Canada! (the first time)

Ok, first we went to Canada to go to Scott's wedding (my buddy from the dorms in Madison, Wisconsin). It was held in Victoria on Vancouver Island. We headed up with Linze and Joshy Thursday night and spent the night at Heather's house in Seattle. She wasn't there so we entertained ourselves by hiding some of her decorative knick-knacks all around her house. We got up really early the next day to drive the rest of the way to the ferry. The ferry company told us to get there about 1 1/2 hours early for check-in, so we did. Unfortunately. We ended up waiting the whole time and the check-in only took 5 minutes. Of course, we kept thinking, well, they will probably load us first and then we'll also be the first ones unloaded. Nope. Those ass holes loaded us in the middle and then unloaded us practically last. The last minute people were first on and off. Bastards! Of course landing in Canada you have to go through customs and now have a passport. We waited forever. Linze and Joshy were in the car ahead of us so they went first. They talked to the guy a while and I thought they were going to get searched. No, they just wanted to chat. We went next and the guy was pretty rude. Asked all sorts of weird questions (I thought) like the name of the hotel we were staying at, where the wedding was at. Of course Josh and I knew none of this because we were simply following Linze and Joshy who are much better planners. We told him we were with the car ahead and he finally let us go. Later, we talked to Linze and Joshy and they said the guy made them get out the wedding invitation (because they couldn't remember where the wedding was either) and then had the nerve to ask why we were not staying at the hotel where the wedding was. They told him it was too expensive. And with that he finally let them go.
Anyway, we checked in to the hotel and started walking around the beautiful, very European town, of Victoria. After lunch we went back to meet our friend Adam (also from my dorm) at the bar of our hotel. We had a few drinks and then headed off to dinner. After dinner, we came back to our room and played Farkel.
The next day was the wedding so we only had time to do one thing, visit the famous gardens. We drove a LONG and WINDY road to the gardens only to discover they were $26 each person!!! That night they were having fireworks at 10pm (this was 9am) and they told us if we wanted to see the fireworks (which we didn't) there was no re-admittance! Crazy. How much money could they sponge off people? You pay $26 and then have to hang around all day (or even if you showed up at 8pm, what are you going to look at in the dark?) and probably end up buying dinner there or at least desert. Stupid. But, it was beautiful. We walked around for almost 2 hours (even though many people told us you needed at least 3 hours) and took lots of pictures. Then, it was time to grab some lunch and get ready for the wedding.
The wedding was at 2pm and the reception was at 5, so we decided to do a very Victoria thing in between, high tea. The wedding was in an old chapel and was very sweet and everyone looked beautiful and dashing. We saw the couple off to their photos and we walked a short ways to a tea that was recommended by our hotel.
Wow, anyone who has not done tea, you should go, but go hungry! It was a huge plate of goodies (and we had eaten lunch only 2 hours earlier) but I did my best to eat it all. We were now stuffed so we went to Adam's room to digest and play Farkel. His room was in the hotel where the reception was, so we glided down the elevator to the ballroom. We had some drinks on the balcony and turned down the finger food (since we were stuffed and trying to get hungry for dinner). After a while, the couple came in and we sat down to a wonderful dinner. Dancing was next and we stayed until after Midnight.
The next day, we met the wedding party at a nature park and did some hiking and even a little climbing. It was a nice way to end the weekend. Josh and I hung out with Linze and Joshy in their next hotel room (they were staying longer than us) and the next day caught the ferry and headed home.
I can't find my pictures of this trip right now (I think they are on the photo card I lent Norma) so if you'd like to see pictures, visit Linze and Joshy's blog!