Saturday, June 17, 2006

Victoria at last

Well we have been busy these last days, traveling thousands of miles and having fun along the way. On June 10th we flew to San Francisco, a 9-hour flight and the kids were very tired. Thankfully it was a night flight and they managed to get some sleep.
We checked in at Hotel Opal, not a very nice hotel, so much for Internet booking, and fell a sleep right away so as to get used to the time difference as soon as possible.
We had a lot of fun in San Francisco seeing the sights and shopping a little, we were too late for the mandatory Alcatraz tour, which was sold out but we´ll be here again later in the summer.

After four days we took a flight to Seattle via Oakland and from Seattle we flew to Victoria in a very small plane at least compared to the jets we have been flying with up until now. It was a breath of relief to arrive in Victoria, the hotel Queen Victoria, is very nice and the air and atmosphere here on Vancouver Island is so different from the big city.

The kids love it here, so far, even though we have been busy arranging school and daycare for them, which is the same hassle as in Iceland, a lot of red tape and a lot of people(all of them very nice) we have to talk to all over the city. We will be here for 7 days and then we will take a Seacat to Seattle on the 20th and a flight to Pensacola from there. We will be staying for a week in Pensacola and then we will drive all the way to Victoria. I don’t think there is a longer route in North America, Florida on the east coast to Victoria on the west coast of Canada is about 7 days of constant driving which is impossible with two kids in the backseat. So we will take it easy and stop along the way hopefully in places like Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and other natural beuties. We are planning on aiming for San Francisco and take the west coast road from there, hopefully visiting Chris and his fiancé in Port Angeles and then finish off by taking the ferry from there to Victoria.

So there is a lot of driving ahead of us, exciting times to say the least. I will try to keep a travel log along the way with photos and essays to keep true to the aim of this site, to practice my English writing so as to lessen the shock when I start the photojournalism course in Victoria this fall, which is 60% writing and 40% photography.

When we arrive back in Victoria our container will hopefully be there, with our stuff and our beloved kayaks and bikes(Vancouver Island looks great for cycling). We get our apartment on August the 1st and I will post our address in a later blog.
Well I think this is the longest entry on this blog yet so I´ll call it quits for now.

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