Summer Holiday

I’m on vacation!, originally uploaded by kpwerker.

We’re back from a week on Vancouver Island. Ah, relaxation. This photo is at China Beach, part of the Juan de Fuca Trail along the southern west coast of the island. So lovely.

We stayed relatively local so we could bring the dog and avoid airports and passports. Plus, we really enjoy exploring BC. We drove up to Port Renfrew (the end of the road, essentially), spent a day in Victoria (tourist hell), visited the lovely Abkhazi Garden, the surprisingly not-kitschy Craigdarroch Castle, and went on some beautiful hikes. I can’t recommend Cougar’s Crag Bed & Breakfast highly enough. The owner Steve is terrific, a movie buff who enjoys sharing his extensive DVD collection. His three dogs (a vizsla, a coon hound, and a great dane) are adorable and friendly. Cleo had a blast.

I knit through the rest of the even rows of my Clapotis, and hope to finish the decreasing today. That’ll count as a vacation completion, right? I did start a Sweet sweater with the alpaca yarn I got at Rhinebeck a couple of years ago. I think I’m going to like it. It’s super simple, so it might be perfectly easy going or a little too boring. Only time will tell.

We slept a lot and watched a ridiculous number of DVDs. In addition to half the first season of Angel (starts not too great, gets better as the season progresses), we watched some movies of Steve’s: Children of Men (must see; it’s freaking brilliant. And that car scene!), Pan’s Labyrinth (heartbreaking; also a must see), Babel (to round out the trio of Mexican films from the last year; I loved it), and 300 (gorgeous; okay overall), then last night after we got home we watched The Fountain (terrible).