Cruise to Victoria for a Day! August 22nd 2009

So, I won a day cruise to Victoria off of the radio. I called in to a particular local radio station every single day for a week and often had 5 or 6 phones from work calling at once. I would hear "you are caller number 1"—"you are caller number 4"—"you are caller number 5"—"you are caller number ..."—whatever...you get the picture...I was never caller number 10! Every day I was a lot of numbers, but not caller number ten. That is...until Friday.

On Friday I heard the phone ring and ring and ring and was about to hang up when I heard "hello?"...I hate when radio stations do that to you...like ask WHY you are calling. SHHEEESH! Just tell me if I have won or not. Don't make me explain why I am calling. Well, I said my name and like a bumbling idiot also said that I hoped I was caller number ten... YES! I was caller number TEN, and the enthusiastic radio personality congratulated "Jenny from Lynden" on winning the cruise!!!! Very ridiculous—but somehow I no longer cared how cheesy they were about it. I WON! Then the music started. I could hear the fan fair music through the phone (and on my radio in the other room). I was caller number TEN! ME! I won the cruise to the San Juan Islands. I sighed a very happy and content sigh as I hung up the phone after "they" got some more of my "information". I was so very excited to share my news. I was so very proud of me. And a great day it was!

What did I win exactly? It was a day cruise on the ocean around the San Juan Islands and to Victoria where we could spend 5 hours on shore taking in the sites and then at 5:00 meet back on the boat for dinner on the way back with high probability of seeing whales! Oh yes! It was going to be a great day.

We left pretty early in the morning for the station and the boat ride was quite pleasant. A friend of mine from At Home America who used to sell with me was also on board with her husband. They were making their trip a mini overnight getaway! Very fun. We chatted with them most of the way around the islands and then went our separate ways when we reached shore. It was a bright and sunny day—not at all as cold as we were expecting. In fact, once we reached Victoria the coats and sweaters came off as we were both sweating. We had a lot of fun walking around.

We ate lunch at Milestones! Our favorite restaurant there. It is a tradition now for when we go to Victoria. We have been three times there and have always enjoyed the food. It always seems to mark a Milestone in our lives too. Well, this time was just a good relaxing FREE trip for us and we were celebrating. Lunch was delicious as always and since we have been so many times before and we did have a bit of time restraint we decided not to actually site see too far off the inner harbor. We walked along the water and watched multiple amazing street performers doing incredible feats of immense danger and were quite entertained. The street peddlers trinkets and gifts were also entertaining. Lots of amazing talent on the streets in Victoria.

5 o'clock came fast on our little trip and we headed back to the boat. We had our picture taken and watched for wales as the sun set with dinner. Although the buffet style dinner was not spectacular (although Miles liked the salmon) the whales were and that made up for it. The sun was going down the there were several whales pretty close. They were all Orca whales and the Captain on the boat shared stories about them as they had been around the water there for years and years. There were a couple of baby ones that were not so very small but oh so fun to watch! It was an amazing day!