I don't get out much
July 21st - Road trip to Deadmonton:
Several hours out of the city we entered into a discussion about the latest Harry Potter movie (5), which lead to stopping at the first Walmart we saw for a copy of "The Deathly Hallows". As I was not driving, I was therefore reading - loudly, to be heard over the roar of the road ... (several hours at that volume leaves ones vocal chords rather strained).
Arrived mid-afternoonish - quick stroll down Whyte Ave., popped into Sanctuary (fabulously gothy store with fabulously gothy things, but not airconditioned!), then to the mall of all mauls and hotel for the night. OFL read us to sleep.
22nd:Back on the road.
Not quite halfway through the book and welcome to BC. There were trees and hills and mountains and lakes everywhere - good setting to read the story in. Many more hours left to drive. The sky was overcast, the weather was cool - we stopped into a small town with scenery which had a small shack off the highway offering chicken curry.
"Full Worm Garden" by KMFDM seems to be the 'intermission' song of choice while I take a break from reading - it has a Skinny Puppy feel to it. I bought a "Screaming Cthulhu Plush" - hug it and it screams, so cute! Mmm, sleep.
23rd: Ferry to Victoria:
It took a couple hours to get on the ferry (ahh, tourist season) then we drove up to Courtnay. We stayed at a golf resort, but we didn't golf - it was super swanky - there was deer on the golf course - hell there was deer everywhere and squirrels, there were also squirrels.
24th: hang out - look at deer - hike - yay! vacation!
25th - 4 Hr cave tour!:
Complete with several narrow crawl passages; nothing I could get stuck in though (and apparently I'm not as clasterphobic as I thought I might be). I am, however, prone to injury! So there I am, climbing down the first descent (approx. 17ft) and, I must have moved or twisted the wrong way (or not) and a shooting pain goes through my very lower back (you know, the part just above your butt) sharp intake of breath, 10 more feet to go, and I'll be buggered if we're not finishing the tour because of me.
It's about 8 degrees Celcius (46 degrees F) in the caves year round. There's a 9 storey crystal formation at the end of the tour 350m (over 1000ft) below the surface. Cool. Back we went, climbing through rocky passages, up and through - really great hand holds but you have to be careful what you touch as not to disturb the crystal formations (very fragile). OFL had to help me off with my jump suit because my back was stiff and it still hurt to bend over.
The cave was freakin' awsome!
Drive down to Victoria - stay in B&B, take painkillers.
26th - do the tourist thing in Victoria:
Double-decker bus tour (swanky houses, cool streets, Craigdarroch Castle), wax museum (complete with Chamber of Horrors), juggling street performer (complete with interfering drunk "apparently some alcoholics don't want to remain anonymous"), then Chinatown (which is more like China-street-and-a-half ... but it's more then we have here) to hang out and buy gifts.
27th - drive back:
OFL drove us all the way back - don't ever do this, it's not fun. Crappy highway back - 20hrs in a car sucks butt. I kept falling into not-quite-sleep.