Victoria, Canada

Day 6 started nicely at 8:30am. We did the usual getting ready and eating before heading off into the wilds of Victoria. Having managed to get off the ship with absolutely no money and not an ATM in sight, we decided to take the scenic riverwalk from our pier into Downtown Victoria. We knew there was an ATM at the Empress Hotel so that was our destination. Unfortunately the visiting Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, wrecked those plans by having an event at the hotel and it was understandably closed to the public. Fortunately the visitors center right across the street fullfilled our needs. I even had to help out an older couple who acted as though they had never seen an ATM before. It turns out that they spoke French and they didn't understand the screens. I was able to roughly translate but my French is so seldomed used that I may have inadvertantly got them to invest in Enron stock.

Having gained the needed funds we hailed a taxi and took off for Butchart Gardens. The gardens were quite lovely but not a place for Tenley. Let me give you a few examples...beautiful flowers that you absolutely cannot touch if your intent is to tear them to pieces. That leaves Tenley out. Lush green lawns that you cannot walk or run on. That left Tenley out again. Vast areas known as the sunken gardens that required the use of stairs (you know how I feel about stairs). Tenley being strapped into her stoller at this point was left out again. Did I mention the rain?

Tenley was fit to be tied. There was virtually nothing she could do. We did let her out of her stroller a few times to walk but like any child who is really into "Do it MY way" she kept running onto the previously mentioned lawns. Finally it was raining enough so we got out the umbrellas. As you can see from the picture above we gave Tenley her own umbrella. Luckily it was see-through since she didn't actually put it over her head. Instead to chose to keep it in front of her face so her view was distorted. She ran into several people and more than a few solid objects this way.

We saw everything the gardens had to offer and decided it was time to leave. A couple of nice taxi drivers out in front of the gardens helped us flag down a taxi and we were off to the ship. Once on the ship it was time to start packing and getting ready to leave the ship the next morning.

Tenley was good through dinner and did pretty well with the babysitter for the last night. Shel and I went and spoke to the future cruise consultant (to see about a cruise WITHOUT Tenley), saw a little of the farewell show and finally called it a night around 10pm. Time to finish packing and put the bags out by 1am. And thus ends day 6...Thankfully the last day on the boat.