So, here's what's been going on:
Lis
Had a great visit with my youngest sister in June. She had never been to Victoria before, and her only other visit to the west coast was when she was 16, so we packed in the activities.
She saw the Butterfly Gardens, Moss Rock Park, Fisherman's Wharf. She ate fish and chips at The Fish Store, Tea at the Empress, Legendary Hamburgers at the White Spot, and the buffet on the Spirit of British Columbia. She went to a Harbour Cats baseball game, the Royal BC Museum, and the Hop On Hop Off Tour. She visited with Allison and her family, Bryan, Chuck and Jacquie, and a friend in Vancouver. She took the ferry between Victoria and Vancouver three times! And she shopped ... and shopped ... and shopped.
We're hoping that she had such a good time that she'll come back!
Retired again
I have retired from my job as a travel agent. It's been a great three years, and I have learned a huge amount of stuff relative to the travel industry. I will miss hearing about all the great places to visit, and the friendship of my colleagues. I won't miss waiting on hold for 40 minutes to talk to the suppliers, fielding calls and emails on my days off, nor the responsibility for making sure nothing goes wrong with your trip. Now I'll leave all that to my travel agent.
Trust me: You really do want to find yourself a good travel agent.
Thuli
One of my (former) clients arranged, through me, to bring a young woman they have been sponsoring for many years to Canada for a visit. Thuli is from Lesotho, a land-locked country surrounded by South Africa <http://wikitravel.org/en/Lesotho>. She is such an engaging young woman, and she and my clients were so appreciative of my help with their travel requirements, that she came in to the office to thank me personally.
Thinking that she might want to meet some people who were more her own age, we hooked her up with Bryan. Ever the gentleman, Bryan bused up to Royal Oak, picked up Thuli, and then took her around Victoria, introducing her to his favourite hangouts.
And just the other week, Bryan took Thuli, Tom and me out for dinner to the Steamship Grill, where we introduced Thuli to an assortment of seafood that she had never tried before, while Tom made creepy, crawly crab gestures, to her delight. It was interesting to eat with someone who had never seen a prawn before, asking how much of the thing she was supposed to eat. (We stopped her from eating the tail :-)). And she adored the lobster ravioli.
Christmas in July
The Steamship Grill was also the setting for dinner with Allison and John this week. At Christmas we told them that we would take them out for a grown-up dinner, just them, when the time came that they could spend some time away from the kids. They had both poured over the menu in anticipation of the event, and came to the table ready to enjoy themselves. We even convinced Allison to try raw oysters!
Both Tom and I were very impressed that they both refrained from checking in with the babysitter all through dinner. Word has it that the kids were not at all pleased to find that the parents had skipped out when they weren't looking.
Those McNeil kiddies just get cuter and cuter. The other day we were waiting for the McNeills to meet us at the corner of Park and Cook so that we could join them on their walk to the park. Hudson saw us from a block away, and started running, arms outstretched preparatory to giving us hugs, yelling, "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Doesn't that just warm your heart.
And little Quinn is walking! Instead of "mama" or "dada", her first word is "HI!" That charmer will go places.
