Salt Spring Island - July 08

Wow - I am so excited. I am on another adventure. This time I am off to Salt Spring Island which is in beautiful British Columbia.















Here I am on the plane with M in business class. I just LOVE to travel in business class.
















Once we got off the plane we had to take another plane and then a ferry. As you can see, I LOVE to live dangerously and personally I can't see what the danger is here!!!



We arrived on Salt Spring and decided to stop at our favourite restaurant for lunch. It is called The Tree House and literally the restaurant is outside under a tree. Great if the weather is nice which is was. I love to eat as you know.









































































And here I am in a tree at the restaurant. I'm so happy to be in the trees again. It has been a long time, but thank goodness I don't live here. So uncivilized - no indoor plumbing!!!

















We stopped at the toy store and I found a friend!! This is Anna holding me - keeping the friend under control.






















I got to go tree climbing as well. Wow - I was pretty scared up there!! But I was in safe hands with M and Anna.

















Then we went to this cool movie theatre to see WALL-E. It was very exciting and so cool in this theatre. It was a small little country theatre with flat seating, but I got my own seat and my own drink.















Next on my list of fun things to do was geocaching. We found several caches, but always behind someone else who was scooping all the travel bugs. Maybe later I will find some.


















This one was cool because the cache was filled with books.















Here I am just taking a break in the sun while the girls play on the rocks. The scenery is just gorgeous.
















Can you believe there was a cache hidden behind these rocks? And I found it!!!!
















Here was another cache in the forest - all covered in moss, but I found it!!! Of course, Estelle, the GPS helped me a lot.


Salt Spring has a new bus and we decided on our way to market to take the bus rather than take the car since parking would be at a premium.


























Hold me tight - I don't want to fall out!!!!



















We spent some time looking for shells on the beach....
















And climbing mountains......
















There is a lot of varied terrain on this little island.
















But all good things come to end and here I am waving good-bye to Salt Spring Island. Can't wait to come back next year.


When I got home, I couldn't wait to get a hot chocolate from Timmy's as there are NO Timmy's on Salt Spring Island.

George meets the wilderness in the Yukon

Ed and Carol travelled to the Yukon to attend Ed’s son’s wedding. Chris and Amanda tied the knot near Whitehorse, YT on July 26, 2008. While on the trip I encouraged Carol and Ed to adopt a permanent travel companion, Yukon, the Husky. Here are Carol, Yukon and I posing with the Welcome to Whitehorse sign.






The wedding was held on the couple’s property in a new subdivision carved out of the wilderness. Chris and Amanda recently completed the house. Here I am posing with Hanes, their vintage Volkswagen camper. Hanes was part of the accommodation for wedding guests.





Carol and Ed rented a more current version of a camper. I thought I should check out the hook-ups before we settled in for the night.







Everyone lent a hand getting the site ready, as the reception was held in a double party tent.





The bride made granola for each of the wedding guests as a wedding favour. Here I am checking out the candies on the table the morning of the wedding. I claimed the quality control job making sure everything tasted great.






We had a beautiful day for the wedding after a week of grey skies. Everything went off without a hitch, other than running out of alcohol early and Carol having to make a booze run at 11pm into town to see if anyone was still open. After explaining the situation, a store that had just closed and staff was on their way out, reopened and allowed to party to restock. What is a wedding party without lots of beer flowing? (especially in the Yukon!)

I got a dance with the wedding couple, with Ed looking on and then settled back to watch the party go until after 3 am. The next morning the family all got together for a brunch. Some of us had been up later than others and were a bit worse for wear at the brunch. Of course Chris and Ed were still up to their old tricks. I was checking out the jams and jellies on the table.








After brunch we went for a tour around town. I thought I might like to stay in the Yukon and help with the local refreshment delivery.





But my escorts Carol and Ed said I should see the other places I was scheduled to go before deciding if I wanted to settle anywhere. So we all headed back and I continues on my adventures with my next escort.

George

Greece and Bulgaria ~ June/July 2008

George was pretty excited about his first trip. He had never been on a plane before and was kind of worried about the 11 hour flight, so he decided to bring his Nintendo DS along to keep himself occupied.

He needn't have worried because he slept the whole way across the Atlantic! We had to wake him up to look out the window as we flew over Provence.

I really think that the thing George is most interested in is food! As soon as we got to Santorini, George wanted to go out for dinner so we could have a real Greek salad. He wasn't disappointed! It was a lot of fun eating right by the waterfront on Amoudi Bay. George kept looking for the girls in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" because it was filmed there.

Is that a beer George? Are you old enough to drink beer? I guess they aren't too picky about the drinking age in Europe.

The next day George and his friend Busby headed out to the beach. They know how to travel in style.

The black sand at Perissa beach was too hot to lie on, so George and Busby shared a lounge chair. Busby had a lot of catching up to do to get a nice tan like George!

After Santorini, we took a ferry to Athens. George was seasick the whole way, so we didn't take any pictures.

He perked up a lot when he saw the Acropolis from our hotel balcony though! He was so excited that he couldn't sit still, which is why his picture is a little blurry.

We rented a car and took a day trip to the Peloponnesian Peninsula. George hid under the seat while Jim drove in Athens (it is definitely the most scary place we have ever driven - they drive 5 lanes across on a 3 lane road!). He did get out of the car to see the Corinthian Canal. It was quite awesome. Hang on George - don't fall in!

Our next destination was Bulgaria. We thought it would be kind of neat to take the train from Athens to Sofia. It was a 16 hour trip, but most of it was overnight, so we had "couchettes" ~ the benches in the train compartment converted into bunk beds. George loved the clickety-clack of the train while he slept.

The next morning George got a little antsy and started climbing all over the compartment. 

George, that window is open! Don't fall out!

Bulgaria was so cool. George loved all the castles. This one is called Tsaravets and is in the town of Veliko Turnovo, next to the town where Jim's father grew up. 

There were hundreds of stairs to get to the top. Luckily there was a little cafe there so we could rest and recuperate. George wouldn't share any of his Fanta with anyone else. 

We stayed in some pretty nice hotels on our trip. George liked the antiques and was pretty well behaved in the rooms ~ not like the train!

Bulgaria is famous for its rose oil, which is an ingredient in over 90% of all the world's perfumes. George made sure he brought some back for all the ladies at Monday Motivators. I think he was bribing them to take him on more trips!