This morning when we woke it was raining and foggy, and we had to leave for the ferry to Victoria at 7:45 a.m. We were surprised and moved when Rainy and Greg Birch showed up at the apartment at 7:45 a.m. to take us to the ferry, so we didn't have to navigate our way there. We bundled up in many layers with Frog Togs on top and umbrellas.
The girls had not planned a lot of the activities in Victoria; they had a list of possibilities. Girls are responsible for different parts of the day (Event Directors, or ED's). Our ED's for the day - Brittany and Laurel - got the list of possibilities, grabbed maps and plotted them, called some locations to get information they needed about the activity. Donna and i were so proud they were at the point they could do this; just 8 months ago it was a big deal to pick up the phone and call for information about aspects of the trip, like hotel reservations. The girls did it as a matter of course.
I will add that despite only getting 6 hours of sleep the night before and sleeping on the floor of an apartment, and facing a day of rain and very cool weather, none of the girls moaned or complained about getting up or getting things together; they did it without being told what to do. This says a lot about who these girls are becoming.
Once in Victoria, we toured the downtown area, and eventually the rain slowed and stopped, and for a good bit of the afternoon and evening it was dry and even a little bit sunny. The girls really enjoy being able to take time to do things, to go into what we parents would call tourist traps and trinket shops, and spent a great deal of the day shopping. There is an outdoor entertainment festival going on in Victoria called a Buster's Festival, with 5 outdoor stages and continuous entertainment all day and evening, so we stopped at various times to watch contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, and so on for their hour long shows. We ate an enormous lunch in Chinatown, went to a small aquarium, and visited the Fairmont Empress - but mostly shopped, shopped, shopped. They had a blast, walked miles without complaining, and Donna and i followed behind, enjoying them enjoying themselves.
The weather cleared enough on the 2 hour ferry ride back to Port Angles that we were able to see Mt. Olympus and we spent a great deal of the ferry ride on the bow of the boat looking for whales. No luck there, but we did see a seal, and a beautiful sunset.
Rainy and Greg met us at the ferry, and were kind enough to take us down on the fishing docks to meet fisherman catching live crabs and shrimp there. They surprised us with a campfire in their back yard, and s'mores, and lots of good stories. We dragged in after 11;00 very, very tired. They fell asleep within ten minutes, and Donna and i have stayed up to post the blog before we drop.
We have changed our plans for departure tomorrow so everyone can sleep until 9;00; we have grocery shopping and packing and have no idea how we are getting all of our camping gear in our vehicles. There is a high probability of rain in the Hoh Rainforest where we are heading tomorrow, and the girls will be deciding in the morning if we are going to complete that plan, or try to camp somewhere that is less likely to be wet - it is their decision.
The girls are doing great, and we are sort of keeping up.
We don't know if we will have Internet service for a couple of days, so we may see you on the flip side!
Susan
