Happy Birthday to Me!

May 22... I made my favorite cake for my birthday. Angel food cake with Butterscotch Whip Cream Icing, Mandarines and toasted almonds. I had help from Co-op making my cake and from Jon to decorate it.

Ride Home Tuesday May 22, 2007

We caught the Airport Shuttle to catch our flight. Our driver's name was Freddy Kruger. Goood thing we didn't go near Elm Street!

Monday after dinner

After returning from Parksville, we went out to dinner at Swans Pub with a fellow railroader and then wandered around downtown Victoria and took photos of buildings to get ideas for weathering our buildings.

Monday-Qualicum Beach/Parksville

Monday morning we boarded the train which was packed since it was the last day of the long weekend and there were a whole lot of Train Geeks taking a ride to Qualicum Beach. I bet once we got off the rest of the people on the train were happy!

We toured around Qualicum Beach and visited a few layouts and then headed off to Parksville to look at some more. We were really impressed with all the layouts we saw this weekend. Thanks to everyone who opened up their homes and yards for us!

We re-boarded the train in Parksville and headed back to Victoria to have dinner and get packed up to leave early the next morning.

Sunday Dinner

For dinner on Sunday we went to Darren's again. While we waited for dinner to be ready Jon played video games with Aiden. Thanks again guys we really had a lot of fun visiting with you!

Sunday May 20, 2007

Saturday morning, I headed out to Buchart Gardens followed by Hatley Park while Jon went to Victoria Shops. You weren't allowed to take pictures at the Shops, but I took lots at the Gardens. It rained all day and poured in the afternoon. They provided umbrellas at Buchart, but not at Hatley Park.

You can check out the Buchart Gardens at http://www.buchartgardens.com

Hatley Park is located at Royal Roads University you can check it out at http://www.hatleypark.ca

Darren's Place

Saturday night for dinner we went to our Friend Darren and Tiffany's place. They cooked us dinner and it was wonderful.

Finnerty Gardens

The campus is basically set on a large circle, so I set about to find the gardens. I stopped in for a quick visit with the Chilliwack group while they were setting up for the show on Sunday and then I continued on my way to find the gardens. It was raining off and on, but not too bad and the $20.00 jacket from The Nut Man kept me fairly dry. The gardens are amazing and well worth the treck in the rain. I wandered around, took lots of photos and then once it started to really rain, I decided to head back to the dorms. I took a 'short cut'. Once I finally got onto the ring road I had to pull out my map to figure out where I was and where I had to go. Not to worry, I wasn't far off course.

Oh yeah, as you will see they named a plant after me, although again they spelled my name wrong!

Saturday afternoon

Once back at the University Jon went to partake in a few clinics and I got a chance to explore the Campus. There are rabbits everywhere. One night 27 of them were counted in just two small grassy sections. And there are blooming rhododendrons and azaleas everywhere. Look at the size of the blooms.

We stayed in room 308 in the Margret Newton building on an all girls floor. They had to make accomodations for all the men on the floor.