hotel suite by around 2:30 PM we had a very late lunch, then Apollo and I went for a nap while Joanne went to the hotel laundromat downstairs to do laundry.
Wednesday ; Mostly sunny, +9° C.
A restful, slow day, getting caught up on chores ; paying bills, financial records keeping, stretching exercises, lymphedema massage, restaurant research, etc. Went for a walk in the afternoon to the Legislative Building to check on this week’s menu in the Parliamentary Dining Room. Watched Survivor and Amazing Race in the evening.
Thursday ; Light rain all day, +9° C.
Was up early for a 9 AM (Victoria) / 11 AM (Winnipeg) phone appointment with my gastroenterologist to review my recent colonoscopy findings. Polyps were removed, biopsies taken, ulcerative colitis / inflammatory bowel disease in clinical remission, so ... managed effectively. I would hope so, been at this rodeo for 35 years !
At Joanne’s request I made pancakes for breakfast.
Spent much of the afternoon giving Apollo an overdue haircut. We postponed both his haircut and mine until after our arrival here in Victoria. Will probably get my haircut next Monday.
Friday ; Cloudy, +9° C., light rain in evening.
After having lunch we left Apollo in our suite and walked to Thrifty Foods which is not quite one kilometre away. We bought some advertised specials and requirements for the supper I had planned to make tonight. I paid with a $50 gift certificate I had received as an honorarium from one of the National Research Council projects that I participated in during the last year.
When we returned back home to our suite after an absence of only 1¼ hours ... Apollo was barking. I found him beside the bed, facing the wall, barking with anxiety. FFS Apollo ... we rarely leave you alone, and when we do it’s not for very long. His separation / abandonment anxiety is difficult to endure.
Joanne received an e-mail from one of her cousins, written in French. It’s about some genealogical research findings on their maternal grandmother and her eight children, one of whom was Joanne’s mother, another of whom was the cousin’s mother. The attachments are social service agency reports about the grandmother’s and her children’s illnesses with tuberculosis, hospitalizations, temporary placements in orphanages, etc. in the early 1930’s, during “The Great Depression”. I began to read the reports aloud to Joanne. It was difficult. The cousin ended her e-mail with “get your handkerchiefs ready”. She wasn’t kidding ! I was choking back tears while reading this aloud.
I read only some of it aloud to Joanne. It’s a painful and lengthy story with more to read at another time. It helps me to understand that time better, in the context of what my father was experiencing during that era of “The Great Depression”. He left home at age 12 to fend for himself. He lied about his age and enlisted in the military at age 16, going off to fight in the Second World War just so he would have a roof over his head, a bed to sleep in, and food in his belly.
Our parents had a hell of a tough life, especially as children. And they succeeded magnificently in ensuring that we, their children, never had to endure what they did, and had a much better life and opportunities than they did. THANK YOU !
I prepared an Eggs Benedict concoction for supper tonight. With smoked sockeye salmon lox, readily available here on Vancouver Island. It was very good ! Well done, Daniel !
Saturday ; Overcast, 9° C.
Around 11:30 AM we took Apollo for a long walk and headed through the James Bay neighbourhood to the James Bay Community Centre to browse their fall “garage sale”. Each of us took a turn going inside to browse while the other sat outside on a bench waiting with Apollo. Neither of us found anything worth buying. From there we headed to the White Eagle Polish Hall where for three hours every Saturday home made Polish food is available for sale at Polka Perogis [sic], a food concession trailer in the parking lot. When we got there the trailer was closed, with a sign indicating that as of today, and for the next month, until they close for the winter season, their home made food sales were indoors, inside the hall.
Joanne waited outside with Apollo while I went inside to check it out. Two “Babas” (grandmothers) were in the kitchen making perogies, holubtsi (cabbage rolls) and borscht (beet soup). I bought a tray of their frozen cabbage rolls to try, and we will likely return for more Polish food in a month when the Polish Hall holds a “Christmas Market”.
We walked home to the Royal Scot where Apollo guzzled water, scarfed his lunch, and promptly fell deep asleep in his dog bed. HA HA HA ... not quite the “hiker” he used to be. Then again ... neither are we. HA HA HA HA HA !
About an hour later we headed out again, this time in the car, for a very late lunch. We went to Benjamin’s Café, a Filipino restaurant that occasionally has a buffet day, offering many Filipino specialty dishes, buffet style. Today was one of those buffet days. Joanne discovered that a few days ago while researching Victoria restaurants, and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try many Filipino specialty dishes.
WOW ! That was an excellent foodie experience !
DSK
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