The Pollard Place: Teatime in Victoria

What a great month! We didn't slow down in June but kept busy. As per usual, we worked hard and played hard. We worked a lot on the house and got everything painted but the bathrooms! That is a huge deal and we are stoked about it. Now we can start working on the backyard and decorating on the inside. We got our kitchen table set up, which is Rusty grandma's old table who passed away a few years ago, so we're excited about having it. It was really fun to have it set up and have some people over for dinner for our first time using a table that was full sized since we've been married. Ah, the little things you celebrate. :)

Henry and his bff Jace. Believe it or not, they are only 4 weeks apart!

Rusty and I absolutely LOVE our new ward. The moms do a playgroup every Thursday afternoon and I have gone a few times and made some friends. We met a couple named Amber and Kenny who have a baby boy just two weeks younger than Henry and went over to their house one Friday night for dinner. It was so fun to get to know them! We used the fire pit in the backyard and stayed out talking until past midnight. It's so fun to be making so many wonderful friends. It was our first time keeping Henry out way past his bedtime, but he was a champ and just slept there and then came home and went right to bed in his crib.

For Family Night one week we used our new bike trailer and went biking on Centennial Trail. We weren't really sure how Henry would do, but he absolutely loved it! Every time we looked back he was looking around with a smile on his face, except for when we went over a few bumps which he did not like :) We had to ghetto rig his car seat into the bike trailer because he's not big enough to sit up by himself, so we weren't getting any points for being classy but it was sturdy.

Henry had his four month checkup! He weighed 15 pounds 5 ounces and was in the 45th percentile for weight, which is a lot more than the 15th percentile he was in at his 2 month checkup. He is 27 inches long which is the 64th percentile. He got his shots and was a little upset but calmed down right away. And this time I didn't cry, so progress.

We also met up with Ashley and Ryan and Oscar for dinner at Nutty's Junkyard Grill, which is an awesome place with giant burgers and tasty milkshakes. The whole place is decorated and themed on cars, which was really fun.

The best part of this month was our first trip out of country with Henry. We made a loop driving up towards Vancouver going over to Victoria and then back over through the peninsula. We left Saturday morning and came back Monday night, and it was an absolute blast! Saturday we got up early, put everything in the car and left, getting into Canada into the port to take the ferry to Vancouver Island. We got on the ferry from Tsawwassen (what??) to Swartz Bay, which was Henry's first ferry!! It was fun walking around the ship and looking out at the water and all of the beautiful islands.

After about an hour and a half we got to Vancouver Island and drove to our Airbnb apartment close to downtown Victoria. We checked in, grabbed lunch at a Chinese place (which turned out to be SUPER tasty and had my first ever bubble tea... definitely an experience) and then drove over to Butchart Gardens. These are world renown gardens and they are huge. There are different themed gardens throughout the park, and each one is beautiful and unique. Our favorite's were the Sunken Garden and the Rose Garden. It was absolutely incredible all of the different flowers they had! So many of them I had never even seen or knew existed. There were tiny ones smaller than my pinky nail and ones as big as my arm. The last garden we went through on our way out was the Italian Garden, and they had a little gelateria! It was a perfect way to end because it was getting pretty warm.

Sunken Garden

The Rose Garden

Chocolate for Rusty and Wildberry for me

After the gardens we drove the Scenic Marine Drive, which is a really cool drive that hugs the coastline and goes right into downtown Victoria. We stopped at Oak Bay Marina, and some scenic overlooks that had awesome views of the water and the Olympic Peninsula. Then we drove through downtown Victoria to see what it was like and I absolutely fell in love. Honestly, I didn't really have high expectations for Victoria because I hadn't heard very much about it, but it is such an underrated city!

The Olympic Mountains

We decided to hit up one of the must sees on our list before heading home for a little nap and relaxing: the Craigdarroch Castle. I had never seen a real castle before and it was so cool! We didn't go inside, but just seeing it from the outside was awesome.

After grabbing some dinner at a burger joint we were recommended, we went home to hang out for a little bit. One of the things we really wanted to see was the Parliament buildings all lit up at night. So we put H man to bed and showered and then sneakily put him in his car seat and in the car without waking him up. It's hard because it doesn't get dark until about 10:00 in the summer, so we had to wait until it was pretty late. We learned on this trip that travelling with a baby is more difficult, but it is also more fun! As silly as it sounds it was fun to show him these things for the first time. Anyways, luckily for us he didn't wake up and stayed asleep the whole time. Then we went downtown and found a cool place to park and stayed by the car with the windows unrolled for Mr. H. We took our pictures, enjoyed seeing the city at night, and then headed back home for some sleep before the next exciting day!

The moon, Jupiter and Venus

Ok, confession. Something I REALLY wanted to do was have high tea in Victoria. It's a big deal. But there were a few problems with this. 1. It was expensive. Not conducive to our budget travelling. 2. We have a baby, and they are generally really fancy places. 3. We don't drink tea, except herbal tea that doesn't come from tea leaves. And 4. I don't really like that kind of tea anyways. BUT, I still really, really wanted to have tea time there. So my husband is the best and agreed to do it, and not only that but he played along so well! We decided that we could do that for our brunch and it was so great! Our host gave us a couple of ideas of places that would be completely fine with us having a baby and we ended up coming to the Teahouse at Abkhazi Garden. It was an adorable little place nestled inside an award winning garden and it could not have been more perfect. When I found out they had openings, herbal tea, and were okay with the babe, I got so excited I ran through the garden to get Rusty. With seating outside all to ourselves with views of the garden and the water, it was pure bliss. Henry slept through the whole thing which made it really easy for us. Rusty and I spoke in British accents and tried to be very proper, the whole time making accidental clanking sounds and wondering how many rules we were breaking. This was without a doubt a highlight for both of us on this trip, and for me just in general. It's another one of those stereotypical tourist things that I love doing and it's right up there for me and favorite travel memories. I'm so glad we did it!

First level: egg salad on rye, cucumber sandwiches, salmon puffs, ham and cheese croissants, and roasted pepper quiche. My fav: quiche. R's: salmon puff

Second level: Blueberry scones with fresh jelly and cheddar and chive scones with Deonshire cream.

J's & R's: blueberry

Third level: creme brulee, lemon tart, date pastries,shortbread cookies.

J's: lemon tart. R's: cookie.

After tea time we went to Beacon Hill Park to explore a little bit and then walk to the Royal BC Museum. The park is giant and full of cool plants, walkways and benches. Also there is a free petting zoo in it!

There were lots of wild peacocks!

Happy Father's Day to this hunk!

This is in front of a really cool stone bridge!

Then we walked to the Royal B.C. Museum, which is supposedly the best one in British Columbia. We saw an exhibit on the gold rush, but our favorite parts were the area they made into a town, the ship, and the natural history exhibit.

Royal BC Museum

Mammoth teeth and tusks

I loved this mammoth. I don't even know why but I seriously did.

A ship!

After the museum we walked across the street to the parliament building to check it out before China Town!

The Parliament building! Such a beautiful place

Our last stop before leaving Victoria was China Town. It was such a fun thing to do! Apparently this one in Victoria is the second oldest one in North America. Pretty sweet.

Entering China town! I loved the street signs and the dragons

China Town gate

The China Town gate

Fan Tan Alley. The narrowest alley in Canada!

We got some food from China Town and then went to get on the ferry. Because we were changing countries, we had to go through customs so we had to spend a lot of time sitting in the car. But finally we got on the ferry and were on our way! I love ferries and being out on the water. A really sweet group of Ukrainian Christians started singing their songs with an accordion haha. It was really cute and fun, but H man was trying to sleep so I was not as ecstatic about their impromptu performance as some of the other people (including, I might add, my husband). :) We got to Port Angeles, stopped to get some treats, got incredibly lost, and eventually found our next place in Port Townsend. We didn't unpack anything but went straight to sleep because it was late and we had an early start the next day!

As if the whole trip to Victoria want an awesome and unforgettable weekend, we still had what was arguably going to be the best part! In fact the whole reason for this trip was because of the whale watching cruise I bought on Groupon in February. Originally we were going to do it on Friday, but the week before we were supposed to go I realized I hadn't told them we would be bringing Henry. Good thing too because they informed me that he needed a "seat" even though he can't sit in a seat, and they would have to put him on standby. Standby? Excuse me? No, I'm not going to put my four month old baby on standby and leave on the boat without him. But thank you. But, they were very accommodating and helped me change the reservation to the following Monday, which wasn't a problem and we just switched the direction of our trip around. And it was finally here! The whale watching trip had arrived! Ahhhh! We got ready, and I made sure to put Henry in a pair of his anchor diapers because WHALE WATCHING!

This was a trip to see Orcas, which technically are not even whales but are dolphins, but there is never a guarantee that you will see anything. There are three residential pods (J, K, and L) that live here and go back and forth from Washington to Canada, and spend a lot of time in the San Juan Islands. So the plan was to head up that way. Now let me tell you that I REALLY, REALLY wanted to see an orca. Like REALLY. But I had already told myself that it would still be a fun day if we didn't see anything just because we got to be out on the water and blah, blah, blah. But I really wanted to see one. We started heading towards the islands and stopped at a little island to see seals and eagles. Rusty and I had bought a pair of binoculars just for this trip and they were perfect for this! We saw about twenty seals on the beach or swimming in the water and 13 Bald Eagles, some juvenile and some adult. Holy cow! That was really cool. Also, as a side note we got extremely lucky with our table partners because they just wanted to spend the entire day out on the bow of the ship so they said that we could have their side as well. This worked wonderfully and we were not crowded at all. Such a blessing! Rusty and I took turns going outside to look around, but he is such a sweetheart and really gave me a lot more time than he took. I had a stupid grin plastered on my face the entire time and we hadn't even seen any whales yet! It was really fun inside the cabin too though. There were windows everywhere, and we got a mug with unlimited hot chocolate or hot apple cider, and a delicious blueberry pastry. Best way to start the day.

Heading out with the last remaining sunrise colors!

See what I mean? Big ol' grin. And I swear that I did not plan on him wearing that whale hoodie! Just a fun coincidence!

When we started going a little slower I put on the Moby Wrap and we went and sat in some chairs on the deck and then stood alongside the railing for a while. We had heard that we were getting close to some whales and I wanted to be out there! And finally we saw them! We were next to the coast where they like to feed on salmon and it created a hallway of sorts between us and the land. They just kept coming through like a parade! It was the coolest thing ever. I remember when the first one was pretty far away and Rusty kept saying, "Do you see it? Do you see it?" And I was like, "NO! I DON'T!! WHERE IS IT?! I'M MISSING THE BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!!!" But don't worry. I saw it. And then they just kept coming! Huge, beautiful creatures swimming up and down through the water. And as if my life couldn't get more perfect in that moment, a giant male (with the huge dorsal fin) came up right next to the boat where I was standing and. I. heard. him. breathe. I know that's a silly thing, but I just love that sound. It is so personal and intimate with the animals, and hearing the dolphins in Charleston do that while kayaking was one of my favorite things ever. And then they put a hydrophone down in the water and we got to hear them talking to each other! Fun fact, they will talk to each other when hunting fish but not when hunting other mammals like seals (which are what the transient orcas eat up here). But they always use echolocation. They are called Killer Whales because they are known to kill whales and eat them, although sometimes only the tongue or the brain (they eat Gray Whales on the coast of California). We got to just watch them parade through for about an hour, and saw 20 of them; males, females, juveniles. Oh it was just so glorious.

They're here!

Beautiful.

By this time it was time for lunch. We got dropped of at beautiful Friday Harbor on San Juan Island (one of my favorite places in the world) and had two hours to spend there. On our way there the orcas just kept swimming next to the boat and would pop up every once in a while! The first stop on the island was to got some lunch from a food truck right by the water. I got a crab sandwich (TO DIE FOR!) and Rusty got some killer fish tacos. I would live next to that truck if I could. And I'd weigh 200 pounds. Then we walked around and headed to the Whale Museum, which is just a tiny little thing but only $2 with the coupons we got from the boat. Then we got back on the boat and headed back to Port Townsend, where we got in the car and took one last ferry to make it home by 8 that night. What a wonderful trip!

Sunset from the boat

Well, the month wasn't over yet! And we still had some great things in store for us, even though they might not sound very excited after our little trip. But... Henry did have his first day at Kindergarten! I took him in to visit my old class where I did my student teaching and it was an absolute blast! They loved him and he did so good. My favorite quotes of the day were:

"Where is his hair?"

"Is he in college?"

"Can he stand? Walk? Talk? What CAN he do?"

"Let's put his hat on so he doesn't look so bald."

"Did it hurt to get your baby?"

"How old is he? Is he still zero? I'm six and a half!" "Well I'm six and a whole!" "I'm right in the middle of being six."

Our wonderful hiking buddies Colton and Sam invited us to go with them to hike Twin Falls. We had gotten the Poco Pack for carrying Henry on hikes for Christmas but had to wait until now to use it with him so he could hold his head up on his own. They were looking for a carrier and ended up getting the same one! So we took them out on their maiden voyage together, and both of our babes did great! And the hike was a lot of fun!

Henry and Jace!

Some of the upper falls

The fam!

The lower falls. They were beautiful!

Happy baby!

After our hike we went to a park with a great view of Mt. Si! Then we went to XXX in Issaquah and got some famous Root Beer floats :)

Boeing is doing a fun thing during the summer to get everyone more active. They want you to walk a certain number of steps every day, and as you go with your team they track the miles through different countries in Europe! And for some of the stops they give you a fun, healthy meal from that place. Well, we both love to travel and love to cook and especially love to eat, so this seemed right up our alley! We started making some of the dishes from the different countries and it was really fun!

We also went swimming for Henry's first time! At first we was a little unsure, but then he loved it! He was kicking and splashing. And the second time he loved it even more!

Henry Highlights!

It is seriously so fun to watch this little man grow. A lot of new and fun things happened this month.

Henry loves to stand!
Sucking his thumb

Got first laugh! June 15
Still all smiles
Started teething, so he likes to suck/chew on every thing. He loves a little bug that goes in the freezer, cucumber slices, and wash cloths.
Loves his toes! He grabs them and holds them as often as he can.

He started to give more snuggles and cuddles when he first wakes up from a nap.
Rolled over from his tummy to his back! June 25
First time in a bouncer! He loved it!

First time sitting on a dirt bike... :)

Scoots around on his back and tummy in circles
We also stopped swaddling him and this is the first night we didn't. He now sleeps with his arms straight out haha.