Victoria, Canada

I'm in the Pacific Standard Time Zone! OMG, it's been great to be able to talk to my sister and friends and not have to calculate the time difference. See, it's the little things that make me happy.

So anyway, it was a very very teary good bye to my aunt...her and I are so similar, now all my weird quirks make sense. I'm so glad that I had a chance to spent 3 wonderful weeks with her. We had such a fabulous time. I haven't laughed that much, well, ever. We were like 2 giggly kids, with our inappropriate comments, and juvenile sense of humor. She's really the only one I can be like that with and I like it. It makes her that much more special to me.

I left for Vancouver at the crack of dawn on Tuesday, had a quick stop downtown to unload some of my pack (which has reached a ridiculous 31 lbs even after the shameful amount of stuff I sent home with Zahra), and then took the bus to the ferry and sailed over to Victoria to spend some time with my aunt and uncle on my mom's side. The ride over was stunning. Have you been anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle, San Juan Islands? It is breathtaking. I'm glad to be here in the fall...all the leaves are changing, the crowds are gone and it's very peaceful. Plus the weather has turned a little cool and it's nice to bundle up!

My Aunt and Uncle have a great place 10 minutes from quaint downtown Victoria. We've been doing a lot of walking around the waterfront, having lazy mornings and overall just relaxing. I'll be here for a few days before heading back to Vancouver to whoop it up with my long time friend, Rez, who's coming in from Atlanta. We've been friends for 20 years - damn, when you can reminisce in decades, well, you know you're not 10 anymore. He and I are also going to check out Whistler for a few days and I'm super excited, b/c it's somewhere I've always wanted to go. I am just squeezing out every last bit of fun on this trip that I can :)