Elizabeth here again. We said our goodbyes to Craig and Hailey this morning and headed south. Clayton by bike and I by car. Clayton will write about his ride later.
I drove south to Victoria. I picked up two hitch-hikers on the way down. I figured it was my way of repaying karma for giving me a lift yesterday when I needed it. For those of you reading this who don't know the Pratts may think its crazy we're always hitch-hiking and picking up strangers. But we were raised by a mom who encouraged it. Before we could drive my mom would drop us off every Saturday morning during ski season to hitch a ride to a ski resort up little or big cottonwood. Then we would thumb our way back down and call her at the pay phone of the 7Eleven. Good times. And we've been doing it ever since. I think some discretion should be used while hitch-hiking, but overall I think it's pretty safe. In fact, my grandparents met when grandpa picked up my grandma hitch-hiking in upstate New York- so the tradition lives on!!
I spent the afternoon at Victoria walking down government street and doing the touristy stuff. It's a beautiful city. Then I drove up to Sidney and found Clayton biking along. We found our WS host for the evening. He lives a block from the water in an apartment complex. He's a super nice, friendly guy in his early 30's. He had to leave for work but gave us a house key and then went grocery shopping and said we could eat anything. And he's giving us his bed for the night. These Canadians are so nice!
Clayton and I headed over to Butchart Gardens for a few hours as recommended by Katy. It's 55 acres of all kinds of trees, flowers, and shrubs from all over the world. It was very beautiful.
Upon returning to our host house Clayton and I made ourselves pasta and a salad, then took a walk along the water and through some ritzy neighbourhoods. Not a bad place to live. Now I am blogging while Clayton is watching Captain America and snacking on popcorn and a smoothie that we helped ourselves to. You guys gotta try out this warm showers deal, it's pretty sweet!
The only thing I'd (Clayton) add, is something that our warm showers host mentioned in passing today. On the topic of work and debt, a reference was made to the saying, "time is money." To this, our host said, this saying is an injustice to time. Money will always work itself out. But you can't make up for lost time. I like this. We only have so much time in our life to accomplish our goals and fulfill our dreams, but money just comes and goes.
 |
| The Parliament Building, Victoria. |
 |
| Sidney Channel, Sidney BC. |
 |
| Butchart Gardens. |
 |
| More food. If I rode for about 7 hours a day, I typically tried to also eat for 7 hours. Courtesy of Mark Jensen, a killer Warmshowers host. |
 |
| Last day in Canada, so sad. |
Elizabeth... I have missed you at bachelor night. I had no idea your grandparents met through hitch hiking. What a great story. I remember picking up a hitch hiker with you in high school. I'm thinking I'll have to visit Canada sometime. Their trust is impressive. I also appreciate Clayton's thoughts on time. You've both done a good job of making the most of it. Way to live it up before med school.
ReplyDelete