spring break trip to Vancouver Island (part 1)

Sebastian, Liesl, and I took a trip north to Victoria, B.C., for spring break. My cousins May and Ken live there and generously offered us a place to stay (by which I mean I announced we were visiting and asked them if we could crash, so they had little choice but to say yes...).

We left home first thing Monday morning - stopped for coffee and bagels at Clearing Cafe and then drove north on I5 to Olympia and then onto the Olympic peninsula to Port Angeles. We walked around the town and enjoyed the views and then caught the ferry.

We arrived to a wonderful welcome dinner, including a chocolate birthday cake.

On Tuesday we went to the Royal BC Museum. There was a great exhibit on First Nations peoples - totems, stone knives, a detailed model village, a canoe - and Sebastian was very interested. It was probably the first time I've been with him in a museum that he was genuinely able to focus and pay attention to the exhibits. There was also a big wooly mammoth, and a visiting exhibition of nature photographs from around the world. That was pretty stunning.

Then we hopped onto a taxi ferryboat and went across the harbor to Fisherman's Wharf.

We ate some great fish and chips for lunch and then bought six small herring to feed to the seals!

After dinner my mom produced a carrot cake she had made - wonderful lady - which was delicious. She had also brought along crowns and party favors, so it was a very festive birthday all around.