More Canada and Portland

Well, back to our trip, 3 months later…
We rolled into Victoria from Vancouver, mainly to see a former professor of mine, but also because I was nostalgic for ferries. We did ferry across, to Ben’s delight, and there was a play area for children on the ferry, so he had a lot of fun. We spent several hours looking for a place to stay – I hadn’t realized how much more expensive Victoria is, because it is a vacation destination, or how full it would be on a Wednesday. It turns out we should have stayed at the very first hotel we came across, but we didn’t, because it was “far” from the city (I had no idea nothing is really far there), so we wandered around until we finally found a place to stay. There, I did the strangest thing: I bartered with the hotel clerk for a better price. I cannot remember the name of the hotel, but the front clerk would barter with customers for the price of a room. He started around $89 Canadian, and finally came down to $69. I was too tired to push him more, so I just nodded and I carried the sleeping Ben inside and collapsed on the bed. After stopping by several hotels (all more than $100) and a youth hostel (they only accepted cash — I was looking for an ATM when I found the other hotel), I was grateful to finally lay down and sleep. It was almost 1 a.m.
The next day I called my professor, who was understandably surprised to hear from me. I had not seen him for six years, and during that time we had each e-mailed one time. He did not expect me to suddenly turn up in Victoria, when I’d last said I was in Tucson, but he was a real champ and made arrangements for me to stop by his office anyway. (Thanks, Dr. S!) He also told me of a nice beach to take Benjamin while we waited, and that’s where the pictures start. We drove over most of the island before we found the beach, but find it we did. We got out and some neighborhood dogs came over to investigate (Hey, look, a kid! Let’s go). One dog stayed, and played “catch” with Ben. We didn’t actually have a ball, so Ben kept picking up wet sand and throwing it, and the dog would try to catch it. Unfortunately, he finally did “catch” it, and started coughing, making me feel awful. He then left to curl up next to one of the houses, presumably his own, and cough it off. After that, we visited with the professor and then left for Seattle. We drove all that day, stayed at my friend’s house, and drove all the next day. It was raining like crazy, so the 4-hour drive from Seattle to Portland turned in 8 hours, and so we stayed with our friend Matt. You can see Matt’s mug there (he’s single, ladies) and then a really cute picture of him and Ben and his dogs, whom Ben loved. Matt’s mom fed us well and we had a great time. Matt took us to Saturday market in downtown Portland, and we feasted on international cuisine and saw a lot of hippies/earth mothers/veggies and the like, as well as some wonderful crafts. After that, we headed to the final leg of our trip — a visit to someone who has been my friend for twenty years this spring. But this is unbelievably long, so I will leave that for another day.