Our tenth anniversary was actually in April, but we decided to wait until Rachel was a little older before getting away on a special trip. I am so glad we did it. It was incredible! We left from Seattle (Monday), then went up to Nanaimo, British Columbia, back down to Victoria, BC, then out into the ocean west of Vancouver Island, then back to Seattle (Friday). Here is a picture of Brent standing in front of our ship, the Celebrity Mercury. It was huge! Unfortunately, our room ended up being right near the front of the ship, where we felt the motion the most. This was actually fine most days because we were in sheltered straits and sounds. Exception: Thursday, when the captain decided to make a detour into the ocean west of Vancouver Island. This was done to keep the casino-lovers happy since gambling is only legal five miles away from land. We weren't expecting this, and both of us suffered some motion sickness. Otherwise, the trip was absolutely perfect. Here are some highlights.
With the local authorities in Nanaimo
Brent checking out some historical weapons at the Bastion (an old fort)
There sure seemed to be plenty of totem poles in British Columbia! This one was on Newcastle Island, which we took a ferry to from Nanaimo.
Newcastle Island was a beautiful place for hiking. We walked to Mallard Lake (in the background above), then across to this beautiful beach where we saw animal footprints in the sand and some interesting jellyfish.
Lion's Mane Jellyfish washed up on the beach at Newcastle island.
The local flora included lots of beautiful trees, moss, ferns, and oh, yeah-- these giant slugs that liked to cross the trail. Luckily we never stepped on any!Formal night! It was so much fun getting dressed up for dinner each night and not having to worry about hurrying home to a babysitter!
Check out our "spacious" quarters-- they even included a porthole! The room was tiny, but cozy.
Victoria was our favorite port. Here we are standing in front of the provincial capitol building of British Columbia. It was built over 100 years ago.
We met another couple on our cruise (thanks to Brent's BYU hat) who are from Lehi. We ended up spending most of our days with them, which made it really fun. Here are Sarah and Tanya in front of the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, another beautiful old building.Butchart Gardens
We took a bus to Butchart Gardens about 30 minutes outside Victoria. These photos don't really do them justice-- they are gorgeous! Even though it rained nearly the whole time we were there, these gardens were definitely worth the trip. We were so inspired, in fact, we bought several flower seed packets from the gift shop instead of souvenirs. We'll plant those next spring and see if we can recreate some of the beauty we saw there (hey, we can dream, right? These gardens were planted at the former site of a rock quarry for a cement plant!).
