another whirlwind visit----and it's not over yet!!!

we are lucky to have another visitor up this week!! my sister, greta came up for the long weekend. she arrived on friday evening and the fun began!! we woke up on saturday morning to shawn's "oh so yummy" omelets --a great start to any day!! we then took her downtown to the pike place public market. we walked the whole market, including the surrounding little street side shops. we bought some fruit, honey, and some other goodies, and then headed off to get some lunch. we had such a wonderful day, we decided to have a lunch on the courtyard by the market. we attempted to find a spot without dog poo on the ground, but instead opted to dine on a cement ledge. we grabbed some hot dogs and sandwiches and enjoyed a boys choir that was giving a concert downtown. after a relaxing lunch, we started heading towards home, but then decided to detour to the ballard locks. the locks are a water ladder for boats between lake washington (fresh water) and the puget sound (salt water). during the salmon run, the place is supposed to be packed with people!! we decided to check it out before the crowds. we got to see a sightseeing boat pass through the ladder-the boys thought that was great!! we went to ivar's that evening for dinner and attempted to feed the birds after dinner with the leftover animal crackers, but the birds were a no show. instead onlookers received a free showing of the battle of the fox brothers. gabe took grady's last cracker and it was on!!! who knows who won that one, grady forgives and forgets pretty fast. the next morning started off bright and early. we left our house about 5:45 a.m.--made a necessary stop for mickey d's--amanda without food is never good and headed to catch our boat. after a 3 hour boat ride, we docked in victoria, b.c., canada. we passed through customs with ease, despite shawn cracking jokes about various things. we took a victoria city tour on the way to the buchart gardens. we spent 2 hours in the gardens. they were as beautiful as i had always been told! we finished our trip with walking the main street through victoria -- stopping for some shopping and ice cream! we then passed through canadian customs and boarded the boat home for another 3 long, long hours. our bottoms were never so happy to be off that boat!!! today we just lounged around, we had the best of intentions of doing something, but we were all completely pooped after yesterday! luckily it rained off and on today, so we can always use that for an excuse!