Vancouver Day Seven, aka. Ashley is a lucky idiot....

Note: we are on a schedule, so pictures will be added tonight.

So if you scroll down a bit to the end of day six’s blog, you will note that I took a picture of the hotel room. This is where the story begins. When we arrived in the hotel, I immediately said I needed a picture before we messed the room up, and then on a nearby dark counter I switched my long range lens off and put on my regular, placing the long range on the counter. I took said pictures and then went about my night. In the morning we packed up and left Nanaimo… and my lens.

(don’t panic mom, note that the title says I’m a lucky idiot.)

So we drive through Nanaimo, stop at a local bakery to get two Nanaimo bars, and then proceed to fulfill a promise 6 years old and eat Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo. I don’t really like Nanaimo bars in the first place, but Marni found hers to be very tasty!

We then started to drive towards Victoria, making stops at the town of Chemainus which is a town with 43 murals dating back to 1980 when the logging company closed down and no one had anything better to do.

We stopped in Duncan to follow the path around the many many totems in the town. Marni practiced being a vampire by trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible while I took pictures.

We arrived in Victoria around 2ish, and when we drove to the hotel, someone opened the door before Marni could and guess what. It was a bell boy. He wanted to know if he could get our bags for us, and if I would be needed the car again today or if I would like him to call around the valet?

THE VALET!

Marni and I were pretty much baffled, and grinned our way through saying yes thank you and soon we were shown our rooms. We have a limited view room which means we can only see the harbor, the gardens and the waterfall. Needless to say, when the bellhop left we danced on our beautiful beds!

Look at how beautiful they are!

After calming down we went out on the town for a little shopping, and toured the Royal Museum of BC. There was an exhibit on Emily Carr there so it was perfect!

We ate dinner at the black olive. It was amazing and fancy and we both had wine. Marni had the seafood platter, apparently making it her mission to do some serious damage to the aquatic population during her stay.

We walked back to the hotel as everything was closing up, and after sitting the our room talking about things to do for the night, I realized my camera bag was lighter than it should be. Its about this point when I realize that my lens is gone. Insert a half hour of panicked ripping apart of my suitcase and the car only to find I cant find it. I called the hotel in Nanaimo and guess what, they have it. Only one thing to do then, we get in the car and drive back to Nanaimo. It was an hour and a half drive there, and we basically walked into the hotel, signed a piece of paper saying the lens was mine and they gave it back to me. I could breathe again! Woo! Marni was amazing and kept a good track of music going for us to sing along to in the car going both ways and before we knew it we were back in Victoria by Midnight. The Parliament Buildings were all lit up with lights and we drove back to the hotel for a good night sleep. I was to tired to post on the blog which is why this one is so late.

So in summary, Victoria is beautiful, tip your bellboys, and always always ALWAYS look over your room before you check out.