Wed 23 Sep 2009

Closer To Home

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, Sept 2009 Maui, Vacation
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Today we snorkeled at Kama’ole Beach Park III, or Kam 3 (Kama’ole Beach is broken in to three sections, with Kam 1 and Kam 2 further to the north). Kam 3 is across the street from our condo, so we were able to walk there. Because we were up so early (see previous post), we got there before almost anyone else – just a handful of other people were there. Which was cool, though Lis remarked that it also felt a little scary – she was glad when it became more populated as the morning progressed.

We were on the south end of Kam 3, and snorkeled between Kam 3 and the Kihei boat launch to the south. There was lots of coral here, but at first it seemed like not as many fish. But then as we got nearer to the boat launch there were more and more fish, so that when all was said and done I’d say it rivaled Maluaka beach from yesterday – except for no turtles. We did see a couple of moray eels, though (or maybe the same one two times – hard to say) which was really neat but also kinda scared me – he just sits there with his mouth open, showing his scary teeth and looking all badass – I swam quickly out of range each time.

When we were done snorkeling we hung out on the beach a little, watching some kids boogie boarding and talking with a nice (very tanned) old lady about where to see turtles. Then we headed back to the condo, talking about maybe heading right out to lunch after showering – only to discover that it was not yet 10am – a little early for lunch. So we had some snacks and hung out – I worked on my last blog entry and Lis sat on the lanai and read.

We decided to have lunch at the Four Seasons in Wailea – Lis has read a lot about it, and her dad ate there and said the view from the lunch restaurant (near the pool) is spectacular. Plus Lis wanted to check out the facilities because whenever we’re able to swing it (usually need to score pretty good deals), we like to stay at a Four Seasons.

The view was definitely amazing – we could see the beach and the snorkelers and swimmers and surf-board-paddling-ers, plus the West Maui Mountains and the island of Lanai in the background, and the clouds hadn’t moved in yet (as they’ve done every afternoon) so the sky and water were beautiful shimmering shades of blue.  There was also a guy in a flowered Hawaiian shirt wandering the beach with a metal detector, which I thought was a fun counterpoint to Four Seasons swankiness.

Lunch was good, and the waitress was wonderful to us even though we split a burger and drank only water (more out of seeing how big the burgers were than out of cheapness, though cheapness was a close second since the burgers were 20 bucks). Note from Lis:  25% tip for this waitress.

Afterwards we walked around a bit and Lis checked out the exercise room and spa. It is really a gorgeous hotel – maybe we’ll be able to finagle a stay there someday – heaven knows this is Lis’ plan. Though I have to say that I prefer the messy strip mall sprawl of Kihei to the gorgeous manicured sameness of Wailea.

After lunch we drove in to North Kihei to a farmer’s market, which sounded better on paper than it actually turned out to be, so we didn’t get anything. We were able to see some of North Kihei, though, and I must say I was unimpressed. The beaches aren’t swimmable, and the condos/hotels didn’t seem nearly as nice as in South Kihei.

After this we went to the grocery store to get some additional supplies, and stopped by Snorkel Bob’s to pick up the complimentary canvas bags that we got for our purchases and bookings yesterday but which they had been out of. Our girl Katie wasn’t there, but her replacement was just as friendly and helpful (we didn’t get her name, unfortunately) and we came away with THREE pretty good quality canvas bags, one with a sea turtle on it, one with a yellow tang, and one with a shrimp. The girl said that people from Minnesota always think the shrimp is a mosquito, which I think is a sad story (an aside: how awesome that there are hardly any bugs here!).

Back to the condo for the afternoon, then dinner at Sansei’s. We made sure that we got there in time for the early bird special – 25% off from 5:30 to 6 pm. In fact, we got there at 5, and so had some time to kill. There was a consignment shop nearby where we scored an old-lady swimsuit for Lis for 8 bucks (she had been wishing she had a second swimsuit for evening swims – with only one your suit is still wet the next morning). It has polka dots and a skirt and Lis is cute as a bug in it – I’m going to try to talk her in to letting me post a picture here or on Facebook or both.  Lis' Old Lady SwimsuitUpdate:  I can’t get her to pose for a photo (at least not one I can post online), so I’ll have to settle for a pic of the suit itself – here it is. 

Dinner was good, and we were right across the street from a ball field, where we watched the practices of what I would guess as a 7th grade football team and 7th grade cheerleading squad. They were so young and cute. Just as we were leaving the restaurant, the sun was going down, so we stopped to watch it, and Lis is pretty sure she saw the Green Flash as the sun dropped in to the water.

After dinner we did some laundry and consulted our guidebooks to plan our day tomorrow. We are going to head to the UpCountry – start out at the Halealaka Crater and try to hit the lavender farm and the goat farm. And, if we have any energy left, attempt boogie boarding in the afternoon at Kam III. We’ll see how many of these things we actually manage…

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Wed 23 Sep 2009

Swimming with the Fishes

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, Sept 2009 Maui, Vacation
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Up again with the birds – this time Lis is up with me. It’s quite nice, sitting on the lanai in the early morning, listening to all the birds. We’re hoping to keep our early rising ways the whole trip.

Yesterday we went snorkeling at Malu’aka Beach in Wailea. It was super fantastic. The books said to go to the South end of the beach, and that if you swim out toward where the tour boats were anchored you’ll see turtles. A person we passed as we walked toward the beach also told us that the good snorkeling was to the south (or to the left as you face the ocean). So we felt well informed.

The beach was pretty, and not crowded. We put on our sun protection shirts (We are very well covered at the beach. Lis has a swim suit with legs that come down to just above the knee, and I wear my tri pants that do the same, and then we both have long sleeved sun protection shirts, and yesterday Lis bought a sun protection swim cap – we are just this side of the burkini) and snorkel gear and headed in. It didn’t take long to hit lots of coral and lots of fish. It was really great – there were tons of different varieties, large and small, all brightly colored. The coral was very pretty, too. A great site – highly recommend it (one of our guide books said it was their favorite snorkel place).

But no turtles. The guide book said to head in the direction of the tour boats, so we started to, but this took us in to deeper, murkier water with mostly sand bottom (thus no fish). We did this for a while and didn’t see anything, and were thinking about heading back to where we knew there were tons of fish. Then we saw some divers heading back to shore, and asked them if they had seen any turtles. They said “Try over there to your left” and we did and voila – turtles! It was very exciting.

We hung out with them for a while, waiting for them to surface. Then one did, swimming about 5-10 feet from us toward the surface. Just before it surfaced, I did, too, so I was able to see its adorable turtle head break the surface – they are very cute this way, and their colors are deeper seen above water. Later Lis told me that she did the same thing (see how we’re meant for each other).

Meanwhile a tour boat of divers arrived, and some snorkelers, so it started to get somewhat crowded – though it was cool to be at the surface and watch a diver with an underwater video camera swim down and film a turtle. But we decided to head back to the less popular snorkel area where the fish were.

Once there we were swimming around, looking at fish, when I saw a turtle resting on the bottom about 6 feet or so below us, just underneath a huge school of long yellowish fish. The water was pretty clear, because pretty shallow, so we had really good visibility. It was very exciting. We floated above them for a bit, watching, and then we surfaced. I said “Wow, how cool.” Lis said “Yeah!” I said “And all the fish are so awesome, too.” Lis said “What? Aren’t we looking at the fish?” I said “You don’t see that turtle directly below you?” We both put our heads back down and I pointed and I heard her say under water “Wow!!”

We stayed with him (her? Lis just told me that you can tell by the length of their tails – boys = long, girls = short – but I don’t remember now anything about the turtle’s tail) until he surfaced, then watched him from above water like before. This one, though, stayed at the surface and started swimming along, so we swam along about 6 feet behind. He went up for air three more times, then dived back down and settled himself in to the sand. The cool thing about this whole episode (besides the awesomeness of swimming with a sea turtle, of course) is that we had him to ourselves – no other snorkelers or divers noticed him.

We snorkeled for a bit longer and then decided that we were done. On the way back to the car we walked through the grounds of what used to be the Maui Prince hotel, which were very pretty. At one point we were walking under a grove of plumeria trees. At the car rental place, the woman who checked us out was wearing a plumeria flower in her hair, and it was so pretty that I asked her about it. She said that that one was fake, but that she has a tree in her yard and often wears a real one, and that they are very fragrant. I thought to myself then that I wanted to wear a plumeria in my hair at some point this trip. So here we were walking by some plumieras, with tons of fallen flowers on the ground. I picked up one that had just fallen and was in good shape – it smelled divine – and put it over my ear and felt very Hawaiian.

We were now starving, so went to the condo and showered and then went in search of food. The woman at the condo office had given us a list of local restaurants that they recommended – we picked Café O’Lei. It’s in a strip mall among a bunch of other strip malls along the Kihei main drag, and was very good. I had a turkey sandwich and Caesar salad, and Lis had mahi mahi. At a table near us were some girls with big beautiful fruity drinks with pineapple slices and umbrellas. Of course one must have fruity umbrellas drinks in Hawaii – I asked what they were. The waiter said Lava Flows – blended rum, pineapple and coconut layered with strawberry puree – a definite must-have. We decided to wait until dinner, though – any alcohol now and I would settle down for my nap right there at the table.

After lunch we went in search of a grocery store, and found a nice natural foods store in the next mall over – and also Snorkel Bob’s. I had read Snorkel Bob’s tips for saving the reef yesterday, and he seemed pretty hard core environmentally, so I thought that would be the place to get recommendations for Snorkel trips and things that wouldn’t be bad. Also, Lis wanted to get some stuff (such as the aforementioned sun protection swim cap). There was a very cute girl named Katie working there who spent all kinds of time with us, helping us find what we needed and also setting up a Molokini snorkel trip for us and making our Old Lahaina Luau reservations – she was very friendly and helpful, and I was glad that Snorkel Bob’s lived up to my expectations as a neato place.

We came back to the condo and rested for the rest of the afternoon, then set off in search of pupus for dinner. This time we went to Moose McGillicuddy’s, because Lis had read somewhere that it was good. We ordered Lava Flows and tacos off their happy hour menu, and they were good, but the service was slow and the waitress became mildly hostile when she realized that we were cheapskates ordering cheapskate things (I believe that our failure to add avocado to our tacos was the last straw). And it was a little young and loud and party-y. Plus we only got pineapple with our Lava Flows – no umbrellas. We decided we had no desire to come back, and when we got back to the room and consulted our local restaurant list, we saw that Moose McGillicuddy’s was not on it. So now we know – don’t deviate from the list.

Petty Note from Lis: It is very normal for us to go to a restaurant and share a meal or just order appetizers, and when we have not spent a lot of money I tend to tip higher – 25% or more. When we don’t order much and because of that the waitress is a bitch (dirty look after we say no to an offer of guacamole, for example) I believe I should tip lower. I had already decided that this evening’s waitress did not even deserve the normal 20% we tip when we order a full meal. I decided to tip 15%. But there was the Oregonian dilemma. Those of us from Oregon pay no sales tax, so everywhere else I am never sure whether to tip on the tax. I grew up in California and my mother taught me not to tip on the tax, but being the researcher that I am, I have learned that many people DO tip on the tax and that you may be considered a cheapskate if you do not. So now I usually tip on the tax. At Moose McGillicuddy’s, I wanted to tip 15% and NOT on the tax, but Mary said that would be too cheap. So I did what she said. But I immediately regretted it, especially when we left and the hostess said, “Goodbye!” and our waitress standing with her couldn’t even look at us. So …. Watch out, next bitchy waitress we come across. You’re not gettin’ no tip on the tax! Okay, back to Mary.

Back in the room we played Who Wants To Be a Millionaire (boardgame) until about 8pm (Lis won, but I made a run at the end), and then off to bed, where I was out by 9pm. I slept pretty well, but Lis was awakened by loud people from the condo complex across the street (our condo complex is wonderfully quiet, and has some fairly strict no-noise rules, which is partly why we chose it). They have awakened her both nights so far, so she is a little bumming. But otherwise it was a fabulous day.

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Tue 22 Sep 2009

First Day in Maui

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, Sept 2009 Maui, Vacation
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mauiIt is 6:15am on our first full day in Maui – I tried to convince my body to sleep longer, but it thinks it is 9:15 and wants to get up. So here I am. But it’s very lovely, sitting here listening to the birds, while everyone else is asleep (Lis is still gamely trying to sleep, I hope successfully). There are lots of birds and beautiful tropical flowers on and around the lanai, which is where I’m writing this – a very excellent start to the day.

Yesterday we got up early to get to the airport for our 9:45am flight. We were (uncharacteristically) already almost completely ready to go – just had to shower and change the sheets and kiss the kitties goodbye and we were on our way – ON TIME (or pretty close). Lis had a master plan of food and entertainment for the 5 plus hour flight – she had rented a DigE player from AlaskaAir, and determined where we should get food for the plane (Big Town Hero) – so the flight went quite well (though the huge 8″ sandwiches that we got, which we thought would be enough for a meal and a snack, turned out to be mostly bread, and the bread turned out to be mostly air – so we each ate our entire sandwiches and then had to buy one of the airline’s snack packages. Ah well – best laid plans and all…)

We watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and I LOVED IT!! LOVED IT!! It was such high silliness, from start to finish – and I am a girl who is a sucker for nonsensical silliness. I had read reviews that said it was a so-so movie but you should see it for Amy Adams, who steals the show as Amelia Earhart, and while I loved Amy Adams as I always do (plus she could not have looked any hotter in her little Amelia Earhart outfit), I think it was Hank Azaria as Kahmunrah who really stole the show – he was HI-larious. So I was much pleased. We also watched an episode of CSI:NY, and then Lis watched an episode of Bones while I listened to music and watched (minus audio) the end of My Life in Ruins, the movie that the person in front of me was watching on her DigE player. It looked mindless but mildly entertaining, plus it was shot on location in Greece so it was beautiful – so we might watch that on our DigE player on the return trip.

And then we arrived. We got our baggage, and then Lis went insane at the tourist literature kiosk and we came away with a stack of tourist brochures 2 inches high, which we perused at bedtime (though we’re still not done by any means). And we bought ourselves some flower leis (tuberose and some round purplish flower that reminds me of a clover flower) from a lovely lady selling them in the baggage claim area. Lis was very pleased, as she had done research (she has logged countless hours researching this trip – I have the best travel agent ever!) that said not to pay for the relatively expensive lei greeting, as you could just buy them at the airport – so we paid 10 buck each for our leis, rather than 25-40 bucks each for our lei greetings.

It was pretty hot by the time we got our rental car and got on the road. It was about 2pm, which meant our bodies thought it was 5pm, so they were starting to want some feeding. We came to the condo and checked in (it is gorgeous – more later) and then hit the road in search of food. We had wanted to go to Roy’s – we had eaten lunch at Roy’s in Carmel with Lis’ parents and really liked it – and were saddened to learn that the Roy’s in Kihei is closed. This is still another one on the island, but they only serve dinner. So after some consulting of Lis’ travel notes and our iPhone Urban Spoon app, we decided to go UpCountry to the town of Makawao, to a Mexican Restaurant called Polli’s. Our hosts had said that they really liked this town, and they really liked this restaurant – so off we went.

We were concerned that maybe it would take too long to get there, as for various reasons time had passed and it was nearing 4pm (7pm for our bellies, who are used to being fed around 6) and we were quite hungry. But it was a gorgeous drive through sugar cane fields and tropical flowers, and the town was cool (a little trendy, though – reminded me somewhat of Cannon Beach), and the restaurant was good, and because it was early we were able to order off the happy hour menu – we had two drinks and three pupus, and the whole thing came to 15 bucks. We’re hoping that we can maintain our early dining ways our whole stay, and hit the happy hours and pre-sunset specials for dinner.

After dinner we walked around the main drag a bit, bought some local beer and some sugar free desserts at a People’s Co-op type store we found, and then drove back to Kihei (where the condo is) a different way, through the town of Pa’ia, which is another cool but somewhat trendy little UpCountry town. It appeared to have a lot of neat places to eat and another health food type store, so we will probably be back (my friend Toni says there’s a good restaurant there we should try).

We didn’t get back to the condo in time to watch the sunset from the pool, which I guess is pretty awesome – we did get to see a little of the sunset from the car. Back at the condo, we were fairly wiped out, but also a little hot and sticky from being out in the heat of the day, so we went to the pool for a dip. The upper pool has a little waterfall – it was pretty neat, and we had it to ourselves (it was dark by this time). We didn’t swim long, but it definitely hit the spot – I felt refreshed, and able to unpack a bit before bed.

I loved driving around the UpCountry – the cane fields and flowers are gorgeous, and then once you turn around and start heading back down, you have these sweeping views of the cane fields you’ve just driven through, plus the ocean and/or Haleakala Mountain, and neighboring islands in the distance. It was really spectacular.

There are some other UpCountry places I hope to get to this trip – there is a lavender farm and a goat farm, an orchid nursery and a winery, and a cool sounding hike along the Haleakala crater – I hope we can do at least of few of these things, as they sound fun in themselves, plus I really, really like the UpCountry.

For the morning, though, I want to go snorkel with some turtles – so maybe it’s time to go roust my sweetie and get this show on the roadJ

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Sun 2 Aug 2009

Luna All Women’s Triathlon – August 2009

Posted by Lis under Everything
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Yesterday Mary and I did the Luna All-Women’s Triathlon, Tri-It Division. It was the second time for each of us, but the first time we did it together. My first time was two years ago. Last year I was injured and couldn’t participate and that was Mary’s first year.

The first part of the Tri-It is a ¼ mile swim in Blue Lake (noted for e-coli breakouts due to plenty of little kids in diapers pooping in the tiny roped off swim area. Thankfully that is not where we swam, though I doubt it makes much of a difference.) After the swim there is a 12 mile bike ride on Marine Drive along the Columbia River. The ride is mostly flat and very beautiful. The last part is a 3 mile run (though I can assure you we don’t run.)

We were in decent shape. We generally exercise 4 days a week. One day is a walk of at least (and usually not much more than) 3 miles. One day is a ¼ mile swim. Two days are a bike ride of between 5 and 6 miles. By now we had been hoping to swim a bit more than ¼ mile and to have one of our bike rides be 12 miles, but life intervened.

Still, we were not worried about how we would do in the triathlon. I was mostly worried about getting enough sleep the night before and having to get up at the ungodly (for us) hour of 6 am.

We got ourselves all packed up the night before – our bike chains greased, tires full of air, and left almost on time in the morning. There was the obligatory stop at McDonalds. “Super Size Me” be damned, Mary must have McDonald’s breakfast on the morning of a triathlon. Usually I refrain but I was starving so I ordered a sausage biscuit and then immediately began worrying about whether it was too salty and would make me too thirsty during the triathlon.

I always find arriving at the Luna Triathlon fairly daunting. There are all these tiny little women riding around on their bikes looking very serious, and because everyone is nervous, people are fairly rude. There is an area called the Transition Area which consists of metal bars to hang your bike on. Underneath, you are supposed to lay out a towel with the things you will need for your transitions (from swim to bike and from bike to run). For the Luna, the Transition Area is numbered so you have to be in the area designated for your number. Our numbers were 815 and 816 so the range was something like 800 -840. That is 40 numbers but the people who get there first take up way more than their allotted space. They’ll take one space for their bike and another whole space for their towel. That makes it hard for slowpokes like us to find a space for our bikes. We did manage to find spaces, though.

We laid our stuff out and then went to the booth run by the Triathlon Store to buy goggles, which we had forgotten. Mary bought the cheapest goggles they had and I paid a bit more for a pair that actually seemed to fit me. We basically had time to go to the bathroom and then they were starting people off on the swim. We were in the very last wave, the tri-it 45 and over. They start you off by age-group and in general the older you are, the later you start. It ends up being a bit demoralizing at the end. Since we are the last to start AND we walk rather than run at the end, we are just about guaranteed to come in last, when they’re not even keeping people off the course anymore. For this reason, Mary wanted to do the Sprint rather than the Tri-It. The only difference between the Sprint and the Tri-it is the length of the swim – ½ mile rather than a ¼ mile. If you do the sprint, you start before the Tri-Its, but also if you register as an Athena (a woman over 150 pounds) you get to start in an earlier age group. We both qualify as Athenas, but neither of us felt we were in shape to swim ½ mile.

Now before I go further I must write about my first Luna Triathlon, two years ago. I did it with my friend Claire and her sister, Serena. Claire was doing the triathlon because Serena was doing the triathlon, and she wanted to support her. I thought it would be fun. I can’t even remember what Claire said to me, some time prior to the triathlon, but she said something that I thought implied that I was out of shape and that it would be amazing if I could finish. I was highly offended and vowed that I would beat Claire come race day. Which was ridiculous, Claire being five years younger than me, much thinner than me, and much more fit. And she’d done a triathlon before. If I had, it had been in high school, and I barely remembered it.

On race day two years ago, I went out fast in the swim and actually beat Claire and Serena out of the water. I RAN to the transition area, put on my Tevas, didn’t even bother to put on a shirt over my bathing suit, and rode like hell. My thinking was that since I had done a very quick transition and Claire’s would be slower as she’d probably chat with Serena, if I rode REALLY fast, I could beat her on the biking. I was pedaling with all my might, probably two miles into the ride, when Claire came breezily up to me. I pedaled even harder to keep up with her. It was raining and I was cold. I said that I was cold and Claire said, “Why don’t you stop and put your shirt on?” “I don’t want to fall behind,” I said. “I’ll wait for you,” she said. So I stopped and put my shirt on, then continued to pedal like hell trying to keep up with Claire. It quickly became obvious that she was holding herself back. I said, “You can go ahead. You don’t need to wait for me.” “Are you sure?” she asked. I assured her and she was off. Ultimately, her bicycle time was 9 minutes faster than mine. This riding like hell completely wore me out, and my legs were cramping as I finished the ride.

“Okay,” I said to myself, still crazy and undaunted. “She beat me in the bike, but I can beat her in the walk portion, and I can do that by…. RUNNING!” I knew Claire wouldn’t run, and did it matter that I hadn’t run in 8 years? I didn’t run the whole thing (totally not capable) but I did a little walk five minutes, run 2 minutes sort of thing… if you could call what I was doing running. I finished the triathlon a respectable 10th from last and only 9 behind Claire. (Poor Serena had a bike malfunction and though she finished the walk portion, she was “disqualified” so didn’t get official results.) My final run/walk time: 50:22. Claire’s time (walking, no running): 47:53. And still I didn’t realize what an idiot I was being. It took a few days, when my whole body was sore, PLUS I had to go to the chiropractor because I had screwed up my back trying to run, with way too much weight on my frame AND no practice beforehand.

So, this time I was not going to do anything stupid like last time. I am way too old to abuse my body that way. This time I was going to do the triathlon for fun, and if I raced against anyone, it was going to be myself.

So back to yesterday: We stood on the beach watching the waves start. I waded into the water and was pleased that it was very warm – certainly warmer than two years ago and much warmer than the pool we swim in. I put my horrible yellow swim cap on (everyone wears a colored swim cap that identifies their division) and adjusted my brand new goggles as best as I could. And then it was our turn. We waded out into the water, there was a countdown for the start, and off we went. Last time I swam a combination of crawl and breast stroke. This time I only swam breast, still recovering an injured shoulder that would not take kindly to the crawl. I knew this was a disadvantage, so I just hoped to not come in last in the swim. As soon as we started, my new goggles started leaking into my left eye, so I swam with that eye closed the whole time. I swam as fast as I could which was, surprisingly, fairly fast. I could tell that there were quite a few people behind me, though I really only paid attention to the people on either side of me. My arms started hurting about ¾ of the way through, but I kept barreling on. I knew from experience that for some reason, I am most competitive in the swimming part of the triathlon, though I remember from a brief one week stint on the YMCA swim team in elementary school that I was a terribly slow swimmer. AND I swim much less than I bike and run. Go figure.

At any rate, I whooped Mary’s ass on the swim (I can’t help it – I’m competitive) and went to the transition area to put on a shirt and my socks and walking shoes. (In 2007, I couldn’t take the time to do such a thing, and my feet got very HOT in their black-soled TEVAS.) I took my time in the transition area because I was waiting for Mary so we could start the bike together.

While we were buying our goggles, there had been some guy over the loudspeaker giving advice. He said, “It’s easy to start out fast and then slow down. You should definitely start out as fast as you can. It’s not easy at all to speed up if you’ve started out too slow. ”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said to Mary. “That’s not how I’m going to do the bicycling.” She did start out faster than me and that was fine. I didn’t want to feel like I did before on the bike ride. I had been hoping for a 12 mile per hour pace, but I was a little under that and I was okay. For the first 6 miles, Mary and I took turns passing each other (you have to ride single-file; otherwise we would have been side by side.” She had a steady pace. I kept speeding up and then slowing down. I was uncomfortable. My legs were tired from swimming and my seat was not high enough (don’t ask me why I didn’t notice this BEFORE the triathlon) so my legs weren’t fully stretching out when I pedaled. And, the ride was a steady chorus of “On your left!”, “Passing on your left!”,”On your left”. Just to clarify we were the ones being passed, not the passers. We are slow bicyclists. We also have big clunky slow bikes kitted out with baskets and bells and all sorts of crap to slow us down. We love our paraphernalia, but it’s not our friend in a race. It was very sad watching as my swim lead was rapidly demolished. (Mary just rudely commented, “I ‘m not sure what you had was a swimming LEAD. It was just a swimming not coming in last.” Why I put up with such rudeness, I do not know.) Anyway, I wasn’t competing with anyone but myself. But, miraculously at about 5 ½ miles, I started to get some juice. And we passed 3 people. Which is 3 more people than I have ever passed on my bike in my life. It was really exciting! The course was up and back, and on the way back we had the wind at our back. I stopped to raise my bike seat and that helped tremendously. I went from an 11.8 mph pace to between 14 and 14.8. I caught back up to Mary who had kept going while I adjusted my seat, and I passed maybe three more people. When we were almost back to the park, there was a group of 3 or 4 women and I put on the steam and passed them too! My goal was to break an hour in the biking portion and we finished in 56 minutes. I was thrilled!

I’m a slow walker and Mary would have finished faster if she’d gone at her pace, but she slowed down to my pace. It was a very pleasant walk and as we crossed the finish line together the announcer said something about us finishing “neck and neck” which made us both laugh since we were strolling. After we crossed the finish line we were given the very disappointing news that they had run out of medals and would have to mail them to us. There’s always some sort of insult to coming in near the very end. At the Snake River Triathlon last year, the race officials actually packed up and LEFT before some of the walkers were finished.

Claire did not do the triathlon this year, but she and Michelle greeted us at the finish line, which was great. One of the things that Mary loves about the Luna triathlon is seeing all the families – husbands and kids – coming out to support their wives and Moms. We had no one there at the start, and one of us commented that that would be one benefit of having a husband, though in general we’re happy with the way things are. But it was great to have people there at the finish for us!

After the triathlon we drove to our friend Marla’s house, where she graciously allowed us to shower and use her spa-like shower amenities (coconut shampoo, some lovely-scented glycerin soap) and then went to the Ringside for onion rings. We’d been planning for weeks to try these onion rings which Marla said were divine. They were pretty good, though a bit greasy for my taste. Marla and I had fairly bad French dips, Mary had some sort of club sandwich that she really liked, and then we came home and collapsed. In the evening we watched “The House Bunny” which Mary laughed hysterically throughout. We’re not sure if it was really that funny or if she was just really tired.

And, finally, for the race results. Where I fared best was alphabetically. I came in 4th in Alphabetical Order, an improvement of one place over 2007. Here are the rest of our results and my comparison to the last two years:

Overall Time: Lis 2:22:55 – Mary – 2:22:54 Lis 2007 – 2:08:43 Mary 2008 – 2:32:15

Swim: Lis – 11:23 Mary – 12:52 Lis 2007: 11:20 Mary 2008 – 15:12

Bike: Lis – 56:22…… Mary – 56:25 Lis 2007: 56:01 Mary 2008 1:00:56

Walk: Lis – 1:03:03 Mary – 1:03:04 Lis 2007: 50:22 Mary 2008 1:02:35

Overall Place: 179 and 180 out of 183 Lis 2007 – 104 out of 114 Mary 2008 – 178 out of 182

Also, to refute my girlfriend who says I did not have a swimming lead, here are my stats:  Swim Place: 92 of 183.  Bike Place: 169 of 183.  Overall Place After Bike:  162 of 183.    Run Place: 182 of 183.  Final Place: 180.

I had actually hoped that I would better my times from 2007 without being a crazy competitor. I had hoped that my walk would be as fast as my crazy run/walk. In fact, I was faster in 2007, but I had much more fun in 2009, and frankly wasn’t that much slower. And look at how much Mary improved over last year! All in all it was a fantastic day. And, if you’re still reading this, congratulations!  You definitely have the endurance to complete a tri-it triathlon!

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Mon 8 Jun 2009

Victoria Pictures

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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Here are our pictures from our trip:

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Mon 1 Jun 2009

Last Full Day in Victoria

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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We did the B&B breakfast this morning – Edward made Croque Monsieur for me and scrambled eggs and bacon (really ham) for Lis (Binners had to be somewhere this morning and wasn’t our chef today). Once again, we came down to a beautifully set table – I tried to take pictures both times we had the B&B breakfast, but I don’t think they really do it justice. Edward started us out with a fruit cup, oatmeal bars and yoghurt, as well as hot water for Lis’ tea and decaf coffee for me. While we were working on this he came out to Lis and asked “Would you like your scrambled eggs moist, somewhat moist, somewhat dry, or dry?” We were both very impressed; neither of us can recall ever being presented with such a range of options for scrambled eggs before (Lis chose ‘somewhat dry’ – Lis: and they were perfect).

Then came our main courses – again, they were divine. The two breakfasts we’ve had here were quite glorious – delicious but also wonderfully gracious and pleasant. It’s been good to mostly be on our own for breakfast, but it’s also been great to do the full B&B thing a couple times, too. As before, Edward joined us with his coffee after serving us, and as before, we had a lovely time chatting with him.

I had decided yesterday that I wasn’t going to do anything other than procure food today, and so I didn’t – after breakfast we went back to the room and read until it was time for lunch, then we took me to Subway for a quick sandwich (I wasn’t in the mood for anything heavier, and Lis had leftovers from dinner last night), which we took back to the room. We had a nice little lunch in the room, and then continued reading. At 1:45 Lis left for her 2pm spa appointment, and I stayed here – I mostly read but also decided to take a bath in the large jetted tub – my own little spa treatment. It was a wonderfully relaxing day, just what I needed.

Lis came back from her appointment at the Sapphire Day Spa at around 4, reporting that her spa treatment had not been as satisfactory as mine. She had gotten the Abhyanga Massage, Swedana Herbal Steam & Exfoliationtreatment, which sounds great on paper but wasn’t as great in practice. I will see if I can get Lis to post more details, but I can tell you that she did come home with these huge red rashes on the backs of her arms from the steam chest that was part of the treatment. So she was disappointed (the rashes cleared up after a few hours).

For dinner we were torn between going back to the Jamaican restaurant that we loved, or trying out a brewpub called Canoe that is supposed to be good and where I could finally get the Hefeweizen I’ve been wanting the whole trip. We ultimately decided in favor of Canoe.

We liked Canoe well enough, but we also thought it was overpriced and not really anything out of the ordinary as far as pub food goes – though I did enjoy my beer very much. We decided that, since we were only a few blocks away from the Jamaican restaurant, we would walk over there and get some Johnnycakes to go. Turned out to be a semi-eventful few blocks – we were hit up by a fairly clean-cut looking couple with a long story of tribulation that ended with a plea for money for bus fare, passed a couple of biohazard containers for people to dispose of their dirty needles, were heckled by some guy driving by in a pickup (“Hey, sexy things!” – said ironically, to make sure that we knew that he didn’t really consider us sexy things), and passed several groups of people who looked like junkies. Apparently, we were not in the part of town where one goes for a nice little stroll after dinner.

We got back to the car and drove back to the B&B along Dallas Road. Lis said “Let’s stop and go to one of the benches on the path and eat our Johnnycakes looking over the ocean.” Which seemed an excellent plan, so we did. It was very enjoyable – it was still warm, the Olympics were visible, the people around us weren’t scary, and we got to say hello to a passing dog or two – nice little end to the day.

Then we came back to the room, watched a few episodes of Weeds (first TV viewing of the whole trip) and then packed in preparation for our return trip tomorrow. It’s been a very fun trip, and it will be very good to be home:)

 

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Sun 31 May 2009

Harbour Ferry Water Ballet

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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Usually we come to Victoria in late April, for our anniversary. That was our intention this year as well (it was our tenth on April 28), but for a variety of reasons we needed to delay it a month. Which meant that this time we were going to be able to see the Harbour Ferry Water Ballet – today was the opening day of its summer run.

We have read about it before and it always sounded like a hoot – several of the little Harbour Ferries gather in the Inner Harbour and do a synchronized “dance” to the music of the Blue Danube Waltz. The ferry boats are small and very maneuverable, so, we read, they are able to do some fairly intricate moves.

We got up and got ready, mounted our bikes and got ourselves down to the Inner Harbour in plenty of time for the 10:45am start time. We learned, during this process, that Victoria isn’t as bike-friendly a city as we thought it would be, or as we are used to. It’s a very pedestrian-friendly city – there are walking paths all over town. But bikes are often not allowed on these paths and must ride in the street, where there don’t seem to be many designated bike lanes – or at least not that we saw. So this meant that our pleasant jaunt in to town was a little more fraught than we were expecting – I’m glad we didn’t bring our bikes along, as we had thought about doing at one point.

The ballet started promptly at 10:45, and it was great fun. What I enjoyed the most was the sheer silliness of the endeavor – this is when I like people best, when they’re doing something basically nonsensical, just for the fun of it. At first the ferries mostly just went in circles, but then they started doing these intricate figure-8-type things, and then they would be in a line and then suddenly peel off and pivot on a dime and turn back, and then they were all 5 abreast and doing a large pivoting circle in unison – it was quite impressive. At the end they were in a line and heading at high speed (for a ferry – they don’t go very fast) straight for the harbour docks. A few yards away they stopped short (on a dime, again) and honked their horns and flashed their lights, and everyone in the harbour applauded.

The Harbour Ferry company was offering free rides around the harbour from 9am to 1pm, and at each stop some local establishment was offering some freebies. We were already planning to go back to Spinnaker’s for lunch (it is a quick Harbour Ferry ride from the Empress Hotel stop, which is where we were), and the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Hotel near Spinnaker’s was offering free hand massages, so we decided to go there first and then head on to lunch. There was a semi-long line waiting for the free ferries, and I balked at it, but Lis said No, it’s not so bad – let’s just wait. And so we did.

But, it turns out, we were tired from all our tourist exertions – we’ve done a lot of things, more than we usually do on a typical vacation, and we’ve gotten a fair amount of exercise – we’ve done at least a short walk every day of our trip, and on some days we’ve done long walks or both walks and bike rides. And, we were hungry. The result being, that we stood in line and quietly bickered about many a thing – including which of us was or was not being rude – and continued our low-level grousing until we got to Spinnaker’s and were able to sit down and eat. Lis did get her massage, though, and enjoyed it very much – it prompted her to schedule a full spa treatment for tomorrow. I was unable to bear the line (apparently I’m in no mood for lines today) and bailed out – I went and sat on a bench and looked over the harbour (actually, mostly played games on the IPhone, but “looking over the harbour” sounds so much more adult and sophisticated).

At lunch we decided that we were exercised out – we had been very good, and had earned a day or two off. So after riding back to the B&B, we loaded up the bikes and took them back to the bike rental place a day early. And then, in order to undo all our virtuous exercise, we stopped at Green Cuisine on the way back and bought a whole bunch of sugar free desserts. Then we returned to our room and lay about for the rest of the afternoon.

At 7pm we headed out on our dinner date with Binners and Edward. We went to an Italian restaurant called Pagliacci’s. Binners had a tortellini dish that she said was very good, and Lis and Edward both had a halibut dish that they said was very good, but I had foolishly ordered a salad, and it wasn’t very good – just some lettuce and a few things on the side and some indifferent chicken (and not much at that) – I was disappointed – it had sounded much more interesting on the menu. So I got a dessert – some sort of custard thing on a graham cracker crust with blueberries and strawberries and whipped cream – divine.

The band started about an hour after we arrived – a klezmer band called The Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra. The were having all sorts of technical difficulties (when we spoke briefly with the lead singer she said that two of their lead musicians were not there, and the guys filling in didn’t really know all the songs) but the performance was very good nonetheless. At one point we were all clapping and singing along, and at another point the trombone player got out a couple conch shells and played them – it was really amazing. They were two different sizes, one small and one large. He played them singly, and then he put them both to his mouth and played them together, and they emitted the most amazing sound – my mouth dropped open and tears came to my eyes, and then I looked at Lis – her mouth had dropped open, too. She leaned forward and said “I think that’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard in my life.” It was really something – other worldly and astounding.

We stayed for their first set and then headed out. As it was still light out (our favorite kind of night on the town – the kind where it’s still daylight when you head home), they drove us a ways up Dallas Rd/Beach Rd and showed us some of the sights, including an overlook where we watched the sunset. A most excellent dinner date, and a pretty good day, crankiness episode notwithstanding.

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Sat 30 May 2009

Goat Stampede and SKAM ride

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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Last night while checking the links in my blog entry to make sure they worked correctly, we noticed a link on the Children’s Farm website called Goat Stampede. Intrigued, we clicked on it, and found that this is a twice-daily event, occurring once in the morning at 10:10am to get all the goats in to the petting area, and once in the afternoon at 4:10pm to get them back out again (where they are in between times I am a little hazy on). Well, we thought, what could be more fun than a goat stampede? And so we made plans to be there at 10:10 this morning.

So here’s how it works. They’ve got to get all the goats from the upper right part of the farm area to the petting area in the lower left part. They have everybody line the paths along which the goats will run, and then tell us that when the goats come we need to bend over and clap our hands and shout “Come on, babies!! Come on, babies!!” The purpose of this is two-fold: one, to encourage the goats, and two, to form a human fence to keep them from wandering off the path and in to other areas of the farm. So we stretched out to make sure we had the path covered (no gaps for babies to infiltrate) and then here came the goats.

Most of the babies were in front and were running full-tilt while we clapped and shouted (you cannot imagine how amazingly cute this was). Then the mamas came, also moving at a good clip. Then came another, smaller group of babies, but this group was more interested in testing our defenses, so we had to do more clapping and a little bit of cutting off escape routes and herding, but soon enough all the goats were in the petting area. It was really quite an experience – I highly recommend it.

We went in and hung out with the goats for a while, then walked back to the inn and drove over to Rosie’s Diner (in the Cook Street Village area near the inn) for lunch, primarily because they serve breakfast all day and I was in the mood for eggs, bacon and hashbrowns. We had read a couple reviews that said their breakfasts and burgers were good, so it seemed a safe choice. My breakfast was quite good, but Lis said her burger was just OK. The staff was really friendly and attentive, though – it seemed like a really nice place in that way. Several regulars came in while we were there and were very well taken care of.

After our busy morning of goat wrangling, we decided to just hang in the room, reading and resting, because we had another busy time scheduled for the late afternoon. We had read about this event put on by a local group called theater SKAM. It was set on the Galloping Goose bike trail, and involved riding your bike to various places along the trail for performances of mini-plays – up to 10, it said (though I think there were actually only eight).

When planning this vacation we had wanted to include some biking, possibly along this trail, so this seemed a perfect activity. We asked Edward if he knew of a good place to rent bikes, and he directed us to Selkirk Station. We went there at 3pm and they rented us two bikes with helmets, lock and little bags for our belongings, from 3pm Saturday to 3pm Monday, for $80 – pretty good deal. Plus, they were located right near where the SKAM event was, so once we’d paid for our rental and got the bikes all adjusted, we just headed up the Trail.

The tickets were $15 per person, and after we paid we were directed to the bike decorating station to “pimp our rides.” We did our best (decorating is not a strong suit for either of us), and they turned out pretty well. I was particularly pleased with the pretty flowing streamers I had on my hand grips. Turned out what was most fun about the bike decorations, at least for me, was being out on the trail moseying along on our silly bikes, in the way of the serious cyclists in their serious cyclist outfits. They probably didn’t give us a thought, but I had the idea that we were annoying them, and I enjoyed that.

The first 5 performances that we saw (each lasting 5-10 minutes) were very good. Some of them had messages (the best one was about the pine beetle threat to British Columbia’s forests) but they were delivered in a fun and entertaining way. The final 3 were dreadful – preachy and boring and irritating. But, the overall experience was very good, and we got a fair amount of exercise riding up and down the trail to the various venues – Lis thinks we rode about 6 miles altogether (with lots of stops, of course).

It was about 7pm when we finished up with the last performance. Lis still had leftovers from the Jamaican restaurant, so we decided to go to the shopping center that Planet Organic is in, get some dessert for both of us and some take out for me in one of the adjoining shops, and dine in. I got a slice of Hawaiian pizza from Ali Baba Pizza, and we got some So Delicious Chocolate Mint Chip fake ice cream (made with coconut milk rather than regular milk). The store also had a bunch of free chocolate-dipped strawberries out – for us to help them celebrate something (a new store?). Lis celebrated enthusiastically with 5 strawberries – I had 2.

Then back to the room for dinner, and a bath in the jetted tub for Lis (she says it was divine, as was the heated floor and the giant soft bath sheet towel). And then time for bed – we’ve got to get lots of rest for the Harbour Ferry ballet on the morrow:)

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Fri 29 May 2009

The Children’s Farm

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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Today we were on our own for breakfast – we had juice and Ezekial muffins with almond butter, which is our regular workaday breakfast. Then we just lazed around the room reading until about 11:15. We had amassed some leftovers and were going to have those for lunch, so I thought that maybe we could take a walk before lunch. I suggested this to Lis and she said “Yes, let’s go to the petting zoo.” What an excellent plan – so off to the Beacon Hill Park Children’s Farm we went.

The Children’s Farm is one of our very favorite places in Victoria. The B&B is just about 3 blocks from Beacon Hill Park, and it turns out the Children’s Farm is located on the side that’s near the B&B, so we were there in about 15 minutes. It was another gorgeous day, though the wind was up today making things feel chillier. The Children’s Farm has lots of peacocks and ducks and chickens and a big homely turkey, plus a pot bellied pig and a miniature horse and some donkeys and alpacas and sheep – and then the main attraction for us, the goat enclosure. I wandered around taking pictures for a while, and then noticed that I had lost Lis – she was in the goat area, petting a baby goat and conversing with an adorable 5 year old boy named Nicholas.

We spent about an hour or so with the goats. One of the great things about this goat petting zoo area is that the goats are calm. The other great thing is that if you hang out there long enough you will eventually have a baby goat in your lap. I had a little boy goat named Tosh and Lis had a little girl goat named Taylor. I also spent quite a long time with a little boy goat named Henry alternately eating my hat, munching my sunglasses, and nuzzling my cheek. Nicholas came and chatted us up every now and then (when we seemed to have interesting goats around us, it seemed – Henry also gave his hat a thorough going over). It was really a great time – we always have a marvelous time at the Children’s Farm. And, we actually got pictures this time – sometimes we get too involved with the goats and forget to take pictures. But we’ve got pictures of us with goats, and several painfully adorable pictures of mamas and babies, and babies asleep in a pile – I can’t wait to post them (damn that forgotten USB cable!!).

But, we were getting hungry – time to head back for lunch. The ease with which we got to and from the Children’s Farm made us decide to try to go back at least a couple more times. This is another fantastic thing about this B&B – it is so close to such great walking and such great views. Definitely my new favorite place to stay in Victoria.

We ate our lunch on our tiny little balcony and then decided to drive out to one of the local “Cideries” to taste some apple cider – if we could find one that we liked as well as the hard cider we had for dinner on our first night, we would buy some. Initially we were going to go to a place called Merridale Cider, because the pamphlet we had from there said they had lots of tours and things to do, but they closed at 4pm and it was already 2 and they were an hour away. So we went to the closer one called Sea Cider. There wasn’t really anything to do there other than taste the cider, but they are beautifully situated looking out over the water. We sat on the deck in the sun and tasted 4 different ciders, and eventually chose to buy a bottle of one called Kings & Spies. There was another very unusual cider called RumRunner that we almost got – it is aged in rum barrels – you can really taste the rum in it, and it’s really, really interesting. Ultimately, though, we decided it tasted too alcohol-y for us and went with the other. They were both really excellent, though.

For dinner we went to a Japanese restaurant downtown called Koto. We each had a miso soup and a salad, and then split an entree of tempura and ginger pork. While we were there these skater-dude guys came in and sat at the sushi bar. There were four of them, and we were a bit apprehensive that they were going to be loud and annoying, but they were the cutest skater dudes ever. They had interesting conversations and made funny jokes and were really quite delightful.

After dinner I was tired and wanted to head straight back to the room, but Lis wanted to walk around a bit, so we did. We looked at some restaurant menus and checked out a candy store, and then went in to a souvenir store because I need a new Victoria t-shirt (my old one is threadbare and ratty now). The young man and woman working the store were very cute and chatty and told us stories about some of their cruise ship customers, and soccer, and where she was from in Ontario, and the time she went to New York and how great she thinks New York is, and her recent cruise to Alaska on the Volendam – it was very fun, though I worried we wouldn’t ever get out of there. Eventually I got my new shirt ($10 on sale) and we were on our way.

Back at the B&B we chatted with Binners and Edward for a bit, and made a dinner date with them for Sunday – we’re going to a local Italian eatery to listen to Klezmer music – how fun is that!

Lis: We’ve never made a dinner date with the owner of a B&B we’ve stayed at before, but we find Edward and Binners so enjoyable that we thought we’d ask. Mary said, “Are you allowed to have dinner with your guests?”

Edward said, “Oh boy, an invitation!”

Binners said, “Edward, you don’t know that!”

Mary said, “No, that is what we’re leading up to.”

Binners said, “It’s our own damn house, we can do whatever we want!” Then she said, “Which guests were you suggesting we have dinner with?”

I said, “The guests after us,” and we all laughed. They are a very cute couple.

We are going to be the only guests here for our entire stay, which I have to admit, is kind of fun. There were supposed to be other guests in the downstairs suite, but they cancelled. Apparently people are cancelling vacations to Victoria because of the Swine Flu. Mary: Go figure…

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Thu 28 May 2009

First Full Day in Victoria

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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We had our B&B breakfast this morning, and it was really good (I think Lis mentioned in her post this morning that it was smelling pretty damn fine). We had a fruit cup of oranges, grapefruit and pineapple (I’m not a huge grapefruit fan, but the orange and pineapple were good) that had no sugar so Lis could eat hers. Edward also brought to the table a small pitcher of cranberry-apple juice, a carafe of decaf coffee for me, and a teapot for Lis’ special throat tea she bought on Tuesday in Port Townsend. Next came a dairy free muffin that was truly divine – it was dark and moist, like carrot cake or zucchini bread. I wished I could have had a second one, but I knew that more food was coming. The main course was oven-puffed mushroom omelet (I forgot to ask what that meant, and couldn’t find a good web site to link to, but scanning the Google search results seemed to indicate that it’s an omelet baked in the oven like a souffle) and three strips of bacon. After serving the main course Edward asked if they could join us (of course they could), and they sat down with their coffee and again we just chatted together for about two hours. We really enjoy these innkeepers very much.

We didn’t have much planned for today – we wanted to go to the bank and exchange some currency, we wanted to go to the health food store to get some Ezekiel muffins and juice for breakfast, and we wanted to go for a walk along the path next to Dallas Road. And, of course, we’d need to feed ourselves. Our first stop was the bank we’d noticed in the Cook Street Village area yesterday. There we received two pieces of bad news – the US dollar was down, and we’d have to pay a $3 fee for the exchange. The teller told us about the poor exchange rate by saying “Our Canadian dollar has gone up,” and I jokingly responded with “Dang you Canadians and your dollar!” At which he actually got his back up a little bit and said (trying to be friendly and joking also but obviously really a touch peeved) “Well, it’s not our fault.” I said “I know, I know,” which seemed to mollify him a bit. Then he said something like “You guys had a president that we didn’t like much up here.” We assured him that we weren’t big fans of that president ourselves (Lis: actually, I believe my words were, “We didn’t like him at all!” which, for me, is actually an understatement), and then he seemed to be our friend again. But I learned my lesson to be much more careful about such things.

After the aforementioned International Incident, it was time for lunch. We decided to go to Spinnaker’s, one of our favorite places in Victoria because they have the best fish and chips ever. We had heard that their quality had gone down a bit, but we are happy to report that we did not experience any drop off – the fish and chips were top notch as usual. I was also very pleased that I was able to get us all the way to Spinnaker’s and back without having to consult a map or turn on the GPS (OK, at the very end I was feeling a little unsure and thought we’d need the GPS, but by the time Lis had it up and running, I had figured things out and we were at our destination).

The weather was gorgeous – sunny and about 70 degrees – and we ate our meal and looked out over the Outer Harbour and watched the tide come in. The other patrons were primarily older to elderly well-dressed, well-coifed straight couples, and casual-Friday looking business type guys who had their Blackberrys in their hands the whole time – they weren’t using them, just holding them and absently fiddling with them. I thought that was kind of funny, though we have very little room to be amused since one or the other of us is usually pulling out the IPhone every few minutes for some reason or other. At least there is still a reason, though – we haven’t devolved yet to just absently fondling the damn thing.

After lunch we went to the store, and we did need the GPS for this trip. However, for the first time, it failed us completely – had us turn on to a totally residential street and then said “Arriving Planet Organic on left.” Of course, we were nowhere near a store of any kind, so we pulled over and handled it the 20th century way – pulled out our Victoria city map and plotted a course. We got to the store without incident and were also able to get ourselves back without GPS or map – we are very pleased with how familiar we are becoming with Victoria, and not just the downtown/Inner Harbour area either. Soon we will be like locals :)

We came back to the room and rested for a bit, and then took our walk. It was a gorgeous, spectacular day – late afternoon, completely sunny, Olympics visible in the distance, sun glinting off the water – really, truly, awesomely scenic. I took several pictures, some of which turned out pretty well – but I can’t share them here, because I forgot to bring the USB cable for the camera, and the USB cable for the IPhone won’t fit. So no pictures until we get home, unless I take a few more IPhone ones. Very sad, as I enjoy moving my pictures over at the end of the day and uploading them to our Picasa web album – ah, well… Lis: Very, very sad, as I do not enjoy handing the IPhone to Mary every 5 minutes so she can take a picture.

For dinner we went to a Jamaican restaurant downtown called The Reef – it was really good. They brought us some Johnnycakes to start with which were SENSATIONAL – maybe the best bread I’ve ever had – I could have just eaten those for dinner. I had a Jamaican stout called Dragon Stout, and Lis had a fruity rum drink with an umbrella in it, and I had jerk chicken with my Caesar salad, and Lis had a tilapia dish, and there was reggae music, and we felt very Caribbean. Plus it was all very good and the waitress was really friendly and cute. And, we again got back to the B&B all by ourselves – all in all, a pretty excellent day.

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