Canadian Cruise (or Why Didn't We Go to Mexico?)

We had such a wonderful time catching up, laughing, drinking, shopping and eating.  Here we are on the teeny tiny balcony of our stateroom.

The emergency drill was the perfect photo-op.  Don't we look lovely in orange?

Spanish teacher had never been to Canada so we disembarked in Victoria, B.C. and shopped til we dropped.  There is an adorable Christmas store there where I picked up a gorgeous hand-painted tree ornament for my collection and we found a great jewelry store where we bought our commemorative jewelry.  Spanish teacher's Mom taught her that when you visit somewhere, you buy a piece of jewelry from a local artist as your souvenir of the trip.  We think that is the best idea ever so we followed suit.  

Of course we found necklaces and one can't buy the necklace without matching earrings so we got two pieces for ourselves.  They are absolutely stunning and I'll post some pics later when I get all dressed up and wear them.

We didn't make it through the museum, but the museum gift shop was almost as good.  And high tea at The Empress Hotel was all sold out (could you hear me crying?) so we had to make due with a pot of tea for me and Diet Coke for Spanish teacher in the Bengal Lounge instead.  There was a terrific wind and rain storm in the afternoon and getting back on the ship was like walking through a wind tunnel.

Because of the combination of hangovers and sea-sickness (I'm pretty sure that puking at 8pm the night AFTER the party night indicates sea-sickness and not a hangover.  No hangover could possibly last that long, right?) we didn't get off the ship in Nanaimo but it looked very pretty from the deck.

I take Spanish teacher to the airport at 2pm today so we are going to fit some more fun into these last few hours and then go back to reality.  It's been so much fun and we've decided that instead of buying each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas, we are going to take a trip like this every couple of years.

But next time we are going somewhere warm!