December 12 to 18, 2024 ; Victoria, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

 Thursday ; Cloudy, light drizzle all day, +9° C. Not bad at all, especially in light of the fact that it is 26 below in Dugald at this moment (9 PM) ! ! ! And feels like 34 below with wind chill factor. HA HA HA !

We left our suite at 11 AM this for another long (5 ½ hr.) day of errands and shopping. First stop was Canadian Tire in Hillside Shopping Centre (What ? This silly mall again ? ? ?). Joanne and Apollo waited in the car while I went inside to buy myself a Christmas gift. I wandered around the store, probably 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, unable to find the automotive section ! HUH ? How the hell can a Canadian Tire not have an automotive section ? ! ? I searched for a store clerk, finally finding a woman wearing an ugly Christmas sweater restocking shelves. No name tag, no Canadian Tire shirt, just an ugly Christmas sweater, so I was uncertain whether she was even an employee.

ME ; Excuse me … where is the automotive section ?

HER ; Upstairs.

ME ; HUH ? Upstairs ? How do I get upstairs ? ! ?

HER ; Escalator. <she points over her shoulder>

I found the escalator, found the automotive section, found my Christmas gift, tried to pay while upstairs, was told I could only pay downstairs, couldn’t find a staffed checkout downstairs, used self checkout … <sigh>.

Back at the car, Joanne had decided since we were already in this silly mall, we should go to Wal-Mart for a few items. **** ! ! ! <fume> Drove around to the Wal-Mart side of the mall … much too far to walk … parked again … had a wonderful time shopping at Wal-Mart ! <sarcasm>

Found our way to Joanne’s choice for lunch, a hole in the wall Trinidadian restaurant named “Trini To De Bone”. We shared a beef roti and a pineapple soda. <shrug> Was okay … I guess. Overpriced !

Continued driving further and further from downtown to Eagle Creek Village, a shopping mall in the “high rent” View Royal neighbourhood. Shopped at Dollar Tree first, then Quality Foods Supermarket.

Arrived back home at 4:30 PM. Tired ! Napped with Apollo !

Victoria’s traffic is always congested, everywhere. Like rush hour, all the time, everywhere ! With ongoing “battles” between passenger vehicles vs. busses vs. pedestrians vs. bicycles on crowded, narrow, winding, hilly streets.

Friday the 13^th ; Cloudy, +8° C, very light drizzle / mist in the morning, strong winds in the afternoon and evening.

We left our suite at 11:45 AM for a long walk around the James Bay neighbourhood with three specific destinations planned. First stop was James Bay United Church for their weekly three hour pop-up thrift store. Joanne waited outside with Apollo while I went in first and browsed. Bought a pizza cutter wheel. We’ll leave it behind in our suite’s kitchen utensils drawer when we leave. Then I sat outside with Apollo while Joanne browsed, buying nothing.

Next stop was across the street, Red Barn Market, a small gourmet supermarket. Again Joanne waited with Apollo while I went in and browsed. Prices were a tad high, but some items on sale caught my eye, and I bought a bag of baked pita chips and two containers of ready to heat & eat specialty soups, a salmon chowder for me, and a French Canadian pea soup for Joanne. She doesn’t like fish or seafood chowders of any sort, and I can’t digest the ham in the pea soup. I waited with Apollo while she browsed.

Gee … he’s really a chick magnet. While I waited outside the church, then the grocery store, many women, young, old, and in between, stopped to admire Apollo. Good boy, Apollo. You just keep reelin’ ‘em in ! HA HA HA !

Last destination was Birdcage Confectionary, a small, corner store / convenience store, like a casse-croute in Quebec or an aborrote in Mexico. This store is noted for its fresh baked goods and hand made / home made chocolates. I bought a spinach & feta croissant, and a beef sausage roll for us to share for today’s lunch back in our suite. They were good. Although … a tad expensive for what they were ! That seems to be a recurrent theme here in Victoria in general, and more specifically in our old, elegant, upscale and somewhat snooty James Bay neighbourhood.

After lunch at home, and a nap for me and Apollo, we set off again at 3:45 PM, this time leaving Apollo in our suite, for a 4 PM free Christmas concert in the BC Parliament Building. Every day for the last few weeks before Christmas there is a free daily Christmas concert in the Parliament Building, featuring local choirs and bands. Today’s performance was two brass / wind instrument concert bands, each performing a half hour set. It was a pleasant outing, in the spectacular rotunda of the BC Legislature. I think we will return for a tour of the magnificent BC Parliament / Legislature Building before we leave Victoria at the end of January.

Saturday ; Cloudy, windy, +9° C.

We have just received an e-mail (at 7:30 PM) advising us that Apollo’s “big brother” Peeta’s life ended today. We send our sympathy to our friend Patti. Farewell and Godspeed, Peeta.

Our early (noonish) walk with Apollo was along the harbourfront to the west, our first time walking westerly along the harbour. There’s a lot more for us to explore in that direction, but today was a bit too windy.

At 2:30 PM we left our suite to attend a play at Belfry Theatre. We went there and back by bus. We had visited the theatre a few days ago to pick up our tickets and had decided at that time that parking near the theatre was going to be too much of a problem. I was a bit uncertain and anxious about taking the bus there and back, but it worked out very well.

The Belfry Theatre is in an old church building in the Fernwood neighbourhood. It’s a lovely old church, and repurposed / redesigned / reconstructed as a wonderful small theatre venue, seating a few hundred people, not a bad seat in the place.

Tonight’s production was “Mom’s The Word ; Talking Turkey”. “Mom’s The Word” is a collective of five women friends, playrights and actors, theatre legends here on the west coast of Canada, that started thirty-five years ago, writing their first “Mom’s The Word” play about the trials and tribulations of young motherhood. Over a period of thirty-five years they have written a number of sequels, relative to their ages and experiences over the years. They all seem to be in the vicinity of sixty years of age, one is a widow. This play is their perspective on Christmas ; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It was hilarious. It was tragic and sad. It was poignant. It was great !

We returned home at 7 PM. Apollo had been alone for 4 ½ hours. And apparently he had been a very (quiet) good dog !

At Patti’s request, we each gave him a big hug.

Sunday ; Sunny (how odd for Victoria during winter !), +7° C, calm / no wind.

We enjoyed our leisurely late morning walk with Apollo. I’m already “sun deprived”. Viewed next week’s schedule of free Christmas concerts at Legislative Building rotunda, will attend Tuesday noon concert.

Joanne went Christmas gift shopping by herself to Bay Centre this afternoon. Requires me to return to Bay Centre with her tomorrow to view / try on / approve gift purchase. <sigh>

We took Apollo for his afternoon (more like evening !) walk at 5:30 PM, then at 6 PM went to the fitness centre. While I did dumbbell weights work in the fitness room Joanne did aquatics exercises in the pool, then we both did hot aquatics in the hot tub. We need to find the motivation to do this more regularly.

Monday ; Mostly sunny again (how nice !), +7° C.

This morning we set off for a sightseeing drive around the James Bay and Oak Bay waterfront. Our first stop was Finest At Sea, a local fishing, processing, and retail operation … with a food truck. They operate a fleet of fishing boats, have a fish processing plant very near to our hotel, with a retail store attached, selling their products both fresh and frozen, and a food truck out front selling their products cooked and ready to eat. We’ll return some day to buy lunch from the food truck. Today we browsed, and bought some interesting food products in their retail store ; freshly caught, freshly processed, pickled herring rollmops, and some fresh halibut cakes. OOOOO … halibut is expensive ! But we knew that, having bought halibut before when visiting Bella Coola, Prince Rupert and Haida Gwai.

After shopping at Finest At Sea we drove along the James Bay and Oak Bay waterfront drives, all the way around the south end of the Sannich Peninsula to the Oak Bay Marina. We stopped a couple of times. Once to take Apollo for a long walk along a section of the waterfront that is designated as a leash optional dog park / dog walk area. We’re not entirely trusting of him in dog parks, especially this area with nothing but driftwood fences separating the dog walk area from traffic. Dogs Apollo’s size can simply slip underneath the fence. But he did meet off leash dogs, large and small, and responded each time with friendliness. HMPH ! He’s only “reactive” with some other dogs, usually large, young males, when both he and the other dog are leashed. Further along the drive we stopped again and Apollo and I walked down to the rocky, driftwood laden beach, and “beachcombed”. I was fascinated by the large amount of cedar driftwood pieces on the beach. Apollo was fascinated by the stinky kelp and other seaweeds. HA HA HA ! The path down was too steep for Joanne. She waited in the car.

Once back at home we had a late lunch, and I napped with Apollo. At 3 PM we walked to the Bay Centre. Yesterday Joanne found a clothing item she wanted to buy for me as a Christmas gift, but she needed me to try it on today to be certain. DONE ! We were back home at 4 PM. Apollo seemed to have remained quiet for the hour that he was left in our suite. Good dog, Apollo.

At 6 PM we went for our late walk with Apollo. At 6:30 PM we went to the swimming pool and hot tub, doing aquatics exercises in both.

At the corner of Belleville and Douglas, on the Empress Hotel side of the street, is a bronze statue of a man looking out over the Inner Harbor. On the ground beside him is a bronze statue of his dog, looking up at him. The dog statue is about the same size as Apollo. Apollo is puzzled why every time we walk by that statue, and he sniffs the dog’s butt, the dog statue doesn’t react / reciprocate. HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !

Good dog, Apollo ! <whispering> What a dolt !

Tuesday ; Raining steadily all day, +7° C. Yeah … this is what I expected Victoria’s winter to be !

After our early walk with Apollo we walked to the Parliament Building for today’s free daily Christmas concert in the rotunda at noon. Today’s concert was Voices In Motion, a byproduct of a research project. Voices In Motion is a choir comprised of people with memory loss, each memory loss person is half of a duo, accompanied by a caregiver / family member / friend, etc. It was formed to participate in a research project on the effects of music on memory loss. At the end of the research project, well … they saw no need to disband the choir, so it continues.

It was a wonderful concert. Excellent choice of songs, most of them not Christmas songs. And at the end of the concert I got to meet Beebee, the choir’s Saluki therapy dog. What a good girl ! As I heaped some attention on Beebee one of the choir’s members approached me to ask me about “my” dog. <blink blink> She had forgotten that Beebee was the choir’s mascot and therapy dog.

Apollo did not like being walked in the rain at 4:30 PM. At 5 PM we left our suite again to walk to the Vic Theatre, a repertory theatre, often featuring “foreign art” films. Vic Theatre’s tagline ; “embrace the unexpected”. Tonight’s feature was “Flow”, a weird and wonderful, wordless animation from Latvia. The main character is a cat, who through a series of serendipitous events joins forces with a capybara, a meerkat, a Yellow Labrador dog, and a large crane like bird to endure and survive an apocalyptic flood of the world. Sort of an “artistic license” interpretation of the story of Noah’s Ark. But … without Noah ! HA HA HA !

When we returned home around 7:30 PM Joanne prepared yesterday’s purchased halibut cakes, with a wild rice mix side dish and a bean & carrot vegetables medley. Good supper !

Wednesday ; Sunny, +10° C, a pretty nice day. Warm enough for me to do some work on our minivan downstairs in the underground parkade.

I spent much of today making phone calls to other hotels nearby with winter long term stay plans, arranging / making appointments to view their suites, or walking across the street in one instance, to view the rooms / suites at Days Inn On The Harbour. I think it is unlikely that I will find something better / more suitable than the Royal Scot, but I always like to assess / analyze / compare to be certain.

I also made arrangements to drive up to Cobble Hill, about an hour “up island” / north of Victoria, for an advance / preview visit to Xanadu Estate, our upcoming accommodations for February and March.

After lunch and a nap with Apollo, while Joanne walked to Thrifty Foods in James Bay to replenish groceries I went downstairs to the parkade and installed wheel well mouldings on the minivan. You know … the wheel well mouldings that Santa was supposed to put under the tree. HA HA HA ! OCD prevails again !

After our late walk with Apollo we went to the fitness centre and swimming pool to do exercises. Alas, the hot tub was out of order. Joanne prepared supper to be ready just in time for us to have supper while watching the season finale of Survivor. Congratulations to the winner, Rachel. Too bad Genevieve from Winnipeg was eliminated so close to the end.

DSK

December 5 to 11, 2024 ; Victoria, Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

 Thursday ; Cloudy, no rain, +8° C, as warm as it gets in Victoria in the winter.

Routine morning. Went for our morning walk with Apollo shortly before noon. Napped after lunch. Around 3 PM had the hotel’s shuttle drive me to the Paintless Dent Repair business to pick up our minivan. Nice work … dent is gone !

From Dentex I headed to The UPS Store to send Joanne’s travel wash kit for repair. I bought my first Briggs & Riley travel wash kit circa 1981 when I began to travel extensively for work. It was very expensive, but excellent quality and functionality. AND … guaranteed for life. Mine required a minor repair a decade or so ago. I had it repaired at a Briggs & Riley authorized luggage repair service centre in Tucson, Arizona. I bought another one, for Joanne, circa 1987 as we were preparing to move from Winnipeg to Ottawa. A few days ago, in Princeton, she noticed that a rivet on the handle had popped. Today I sent it to an authorized Briggs & Riley authorized luggage repair service centre in Vancouver.

When we purchased Apollo’s dog food in Grand Forks a week or so ago we received a Black Friday gift voucher worth ten dollars, valid this week only. When I was finished at The UPS Store I walked over to Bosley’s Pet Foods in the same mall and bought Apollo some biscuits. From Santa Claus !

I arrived back at home just before 5 PM. At 5 PM we dressed warmly and headed out to attend the Inner Harbour “Harbour Light Up” event. All the Christmas lights around the Inner Harbour were lit at 5 PM. Many of the very expensive looking boats (yachts ?) in the Inner Harbour were decorated with Christmas Lights. There were food vendors. We walked all the way around the large U-shaped Inner Harbour causeway / walkway. We each received a free small cup of hot chocolate and a free “designer” bakery shortbread cookie celebrating the event. AND … <sputter … blink, blink> … we witnessed the arrival … on the water, in the dark, of a small motor boat with … HA HA HA … Santa Claus. Alone ! HA HA HA … he had to tie up his own little motor boat to a cleat on the dock, in the dark, trying hard not to fall into the water while announcing his secret arrival with loud HO HO HO’s. Joanne, Apollo, and I had to scramble to get out of the way of MANY children shrieking and running to greet Santa’s arrival. HA HA HA !

There were many people. And dogs ! Apollo was very well behaved. Good boy, Apollo ! And he was not intimidated by being in a crowd, as one of our previous dogs, Bo, was.

We became chilly. And tired. And hungry. We returned home a little before 7 PM.

Friday ; Again … cloudy, no rain, +8° C, as warm as it gets in Victoria in the winter.

We had a busy and tiring day. After morning routines and exercises and walk we set off for another long day of shopping errands. Too long for Apollo, he spent more than four hours alone in the car, and by the time we returned to our suite at dusk he seemed frazzled by too much time left alone in the car. Sorry, Apollo.

We headed out at noon. Our first stop was Tillicum Centre, a large shopping mall, for purchase of lots of kitchen basics and essentials for our winter stay on Vancouver Island. Joanne had selected The Hot Dog Guys as the place to have our lunch. It is a highly rated upscale hot dog (oxymoron ?) kiosk in the mall, featuring kosher all beef hot dogs to satisfy Jews, and Halal chicken hot dogs to satisfy Muslims. And … satisfactory to at least some of us with ulcerative colitis / inflammatory bowel disease. HA HA HA ! Our “retro (all beef) chili cheese all beef hot dogs” were pretty good. Not as good as Wienerschnitzel in Yuma, Arizona, and … overpriced. Milkshake was pretty good as well.

Next we drove to another very large shopping mall, this one on on Saanich Road, to shop at Wal-Mart Supercenter. We have shopped at Wal-Marts all over the world … literally … and this one was, without a doubt, the ****ing goofiest Wal-Mart of all ! We drove into the shopping mall’s parking lot, and drove around and around and around, looking for Wal-Mart. Couldn’t find it. HUH ? ! ? Finally I rolled down my window and asked a woman who was walking back to her car where was the Wal-Mart ? “Oh … you can’t get to it from here”. HUH ? ! ? “You can only get to Wal-Mart from the underground parkade underneath this parking lot.” <blink blink>

I drove out of the parking lot, made an illegal U-turn, and entered the underground parkade. Parked the car, and began wandering around looking for an entrance to Wal-Mart. Followed signage to an elevator. Got on the elevator and realized we were parked on level 3 of 4 levels of the parkade. HUH ? ! ? Asked people on the elevator where the hell was Wal-Mart ? ! ? “OH … get off on the main floor”.

OK … we got off on the main floor. We were outdoors again. HUH ? But … nowhere near the outdoor parking. WHAT ? ! ? Now we were in some sort of inner courtyard. Bunch of store fronts and … WOO-HOO … a ****ing Wal-Mart entrance ! ! !

Entered Wal-Mart ! Well … not really ! Now we were in another elevator lobby. <blink blink> Got into the elevator. There were already people in there … facing the back wall ! HUH ? Where did they come from / get on ? Why are they all facing the back wall of the elevator ? OH … more elevator doors on the back wall. Eventually the elevator back doors opened and … lo and behold … we were in Wal-Mart. Or so we thought.

NOOOOOO ! We were on “level one” of Wal-Mart ! There were multiple floors to this Wal-Mart. And we had to get on and off elevators … and escalators …. with our shopping cart … to get to different departments on different floors. Beside each escalator was … a strange looking but quite effective shopping cart escalator. You pushed your shopping cart through a set of swinging doors, it was grabbed by a track like device, like you would find in an automatic car wash to propel your vehicle along, and it began to descend or ascend. You would get on the adjacent people escalator which travelled slightly faster up or down than the shopping cart escalator, and as you stepped off the people escalator, the cart escalator would sort of spit your shopping cart out at you.

Which works well enough, I suppose. But for newbies, like us, who are unfamiliar with what departments are on what levels, we were up and down like yo-yo’s ! ! !

When we were finally finished shopping, and through the self-checkout, we had no idea how to get out of the store, let alone find our car in the parkade, and find our way back out onto the street. Any street ! Maybe younger people (millenials ?) would find this “escape room” Wal-Mart amusing, but I sure as hell didn’t !

Especially since, thanks to my own impatience and stupidity, I left Joanne waiting for an elevator down (or up … who the hell knows ?) to the parkade, while I and the shopping cart used the escalators, and … <sputter> … I got hopelessly lost, with a shopping cart filled with a hundred and sixty bucks worth of purchases, so I couldn’t just say “**** this” and walk away from it, while I went up and down and all around trying to find the parkade level we were parked on. <taking a deep breath>

Eventually I found the car … and Joanne waiting. <sigh>

This evening we walked across the street to the Grand Pacific Hotel to see the Habitat For Humanity Christmas season fundraiser “Gingerbread Showcase” competition. Thirty-five organizations, or family / friend groups, constructed gingerbread creations. They were set up all over the public lobby areas of the very upscale Grand Pacific Hotel across the street from us. WOW ! WOW ! ! ! Some of these creations, all fitting within a two foot by two foot base took over two hundred hours to create ! For a $5 donation to Habitat For Humanity, one could vote on their favourite. Five bucks well spent !

Saturday ; +8 C, windy, cloudy, intermittent light rain.

This morning we walked a few blocks in light rain to the James Bay Community Centre to attend the annual Dickens Fair, a local arts and crafts Christmas market. I waited outside with Apollo while Joanne went inside and browsed. She found nothing she was interested in buying, and while waiting outside I overhead many complaints from people exiting about how overcrowded the event was. When Joanne came out she concurred. I chose not to bother going in.

We walked a few more blocks to the James Bay location of Thrifty Foods. Joanne waited outside with Apollo while I went inside to shop for some advertised specials. I needed assistance finding most of the advertised specials, and in most cases I received atrociously bad customer service. Some of these overpaid unionized supermarket employees need a refresher course in who and what need to be their priorities ! ! !

By the time we returned to our suite the rain had stopped and the clouds were attempting to break up. Ultimately they failed. Just as we were about to have lunch Room Service showed up to give our suite its weekly full service. We took Apollo to the hotel’s very comfortable front lobby and read the newspaper for half an hour.

Yesterday at one of the grocery stores I bought some freshly made salmon & caviar sushi for myself for today’s lunch. MMMMM … it was good !

We took Apollo for his late afternoon walk around 5 PM, then Joanne wanted to visit the Christmas light displays at Centennial Square. We drove there, intending to visit another grocery store afterwards to buy some of their advertised specials. It being Saturday night, and Centennial Square being close to some downtown (uptown? … I think where we live is “downtown”) theatres and the hockey arena, I could not find anywhere to park. We decided it would be better to return on a weeknight.

We drove to Fairway Market and shopped for advertised specials. We liked that supermarket and may return in future. On our way back home, driving south on Douglas Street, a main north / south arterial route, we inadvertently encountered the annual Christmas Truck Parade heading north through downtown / uptown (?) on Douglas. I pulled over to the curb and we watched the lengthy parade pass. I had pulled into a loading zone parking spot, but the many policemen directing traffic on Douglas Street at every intersection were too busy with the parade to care.

Back in our suite, as we were finishing eating supper at 8:30 PM, and SNL / Saturday Night Live was starting on the TV, Joanne wondered why it was starting so early !

“LIVE … FROM NEW YORK … IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT ! ! !”

<rolling my eyes upwards>

A few minutes ago, as I emptied my pants pockets in preparation for getting undressed and ready for bed, I was reminded … as I wandered through the supermarket earlier this evening, passing the produce section, I noticed a display of floral arrangements. I thought to myself, some husbands might be tempted to impulsively buy their wives some flowers. But not me ! I took the opportunity to get her what she told me yesterday she really really wants for a long winter of staying in hotel rooms. My pants pocket contained ten produce bag twist ties ! HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !

Sunday ; Sunny, +9° C during the day, but very chilly after the sun went down.

This afternoon we attended a Victoria Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert with Canadian Brass, a brass winds quintet, at the Royal Theatre. It was great ! I have had little to no opportunity to attend symphony concerts over the last twenty years, and today served to remind me how much I miss it.

We left home at 1:30 PM, for the 2:30 PM concert. We had the hotel’s shuttle drive us to the (north) downtown Royal Theatre. We walked around the area surrounding the theatre for about half an hour before going in and settling in our seats. This was a “pops” concert (popular music, as opposed to classical) conducted by the symphony’s pops conductor.

Canadian Brass was formed in 1970, and still has one of the original founding members leading it. I saw them perform before, forty to fifty years ago, with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

The concert ended at 4:30 PM. It was dusk when we left the theatre. It was chilly and became dark as we meandered back to our hotel, taking half an hour to walk the 1.2 km. home.

Apollo was resting quietly in our suite when we got home, and we hope he was resting quietly for the entire 3 ½ hours that we left him alone. Good dog, Apollo !

I prepared a wonderful Udon noodle chicken stir fry for supper. It turned out very well, especially in light of having less food basics and cooking resources than I have back in our condo home kitchen. Well done, Daniel !

Monday ; Mostly sunny, +8° C, chilly after dark, as usual.

WOO-HOO … you can teach an old dog new tricks ! Good boy, Apollo !

P.S. ; And to my dismay … he can teach himself new tricks ! Bad dog, Apollo !

Joanne had insomnia overnight. She was awake for much of the night. That’s rare for her, it’s me who regularly experiences insomnia. This morning I decided to treat us to a pancake breakfast. To no avail, for the most part. Joanne slept until 11:20 AM due to her insomnia. I made pancakes, and ate mine alone. Well … they were pretty, but tasteless, with poor tasting syrup. The other day at the grocery store I bought a small box of an unknown brand of pancake mix, and cheap syrup, instead of our usual pure maple syrup. The pancake mix made very pretty pancakes that tasted like … puffed air ! And the low calorie corn syrup tasted like … well … low calorie corn syrup !

I did some paint touch up work on the car this morning. While getting an estimate for the dent repair on the fender recently the estimator pointed out to me a crack in the paint at the top of the wheel well, caused by the dent on the fender above. After having the dent repaired my OCD required me to touch up the crack in the paint. And having done that, now I think I would like to add wheel well mouldings to the car. Is Santa listening / reading ?

After lunch and a nap for me and Apollo, we set off for a walk to the Bay Centre to view the Festival Of Trees / decorated Christmas tree exhibition / competition. The Bay Centre is a three storey downtown shopping mall, hence the need for Apollo to learn how to use escalators. HA HA HA … good dog, Apollo ! ! ! He was reluctant and confused on the first escalator, guarded but responsive to my “wait” and “go” commands on the second, then confident from then on. GOOD DOG !

Victoria seems generally dog friendly, and we keep seeing small dogs in places where they would be unwelcome in most cities. So today we simply walked into the Bay Centre and walked around wherever we wanted with Apollo in tow, short leashed. Nobody seemed to care, including the mall security guard that we passed by. We did not take him inside any of the store’s interiors, one of us waited outside when the other wanted to go inside a store to see something. <whispering> That resulted in me buying a Christmas gift at Purdys Chocolatier. Wrapped and bowed, please and thank you ! We returned home at 4:30 PM. Dusk !

Today’s outing reached the limit of Joanne’s ability to walk, considering her chronic heel discomfort (Achilles tendonitis). I used the i-Phone to measure our distance walked. OK … 3.5 km. is her limit. Good to know for future planning.

At 6 PM we went to the hotel’s fitness centre / pool / hot tub / sauna complex. While I worked out with weights in the fitness centre, Joanne did aquatics exercises in the pool. When we were done exercising we went for a soak in the hot tub … AHHHH … then while Joanne went into the women’s sauna (the men’s is still out of order) I showered, dressed, and returned to our room.

Only to discover … wait for it … not only a little dog barking, but … <sputter> … in the kitchen … the napkins were knocked off the dinette table, as were the placemats, the pepper shaker, my computer power cord, and … AND … <sputter> … still sitting on the table was the carrot cake, in a baking pan, in a plastic produce bag. HMPH ! The bag was torn, a sharp knife left inside the baking pan was sticking out of the torn bag, sharp point sticking upwards, and … AND … AND … two pieces of carrot cake were partially eaten ! ! ! ! !

<blink, blink> “YOU BAD LITTLE DOG ! ! !”

And while I’m scolding him … he’s flattening himself onto the kitchen floor, front legs splayed outwards, tail wagging, looking up at me with doe eyes … ! ! ! This is the pose he strikes to communicate “Look ! I’m a good little dog, I can do “down”, give me a treat please !” You ****ing little cur !

Tuesday ; Cloudy, +7° C.

This morning we combined Apollo’s noon time walk with a trip by car to the James Bay Thrifty Foods supermarket. After we finished our walk we drove to Thrifty Foods, because we needed to refill our five gallon water jug. Thrifty Foods is within easy walking distance, buy not while carrying a refilled water jug weighing fifty pounds. There is very limited parking at Thrifty Foods in James Bay, as is the case throughout our neighbourhood. Their small customer parking lot was full. I had to park the car in an adjacent residential underground parkade that has a few parking spots reserved by Thrifty Foods as “overflow parking” for their customers. Hard to get into and out of the parkade. Hard to get into and out of the cramped parking spots within the parkade.

At dusk we headed downtown by car to view Lights of Wonder, the Christmas lighting exhibition at Centennial Square, behind Victoria City Hall. While wandering around admiring the lights and taking pictures we chatted about pets with a pair of women about our age from Chemainus, near where we will be spending February and March, who were doing the same as us.

Wednesday ; Cloudy, no wind, +6° C.

Our late morning walk with Apollo was an exploration walk. We left our suite around noon, walked a block east to the Parliament Building, Joanne verified which entrance to use to reach the Parliamentary Dining Room, we studied the posted schedule of public tours and events, and made some plans, then continued on to the other side of the building to find the Parliament bus stop bays where it would be most convenient for us to catch a city bus. We crossed Government Street to the Royal BC Museum, and found our way to the Food Truck Village behind the museum. Not many of the food trucks were open, and those that were open had little appeal for us. We crossed behind the Royal BC Museum to Thunderbird Park, to view and take photos of the many totems in the park. And to verify the location of Old Spaghetti Factory across the street.

We wandered back west along Belleville Street, past the museum, past the Parliament Building, along the south side of the Inner Harbor, back to Royal Scot, our hotel. “WOO-HOO … kefir (yogurt) lunch time” said Apollo. Well ... metaphorically speaking. HA HA HA!

After lunch and a nap I worked on downloading a backlog of photos from the i-Phone

to the laptop and processing them. Joanne did laundry in the hotel’s laundromat. At 5:30 PM we took Apollo for his late afternoon walk, then Joanne and I went to the fitness centre and pool. I did weights exercises in the fitness centre, Joanne did aquatics exercises in the pool, then we both did hot tub exercises. I recently came across a set of aquatics exercises designed to be done in a hot tub and today we tried them for the first time. Nice ! I think they will become a regular part of our fitness routines.

Joanne prepared supper to be ready for 8 PM, and we ate supper while watching the second last episode of this season of Survivor.

DSK

November 28 to December 4, 2024 ; Christina Lake to Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

 Thursday ; Christina Lake to Princeton

The temperatures today fluctuated between -2 C and +2 C, depending on our elevation. At higher elevations there was snow on the ground, but not at the lower elevations. The highway was clear and dry all day.

We checked out of our motel in Christina Lake at 10:30 AM. We were now out of the Kootenay Rockies and in the Cascades range of mountains, a “kinder, gentler” mountain range, and where we had lived from 2007 to 2021.

Half an hour west of Christina Lake we reached Grand Forks. When I was doing my trip planning I thought Grand Forks was further from Christina Lake than that. First stop in Grand Forks was Total Pet to buy Apollo a large bag of his special dog food and a package of the treats matching the food. Today was the monthly seniors’ discount day at all Pet Valu owned stores, including Total Pet and Bosley’s in BC. Next stop was Save-On-Foods to buy some groceries and refill a water jug. Then I refilled the minivan with fuel at Mobil.

Our final planned stop in Grand Forks was to be Borscht Bowl, a local restaurant, to have Doukhobor Borscht for lunch. But because of my planning miscalculation, it wasn’t even noon yet, and we weren’t ready for lunch for at least another hour. So … no borscht today … we continued west on Hwy. 3.

When we crested the summit of Anarchist Mountain we were suddenly enveloped in thick fog / cloud, lasting for half of the 20 km. descent into the Okanagan Valley at Osoyoos. We bought some cheap burgers at Dairy Queen in Osoyoos, and supplemented with some items in our car fridge we ate our lunch parked in what we always called “Bo’s PP Park” overlooking Lake Osoyoos. It’s where we often ate lunch during the two summers we towed trailers from a camper trailer rental business in Summerland and set them up for their clients in one of the many RV parks in and around Osoyoos.

After lunch we continued westward, admiring the rather bizarre Spotted Lake, having not seen it in 3 ½ years. On impulse I decided to buy a bottle of the award winning Pomme Désirée apple ice wine from Forbidden Fruit Winery located between Osoyoos and Cawston. As has often been the case Forbidden Fruit’s current vintage (2023) Pomme Désirée won a gold medal at the Canadian Wine Competition. We first became familiar with that product of theirs when it won the Best Canadian Wine award in 2010. We consume very little wine, but I certainly do like that product, and wanted a bottle for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Soon we reached our prior “home village” of Keremeos. Joanne wanted to buy some take-out for supper at BoBoys, a local “hole in the wall” take-out restaurant that opened a year or two before we left Keremeos in 2021. We bought supper, then continued westbound for another 13 km. until reaching Riverside RV Park Resort, our home from 2007 to 2021. We wanted to visit, for old time’s sake. Our dog Ozzie’s and cat Emma’s ashes are scattered there.

The place has changed considerably in the last 3 ½ years, and not for the better. It has become overdeveloped / overbuilt, with buildings and vehicles covering every square inch of every lot. Looks like … well … a bazillion other trashy “trailer parks”, which is NOT how it started in 2006, its first year of development, and the year we bought our lot. We are very glad that we sold and left when we did.

We pulled out of Riverside RV Park Resort at 4 PM. It was dusk ! We arrived at our motel in Princeton at 4:45 PM, fifteen minutes after darkness ! ! !

Friday ; Princeton

Another rest day. So … we rested. Especially Apollo ! HA HA HA ! “No, no … I don’t need to go outside. It’s very cold out there ! Maybe I could just pee indoors ? You know … like foster dog Pika did !” HA HA HA ! NO !

We slept late. Got a late, slow start to the day. I uploaded the first week of this trip’s journal / daily diary to my blog. Around noon we drove into town … our motel is on the highway, on the edge of town … to check out a bakery café for lunch. We didn’t like the owner / baker. We didn’t like her very limited offerings. We especially didn’t like her outrageous prices. Goodbye !

On impulse we went next door to a discount / thrift store. Privately owned / operated. By an obnoxious freedummy. Looked around … left ! HEY … axe THIS tax, asshole !

We went to Save-On-Foods, the grocery store, and bought stuff for both lunch and supper today. We returned to our room and had lunch. Apollo and I had a long nap. HEY … that’s what rest days are for, n’est-ce pas ? After napping I worked on planning next spring’s return home, comparing identical routing and timing, in reverse, versus new routing, different timing, etc. No conclusions reached. Joanne worked on “arrival in Victoria” priorities planning ; grocery shopping, etc. Conclusions reached !

Saturday ; Princeton to Langley

-2° C this morning in Princeton. +8° C this afternoon in Langley. Cloudy all day. Occasional light drizzle. No snow on ground once west of Manning Provincial Park.

We checked out of Evergreen Motel in Princeton at 10:40 AM and continued west on Crowsnest Hwy. 3. Shortly after leaving Princeton Joanne saw a Bald Eagle on her side of the road. I did a U-turn and went back to see if I could get a picture of it. I think I got some pictures. I won’t know until I download the photos from the i-Phone to my laptop, probably tomorrow. I’m too tired tonight.

We stopped at Flying J in Hope to refill with fuel and eat lunch. Crowsnest Hwy. 3 ends at Hope (having started at Medicine Hat … remember ?). After Hope we travelled west on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1. Hello, old friend ! Starting at about Chilliwack the traffic became Lower Mainland / Vancouver area “urban congestion”.

We arrived in the city of Langley at 3 PM. Before checking into our motel we went to the very large Willowbrook Mall across the street to check out T&T Asian Supermarket. The mall has thousands of parking spots … none of them empty ! And the mall has hundreds of stores … all of them crowded ! Especially T&T Asian Supermarket ! We browsed the store, not recognizing much of what was being sold there. Although I was intrigued by the sushi with caviar. Seems like we are in a bit of a “high rent” district.

Given that our motel was across the street from Willowbrook Mall it was surprisingly difficult to get there ! Had difficulty driving a short distance from Point A to Point B ! After checking into our motel room I decided to walk to Safeway in the same mall to buy a few grocery items for tomorrow. WHEW … more difficulty getting from Point A to Point B, this time on foot. Joanne (and her sore foot) stayed in the room with Apollo.

At 7 PM we all loaded into the car to drive the short distance to Abu’s Kitchen, the restaurant Joanne had selected for tonight’s supper. <sigh> It no longer exists ! Back to Safeway to buy some “ready to eat” foods for supper tonight, and for lunch tomorrow on the ferry to Vancouver Island.

Joanne seems very tired from the cross-country travel, despite the slow pace we set.

Sunday ; Langley to Victoria, Vancouver Island

+5° C this morning in Langley, +8° C this afternoon in Victoria, sunny … a very nice day considering the date ! I hope there will be a lot more days like this during our winter on Vancouver Island. Probably not though. Vancouver Island usually has quite rainy winters.

We checked out of our motel in Langley at 10:30 AM and headed for the Vancouver ferry terminal at Tsawwassen, arriving there at 11:20 AM to catch the 1 PM ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island. The ferry left on time at 1 PM and arrived on time at Victoria’s Swartz Bay terminal at 2:30 PM. Once off the ferry we headed south down the Saanich Peninsula towards downtown Victoria. About halfway to downtown we stopped at a supermarket, Country Grocer, to purchase a few grocery items to get us through tonight’s supper and tomorrow’s breakfast. We arrived downtown and checked into our hotel, Royal Scot Hotel & Suites, shortly after 4 PM. Our hotel suite is excellent ! Apollo approves heartily !

I brought all our stuff in from the car, Joanne unpacked, it was dark by the time we were finished at 5 PM. We took Apollo for a brief walk, to the BC Legislature Building, half a block from our hotel. Lots of Christmas lights on the Legislature Building, all around the Inner Harbour, and across the street on the Fairmont Empress Hotel. We’re looking forward to lots of downtown exploring, day time and night time. But not today ! We’re tired from the journey from home to here.

Monday ; Victoria, Vancouver Island

Cloudy, temperature +8° C.

Shopping day ! As was the case with our winters in Portugal and Mexico, the first day in a new location requires a hefty grocery shopping trip. We spent most of today, from about noon until about 5 PM running errands and grocery shopping at Hillside Shopping Centre, another massive shopping mall. Again … with thousands of parking spots, and all occupied ! And crowded stores, and food court, and walkways, etc.

And while the shopping centre’s web page advertises the mall as “dog friendly”, according to a clerk at the mall information desk, it is not ! So … we brought Apollo with us today, expecting he could accompany us in the mall, even if not allowed in the grocery stores, but … he spent most of the day in the car. And behaved well. Good boy, Apollo.

Before our late morning walk with Apollo, all the way around the BC Legislature grounds, I checked the minivan’s tire pressures again, having needed to adjust them in Swift Current. Or Medicine Hat. Or some other God forsaken prairie town in the middle of a blizzard … I don’t remember. The tires needed adjustment again today. First stop was Kal Tire, where a service technician saw me pull up to their air hose sticking out through a hole in a service bay door, and promptly ran out to offer me assistance. Thank you very much, Kal Tire. (And … eat shit, Canadian Tire in Medicine Hat !) Next stop was Victoria Car Wash. Great car wash service, great price ! And … thank goodness for our new GPS navigation system. It makes getting around from place to place in a new city pretty darn easy.

Once at Hillside Shopping Mall it was difficult to figure out exactly where within the mall we needed to go (food court, Dollarama, Wal-Mart, Thrifty Foods) and where was the best area to park. Or more precisely … try to find a parking spot ! We had lunch in the food court, Joanne chose pizza from a local pizzeria, and I had a steak and avocado rice bowl from Subway. I surmise that it was the steak meat that was the likely cause of the severe gastro-intestinal distress (aka food poisoning !) I have been experiencing for the last four hours, starting at 4 PM ! ! ! ! !

**** ! I sort of accepted that happening repeatedly last winter in Mexico. But for it to happen in Victoria, BC on our first full day here really pisses me off !

Once we arrived back at Royal Scot (our hotel) we unloaded our purchases at the hotel’s covered breezeway / outside door nearest our room, then Joanne worked on putting everything away while I took the car to the underground parkade. Coming back to our room I met an elderly couple from a room down the hall from us, with their puppy Daisy. I approached them to ask if they might be interested in a mutual exchange of pet sitting services to minimize the amount of time we or they need to leave our dogs alone in the hotel rooms. Yes, yes, they are, but … they’re only here until the end of this week. DARN ! Nevertheless I brought Apollo out of our room to meet their Daisy, a ten month old Border Collie & Australian Shepherd mix. There’s a picture of her in the dictionary, under the definition of “high strung” ! HA HA HA ! She promptly snapped at Apollo’s ear, fortunately getting nothing but a mouthful of fur. Sorry, Apollo !

Around 11 PM the hotel’s fire alarm went off. We put on heavy sweaters, harnessed and leashed Apollo, and went outdoors. The fire truck seemed to take a long time to get here, considering we are half a block from the BC Legislature Building, the Fairmont Empress Hotel, the Inner Harbour … the epicentre of Victoria. It took the firemen about half an hour to deal with a small kitchen fire in one of the suites.

Tuesday ; This morning we went for a leisurely walk about four blocks to the Thrifty Foods Supermarket in our neighbourhood. I waited outside the store with Apollo while Joanne went inside to check out the store and buy a couple of grocery items. Then she waited outside with Apollo while I went inside to buy some antihistamine at the store’s pharmacy. Apollo was a very good dog, waiting patiently, soliciting attention from friendly passersby. Joanne wanted to check out two thrift stores in the building next door to the supermarket. While she waited with Apollo I went into the clothing thrift store, browsed, and bought a pair of pants. Then I waited with Apollo while she went into the other / non-clothing thrift store and browsed, buying nothing.

Right after having lunch at “home” (in our suite) I went out to run some errands I have been eagerly awaiting for the opportunity to do. First I drove to Lugaro Jewellers, the authorized Rolex dealer in downtown Victoria, where I dropped off my Rolex watch for its regular (every five to ten years) servicing. I have had it serviced about every seven years since I bought it in 1987. I last had it serviced about seven years ago in Yuma, Arizona.

From Lugaro Jewelers I went to Dentex Paintless Dent Repair, a PDR auto service shop in downtown Victoria. I got an estimate, and made an appointment to drop the car off tomorrow afternoon for dent repair service on Thursday. Last year, while we spent the winter in Mexico, my car was dented while in the Dugald Estates parkade. But not by another vehicle, it was dented by having a ladder fall against it, or perhaps being bumped hard by a heavy tool box, or something like that. So, thanks to some unethical workman or (?) I’m going to be out three hundred and thirty-nine bucks ! Thanks a lot, mystery asshole ! As soon as the repair is completed I will cancel the appointment that I have for next April at a paintless dent repair shop in Winnipeg. When I called them last April for an appointment, they had a one year backlog / waiting list ! ? !

When I returned “home” I took a nap with Apollo while Joanne went to the hotel’s laundromat and did laundry. And while waiting for washer and dryer cycles to finish she checked out the hotel’s many amenities ; library and games room, shuffleboard and pool table room, swimming pool, hot tub, sauna rooms, fitness centre, etc.

Around 6 PM we went for a long leisurely walk, mostly to see the BC Legislative Building’s Christmas lighting, but also to wander around the Inner Harbour area, the Fairmont Hotel Empress, and Confederation Fountain, admiring all the Christmas light displays. And … for Apollo to pee about six thousand times … <rolling my eyes>. After about an hour of wandering around we became chilly so we returned home to prepare supper.

Wednesday ; Temperature +8° C this afternoon, mix of sun and clouds, a pleasant day. The afternoons are pleasant, the evenings are chilly.

This morning we went for a walk to The Empress, to take some photos at the “Meet Me Under The Mistletoe” display advertised in the tourist information regarding Christmas in downtown Victoria. We had some difficulty finding it. We asked an elaborately dressed doorman. He didn’t know where it was. HMPH ! We wandered around aimlessly looking for it until Joanne asked an employee who was outside, looking like she was on a rest or lunch break. She wasn’t sure, but told us where it had been located last year. We followed her directions, and found it. About fifty feet from the doorman ! Somewhat hidden in an alcove, but still … ! I suppose it’s likely he did not give up a job as a rocket scientist to become an Empress Hotel doorman !

We took photos under The Empress’s mistletoe. We crossed the street and wandered around the Inner Harbour for awhile, until it seemed that Apollo was getting cold, so we wandered back to our suite to have lunch.

After lunch I drove the minivan to the Paintless Dent Repair business and left it there to be repaired tomorrow morning. I phoned the Royal Scot (our all suites hotel) and asked for their shuttle driver to pick me up and return me “home”.

I napped with Apollo. At about 5:30 PM we took him for his evening walk, then at 6 PM Joanne and I went to the swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, and fitness centre. While Joanne exercised in the swimming pool I exercised in the fitness centre, then joined Joanne in the swimming pool for some pool exercises. We soaked in the hot tub. AHHHHH ! Joanne went into the women’s sauna. The men’s sauna was out of order, so I showered and dressed and returned to our suite. Where I found … <ahem> … a little dog … barking ! ! ! Bad dog, Apollo ! ! ! He was so overjoyed at my return that he was oblivious to my scolding. <sigh> We were hopeful that he was comfortable enough here already that he would remain quiet in our suite while left alone for only an hour. But … NOOOOO !

Joanne prepared supper to be ready at 8 AM, just in time to sit down in front of the TV and eat while watching Survivor.

DSK