It was such a lovely weekend in Victoria, until.....

It was such a lovely and relaxing weekend in Victoria, BC. Here was the view of the inner harbour from our room window...

And here is the fun and delicious gift that was waiting for us in our room when we arrived....

The large teacup is made of chocolate and is filled with chocolates and dried fruits. The small cups are chocolates as well. In the center is a canister of the Afternoon Tea Blend served in The Empress Tea Room.

We had such a nice time...We relaxed, had a sumptuous Thanksgiving meal in the hotel's restaurant, toured around town, and had an absolutely beautiful room. I also visited a great yarn store, Beehive Wool Shop, where I bought some new yarns for a couple of new projects. I even had lots of time to knit happily, while sitting in a comfy armchair in our room with a view of the harbour.

On Friday while driving around the area, we spotted a little tea room and decided to stop in. The shop was run by a charming Scottish woman, and we had the best afternoon tea EVER!

The rest of the weekend continued this way until it was time to return home on Sunday. That's when THIS showed up!

It even started to snow in town in Victoria, which is really unusual! This is a view from the car window on I-5 around Bellingham, WA. Very beautiful to look at, but it was an absolutely treacherous, 2-day trip home. A trip that ordinarily takes about 5 hours, including border crossing and ferry crossing, took us two full days!

Talk about terrifying! Cars were off the road right and left on both days. The highway itself was sheets of hardened ice and snow, with a strong wind blowing. Somehow, we must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in Siberia! There was over a foot of snow in our travel area over the two days we were trying to get home.

The first day of travel, we got across on the ferry, then drove to somewhere approaching the border, where we were stuck for hours. We finally gave up and thankfully found a hotel not too far from our travel route. We checked in, starving and exhausted after over 7 hours creeping over just a few miles. Here's a view from our hotel window the next morning....

We then set out on the road again, and had a fairly easy drive to the Canadian border. The Canadians were well-prepared and all of the roads were plowed and sanded. After the border, the rest of the trip was a real white-knuckler! I-5 south of the border was even more treacherous than the roads the day before. The roads had not been plowed or sanded for hours. We crept along and held our breath, and finally made it home safe in about 6 hours (usually a 2 hour trip from the border). We didn't even stop for food or a break---we just wanted to get home in one piece! Here's a view from the car window on the second travel day...

For those of you from a snowy climate area, this may seem overly-dramatized. However, conditions like this are rare in this area, and for some reason, they are never prepared. The coniditions have been so icy, some say the worst they've ever seen. I'm grew up in a southern climate myself, so I am never too happy when they say the "S word" on the weather forecasts. But this last couple of days has had even long-term snow veterans feeling a little shell-shocked!

As I watched the news last night, finally snuggled safely at home, I saw that people sat on the icy roads in gridlock for up to 8-10 hours in the evening after we arrived home, even overnight, trying to get home! Many ran out of gas in the gridlock and had to abandon their cars and walk home! Even the Metro buses pulled over and told riders that they could go no further and the riders were on their own!! Yikes! I much prefer less adventurous times around here, weather-wise!

I'm also a little worried about my dear husband----he needed to go to work this morning. It took him a couple of hours, but he got there safely. I'm just hoping he can get back home again this evening after the ice freezes over on the roads again---it's supposed to be in the teens again tonight!

The funny part of this whole adventure is, I never, never, never travel on Thanksgiving weekends because of all of the crowds and bad travel conditions. But just this once we thought we would go ahead, since the certificate for our room would expire December 1st, and we really needed a relaxing weekend away...

Let's just say my policy of not traveling over the Thanksgiving will resume, effective immediately! It was SUCH a nice weekend overall---a little rainy and chilly, but we had a really nice time overall. But I think I produced enough stress hormones on that drive home to overcome any relaxation gained over the weekend. I can live without another road trip like that for a very long time!

And I was worried about it being a little too rainy last weekend......silly me! Today sounds like a perfect day for staying home and working on my knitting projects! I've already felted my booga bag for Norovember this morning, and I'm going to felt two little mini-bags I knit while in Victoria later today. Here's a picture of my happy little booga bag drying in the window...

Have a happy, warm and dry day, everyone! Hope you can curl up in a nice, cozy spot and knit contentedly----that's what I'll be doing, for sure!

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