Oh Canada!

We just got back from our annual boat trip to Canada and it was great!! We drove 15 hours through to get to LaConner W.A. where we put our boat in the ocean!! We went to some old favorite harbors and some new one's we could explore but all and all it was a wonderful trip!! This is just a very small sampling of pictures! I guess I went a little crazy because we came home with a little over 400 pictures, so while you get bored with these just know it could be much worse!

We spent a night at Friday Harbor which is one of our old favorites that we hit every year! They have fun window shopping and there is even a harbor seal who visits us every year! While we were here Dad made us all eat a muscle and oh man are they gross!! I got mine down quick enough but Wiatt and Len had some struggle and it was HILARIOUS!!

This is where we check in with the Canadian customs and get the crabbing licenses! It's called the Port of Sidney and just like every where else it's gorgeous! The biggest boat in this harbor was from Salt Lake city and no it was not ours!! Ha although the LennyNicole does have a certain flare to it!!
We stayed our third night at a new port called Telegraph. There's no town around it, it's just real seculded and so fun! We went kayaking which is great till there are seals popping up out of the water around you then I got a little nervous and was ready to be done for the day!

This is one of all time favorite stops! Ganges is so pretty and just relaxed and plenty to see even after going there every year! This year we got lucky and were able to go to their big open market with all sorts of fun things to look at and lots of yummy food from the island of Saltsprings!
We'd never been here before but it was gorgeous! It is called Cowchian Harbor! There wasn't a whole lot of shopping or different things but just the atmosphere was so relaxed that it was a fun place to spend a night!

We stopped at this small place just passing through one afternoon but it was so neat! All over the town are huge murals painted on the walls and there is the funniest street to window shop down! All the buildings look victorian and it was just so cute all over the place!
This place is a MUST see! This was while we are Butchard Gardens!! Which is an absolutely gorgeous and amazing place! There are huge flower gardens of all types like a Japanese Garden, a Rose Garden, an Italian Garden and my favorite is the Sunken Garden. It's built by an old lime quarry so they turned that into gardens and it's amazing! Also in the evenings they have the most fantastic firework show! It's all arranged to music and it's on the ground in air, boats and water falls all made out of fireworks! It's great!

This is just a little sampling of our crabbing! We usually had quite a few every night to clean and cook right on the dock by our boat! Also we had only one fatality this year and that was when a crab got Leonard's thumb! You would've thought the world had to come to an end but he lived!
This is the only day it was warm enough to wear our swimsuits so we took full advatage of it! We went to a place called Sidney Spit and played in the sand, not too much in the water though because it was CHILLY! There were lot's of sea gulls, crabs, and seashells!
We had just gotten back into the U.S. and had to stop at our favorite place for clam chowder, Roche Harbor! This place is neat because it has old streets and old hotels, churches, houses! Really really pretty!!
We started the long drive home too late in the afternoon to make the long haul again so we spent one night on the Columbia river! It was neat seeing the dam and we even got to see and real old ship go through the lock! But we were all pretty frazzled and wanting to go home!
So by the end of the ten days after being in a squishy truck and then a small boat with tight quarters we were all feeling a little this way but luckily we all made it home even Len's teddy!!