Kamloops. Kamloops. Kamloops.

I'm reporting from Kamloops.

I really don't have much to say, just that 'Kamloops' is one epic name for a moderate sized city in the middle of the desert.

We took a gondola up the mountain yesterday. They were fantastic.

 

And then to the desert:

Love,
-J-

*fails at thinking of witty title*

I'm in Whistler now. Just drove up today from Vancouver.

Victoria, I realized after two days, is an anti-hick town, for lack of a better phrase. It's into organic, environmentally friendly, small businesses, etc. This is coming from me, born and raised in a city where a large portion of the people are employed by an oil refinery, organic is unheard of, chain stores are the norm, and they don't give a crap about the environment. Victoria was a nice change from home.

My bro and I couldn't resist. Somewhere in Victoria.

I got the slight impression of it being a bit stuffy, though. It might be because of spending time with Dorothy and her husband, who are rather well off. Eating supper at their house was slightly akin to a Friday night supper at the Gilmore household (Gilmore Girls FTW?). The main difference was a less hostile environment and the absence of house help. But seriously, they were practically an Emily and Richard. I felt like I had been there before, but I guess it was only the large portion of Gilmore Girls I have consumed lately.

Last morning in Victoria, we visited the Butchart Gardens. Insert long string of pictures: 

This hedge makes other hedges feel inadequate.

Never have I found more loveable grass.

In Vancouver, I felt like I had been dropped somewhere in Asia. I was definitely a minority there. On Saturday night we visited one of my parents' friends from RVA. We had supper at an Indian restaurant, which was empty because it's still Ramadan. It was awesome, cheap Indian food, something that I can't find at home :(

On Sunday morning we visited Granville Island. I got a few things and a tasty mini cheesecake. We collapsed for the afternoon and then ate Chinese food. We picked the restaurant by walking down the road and seeing which was the fullest.

Today we hung around the mall, drove from Vancouver to Whistler, consumed coffee and wandered around aimlessly in the rain. Also, my brother knows many songs from "The Sound of Music." I'm not sure if he's ever actually seen the musical.
Love,
-J-

Today's post brought to you by jet lag.

I had quite the day yesterday.

This morning I woke up at 4am. I kind of rolled out of bed, into my clothes, brushed my teeth and got out the door to the airport.

Airports at 5am are a sort of zombie fest. Nobody is particularly awake, you see (except the flight attendants).

I got about an half an hour of restless sleep and a few nice pictures on the flight:

The Toronto Skyline at 7am through fog.

Terminal 1.

 We arrived at the Toronto airport a little after 7am (Toronto time) and found a bigger zombie fest. We then proceeded to find Tim Hortons. It was quite a decision to go into the Tim Hortons line, considering half the airport was also in the line. But alas, we just went with it. We wanted bagels and coffee and nothing, not even a marathon line, could stop us.

We had a little under an hour to kill before our flight to Victoria boarded, so I decided now would be the time to put myself together. More teeth brushing (with a questionably moldy toothbrush) occurred, I put on some make up and my glasses to distract from the whole zombie vibe I was giving out, and then the coffee kicked in. I was in great spirits for the next six hours or so. My mom and I then pondered whether one of the guys running past could pull off plaid-on-plaid.

The flight to Victoria was on a bigger plane than the one to Toronto. My dad was thankful that his head didn't brush the ceiling this time. My brother and I found this graphic on the emergency card amusing:

I'm not sure how much of the plane could actually muster up that leap.  

Whenever I get on day flights, I have no idea how to kill time. Reading a book doesn't keep my attention (probably due to the amount of caffeine keeping me alive when I travel), and I usually resort to listening to music. This time, I resorted to Sudoku. I have no idea how much time passed, but I worked my way through the levels until I gave up part way through the hardest one. Then I went for music and staring over my brother at the amazingly 2-D prairies and then eventually the mountains.

We landed in Victoria, after nearly twelve hours of traveling, just before lunch. It was weird, considering we felt like it was almost time for supper. We were met in the airport by a alumni from my dad's high school (in Kenya) who offered through a mailing list months ago to show us around Victoria and have us over for supper (today). Dorothy was really nice and brought us to a little restaurant that was part of the flight school. There were people in flight suits all around. I managed to eat half of a good, but incredibly large, burger.

After lunch we headed to our hotel in downtown and crashed briefly. We went exploring downtown in an attempt to find a drug store. We crashed a little longer, then went to Nando's for supper. After we went back to the hotel, I fell asleep at 7ish.

That brings me to now. Somebody forgot to turn off their 4am alarm from yesterday, but did change the time. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.

Hence the post title.

I'm pumped for seeing more of Victoria today. I always like cities.
Love,
-J-
Currently reading: Jane Eyre

Surfing stickman Jesus.

The summer students' stick man version of the first few lines of the chorus of Days of Elijah.

I'm particularly proud of the surfer Jesus on the cloud. *bow*.

My cat this afternoon, on the drive to her exile at my grandparents' house while we're in BC and Alberta. Twiga wasn't a happy camper.

Tomorrow I have the day off, so I shall be packing for vacation.
Love,
-J-