Thursday, June 19, 2008

More Vacation Highlights: Victoria

Meghan's kitten, Kitten, doing some "boxing". You can hear Richard talking about Jesse Ventura and Willie Nelson in the background. ;P


We attended Meghan's "commencement exercises" at the University of Victoria the day after we arrived. As with most graduations, it had lots of pomp and very little circumstance; the grads clearly hated their fusty robes and mortarboards, and the university bigwigs wore ludicrous Medieval-looking costumes with poofy velvet hats that reminded me of the old Strawberry Shortcake dolls. The people receiving their doctorates and Master's degrees received a cordial handshake from the university president, but when it came time for the BA grads like Meghan to accept their degrees, he simply had them kneel down before him so he could tap them on the head with his goofy hat. As Meghan asked afterwards, "Do we have cooties or something?" Regardless, she was very proud (and relieved) to have taken such a big step forward in her education. She'll be spending the summer helping to construct "fish ladders" for spawning salmon, a painstaking process.

The next day we spent hours wandering through Butchart Gardens, a glory of exotic trees and blooms that truly boggles the mind. Everything is lush in Victoria, but the varied and meticulously designed Gardens are really a sight to see. Frankly, I was expecting just a lot of flowerbeds and a few rose gardens. Richard declined to go, so I'll be sure to make him watch the half hour of video I shot there. Heh heh heh. It was also around here that Romero the Rock picked up a friend, a gnome with a mysterious past...
I'll post some clips from the Butchart Gardens footage if I can ever figure out Richard's video-editing software. Please don't hold your breath!

The next day we said goodbye to Richard's family and hopped the ferry to Port Angeles, Washington. I tried to concentrate on my book as the boat sloshed from side to side and a very large woman bellowed at her very large and obnoxious daughter. "Siddown! Siddown er I'll git up an' beat yer ass!" But of course she never did get up or beat any asses - I think she was stuck in her little seat, actually - and I was relieved when they both fell into a deep sleep. Thank God for the sedative effect of junk food.

4 comments:

tweetey30 said...

I always cringe when I see obese children for some reason. I dont hold it against them just that it shows they get what they want and how much they want and so on and so on...

S.M. Elliott said...

It makes me a little sad. I mean, some junk food is fine as a treat, but it's obvious that some parents are just using it to shut their kids up for a while.

tshsmom said...

Kitten is absolutely precious!

Your Dad is pretty easy-going, but he gets enraged when he sees an obese kid. He hates that those parents are ruining their child's life through their own laziness.

S.M. Elliott said...

Kitten is lethally cute. We all had too much fun teasing and spoiling her - Kathy gave her her first taste of chicken.

Obese kids annoy me. Or rather their parents annoy me. Sure, some kids have a chubby phase, but letting a child get to the point where they can't run or play is just plain wrong.