So Cody and I were planning on making this October's General Conference extra special by making the trip out to Utah, spending time with family (that I just don't get to see enough of!) and going to Arches National Park. Then the government had to go and be idiots by shutting down. A combination of not being able to see all of the Utah Taylor's while we would be out there, being able to see Gma, Lori and Bronson next month for Thanksgiving, us not getting tickets to General Conference (meaning we'd have to stand in line for stand-by) and half of our trip being going to Arches we decided that the universe was saying, "maybe next conference." As of now we are planning on going out in April because gosh darn it I want to go to a live session. And in April we'll both be 25 meaning we can rent cars! Instead of having to drive all the way out there.
So after being a lot bummed out and sending out a couple emails we decided to trade in that mini-vacation for a we're-young-and-can-do-whatever-we-want roadtrip. We'd always talked about going to Victoria, it crossed our minds for our 1 year anniversary and didn't then so we thought hey our government's being kind of stupid at the moment let's get outta this country to one a little bit nicer eh?
I found this really neat site called roadtrippers.com which lets you plot out your trip and then gives you categories of stuff that it will find along your route (family attractions, historical sites etc) but I was drawn to folk art & photo ops and offbeat attractions. On our way to Port Angeles, where the ferry departs from, I found some awesome photo ops. First was Yard Birds in Chehalis which I just thought was some giant metal birds you could take your picture with but it was actually a giant swap meet location! It wasn't in full fledged swap meet mode but I knew that I needed to get back here one day because I could just tell it was busting full of treasures! The second stop was Richarts Art Yard. We didn't get out of the car but just drove by to see some awesome junk art that filled some guys yard in a seemingly regular neighborhood. We had an unplanned restroom stop near a Native American Center with a tribe's headquarters across the street. There were a lot of really neat totem poles. There was another seemingly photo-oppable stop that I wanted to make called metal cows but they were just some cool metal cows in a field that we zoomed by not really seeing any place to turn off and take pictures.
Even though we only spent a couple hours here waiting for our ferry departure I fell in love with this town. It felt totally northwest and had awesome little hints of hipster to it that I just loved. They had a lot of cute looking shops and tasteful mural art everywhere that just made for such a quaint little town. And then to add to it your have the beautiful harbor to look out onto.
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| I think I was offended by a bunch of curvy women bodies with no faces that were lining a whole street but kind of love that someone decided to yarn-bomb one on a bench (the middle and right picture were next to a yarn shop) |
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| In the middle of the town you they have stairs that lead up to a great view of the harbor |
The ferry we took was actually pretty nice. They had a large deck that you could walk around and a lot of sitting space so it didn't feel too cramped. We took a 5 o'clock ferry which made for a perfect sunset feeling trip to Victoria.
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| I had Cody bring his camera along this trip and was pleasantly surprised to find he was taking random pictures of me along the way that I wasn't even aware of. (It's nice not always being the one behind the camera) |
Victoria was everything I was hoping for and more! The only thing I wish we had was our car but it would've been $60 each way to take it across and we figured we were young and had hiking backpacks that would do the job.
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| We got to Victoria around 8pm and got to see a glimpse of the night life of the town while trekking to our hotel |
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| One of my favorite parts of cities is just the overall unique look each one has |
One of the places I had found on the road trippers site was this little treasure, the Hatley Park Castle. Not only is it a castle but it is the location they used for Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-men movies! Although it was a little bit of a public transit/walking adventure it was TOTALLY worth it! It's located on the school grounds of the Royal Roads University as their administrative building. I couldn't help but get jealous and think why didn't Rexburg have a castle! Unfortunately we couldn't go inside because we went on a Saturday but the gorgeous grounds and the amazing weather more than made up for it.
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| my best x-men pose/ the building that's opposite of the castle. I just couldn't resist not taking a picture of those amazing vines |
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| looking at the castle / looking from the castle's front steps |
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| front steps/ one of the windows on the back side / front view of castle |
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| window selfie / the stairs leading down / the back view |
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| back view / an homage to the movies? ... |
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| little joke for all you whovians out there |
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| castle garden on the side / I'm pretty sure their mascot is a peacock because in the student store there were peacock feathers/pictures everywhere and then when we were heading out to leave I see a real peacock just walking around! too neat |
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This beautiful building is right by the harbor and quite a stunning piece of architecture to adorn an already beautiful city and there's wasn't shut down for stupid reasons.
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| Legislative building up close/ fountain by the legislative building |
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| Legislative Building/Statue of Queen Victoria up close |
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| some killer chalk art |
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| One thing Cody like to do on our vacations is find tasty places to eat. And Victoria did not disappoint. Nandos was a tasty Peruvian chicken restaurant/ Ferris Oyster Bar was one that we happened upon on Sunday right in time for brunch (my favorite!) It would fit quite nicely in in Portland. We also found a cheap yummy sushi place one day for lunch. |
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| We attempted to go the Craigdarroch Castle but it was our last day and we had only enough bus tickets left for a one way so we figured we'd walk there and take a bus back but we greatly underestimated how far the walk was so we cut our losses, gave up about half way and figured it would be something we could save for the next time we visit |
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| ...but we did get to see some pretty neat churches/cathedrals that seemed to be everywhere we turned! |
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| I was GIDDY when we saw a sign pointing to a macaroon bakery. They've been so trendy on pinterest for weddings, parties, and on tv cooking shows that I couldn't wait a minute longer to try one! And to make the experience even more perfect was that this cute little patisserie was run by two Frenchmen with cute french accents. They were DELICIOUS! (I got lemon verbena (my favorite), mint chocolate (shown in the bigger picture) and salted caramel. |
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| same guy who did the chalk art pictures |
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| Had fun walking around and smelling china town (the closest I'll get to real China...sigh...) (chinese translation: victoria (left), chinatown (right) |
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| The view from the ferry. This hotel is The Fairmount Empress. And it sure seemed like one |
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| view from the other side of the harbor (you can walk all the way around it for quite a ways out |
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| walking cross a bridge like a boss |
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| We were too lazy to walk back around the harbor (and our poor feet needed a little break so we decided to take a little ferry taxi that hops around from point to point (and gives tours). Our feet were saying it was worth it for the $5 and the cool trip across the water |
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| The best thing about cities are the quirks. Vadar the Violinist was definitely one of the best things we stumbled upon (... I wonder if they have a BC comic con? haha) |
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| After two beautiful days of weather, walking around and getting to know this little town better it was time to head back to America |
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| Walking takes a lot of you |
I believe that every once in a while one should be a tourist in one's own area. No matter how close you live to it, or how many times you've been there you should every once in a while play "the tourist" for a day. I've been to each of these places many times (minus one that I didn't even know existed!) but it's always fun to go see them again as if you're visiting them for the first time!
First stop: Pike Place Market
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| the legendary gum wall, i can't believe i haven't been here before this and it was right around the corner from where i've been so many times! |
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| leaving our mark in the world in a very gross, unique way ps. that gum tasted terrible! (and it didn't help i had two huge pieces, cody three) |
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| cody's turn |
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| the best part about the space needle is there's so much more around the space needle to see than just the space needle! |
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| yay space needle! |
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| one of my favorite buildings |
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| find Jessica! / space needle reflecting on the experience music project building. does it get cooler than this? also how'd we get sunny weather AGAIN?? |
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| different perspectives |
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| this place i didn't even know existed until my roadtrippers site told me about it. It's called Olympic Sculpture park and its right along the Sound right down the street from Pike Market |
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| sculpture art be weird yo. especially when you read the concepts behind them. sometimes it's cool and sometimes it's like ...okaaaaay......? |
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| If you want an ultimate chowder experience and you're in Seattle. Go. To. Ivar's. (and it's pretty reasonably priced too!) |
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| Cody LOVES the company Nordstroms. Not just to shop but their whole business model/philosophy. This is the original Nordstrom. It is four levels and each level equals our whole Nordstrom at the Vancouver Mall. Every item their company offers (like online and everything) is represented at this store. All the colors of every thing. It was crazy. and also crazy metal street squid. |
We finished the night with a delicious meal at the Cheesecake factory and then we headed home. We had planned on spending one more night somewhere but since we saw all we wanted to see and it was only a 3 hour drive home we figured we'd save the money and enjoy the comforts of our own home. Even though I didn't get to go to General Conference and didn't get to see family that I was very much anticipating to see this vacation definitely did the trick to give me that much needed break. I don't think I've had more than three days off of work in a very long time and it was much needed and well put to use.
