Happy Halloween!

I'm continuing my tradition of throwing myself into Canadian holidays so here is my Halloween effort - not bad for $30!

This is our front door - I'm hoping to attract trick-or-treaters cause I have loads of candy for them :) I was going to carve a pumpkin but I like my fingers too much... They grow specific pumpkins here for carving and people make a day of going to pick their pumpkin at the farms.
Scary witch hanging in the window.
My other scary witch is hanging in the hallway by the front door... I'm hoping to scare Jesse when he gets home from work!
There are chains of spiders hanging everywhere...
Another spider - they accordian out like those 80's Xmas decorations - classy!

I could not resist these pumpkin lights!
This was the decoration on our Halloween cake that Emma bought for dessert last night :)
Not the best view cause of the light but here is our decorated lounge :)

Fright Night... SCARY!

Vancouver has this annual fair called the PNE and most of the year it sits idyll. That is until the deck it out in loads of scary stuff and open it for Fright Nights over Halloween! Thought we'd venture into the unknown and had a great time, even though it was about 5degrees! It was cool cause they had pretty much put all the kids rides on steriods and they were flying around - yuou've never seen a carousal like it!

There were loads of scenes set up like torture chambers and stuff and all these actors walking around scaring the crap out of people as they waited in line and wandered around. There was a dude with a werewolf mask and a chainsaw who was wrecking havoc!

The cemetery...

The nervous smiles before the Haunted House

The Hearse parked into one of the many Haunted Houses

Emma with her crazy cat head band.

The skeleton bonfire! Note the 2 rudey skeletons on the left...

Inside a Funeral Home (bad pic taken thru a window)

Monsters...

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

Emma and Gareth - we don't hold it against them that they are from Invercargill!

Nothing like a good Ferris Wheel :)

The rugged up kids by one of the scene things.

Fall in Fairview

This is tree we look at out our apartment window... The photo really doesn't do it justice, the colour is awesome.

Brace yourselves... Victoria on Vancouver Island

Brace yourselves for our hugest blog post yet! We took so many great photos in Victoria and I couldn't choose which ones to show you all so you get to see loads, sorry...

Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, sits on the south tip of Vancouver lsland off the west coast of British Columbia. It is a city of 315,000 with a breathtaking inner harbour area. Victoria is well known for its Heritage homes and buildings. Much of Victoria's downtown area has been restored to original facades.

The Royal BC Museum has been home to the Titanic Artifacts Exhibition for the last 6 months so we decided to go. Its a great collection of several thousand artifacts that have been salvaged from the site. It was really incredible to see the things that survived 80 odd years at the bottom of the ocean.

Here is my model outside the museum. Unfortunately due to the fragile nature of the exhibits there was no photos allowed of the Titanic stuff.

Just because I love bears here is the stuffed one in the museum :)

Looking up towards the centre of town with the museum behind us.
The Royal BC Museum.
The view across the harbour.The Fairmont Empress Hotel - where we would have liked to stay! The hotel is 99 years old and boosts a Tiffany Glass dome as well as an amazing list of dignatries and celebs who've stayed there and over looks the harbour.
Parliament by night is beautiful! It's lit with over 3000 lights and transforms from a copper domed 100 year old building by day to a Disney like wonder at night. Its fully restored and it still functional as Parliament today.
The ultimate tourist - he will stop and read everything!

Victoria is full of history and old money which can be seen in the buildings there. It's a beautiful historic Victorian-era mansion, built in the 1890s by wealthy BC coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. It is now owned by the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society. Rising 87 stairs up through the 4 1/2 stories, there are 39 rooms, most of which are furnished lavishly in the 1890s–1900s period. With over 20,000 square feet of space, the house and gardens are being restored exactly as they were originally built. Unfortunately the castle has had loads of rebuilds to make it functional for the various purposes it has served and so is not original but still amazing. All the wood panelling inside cost more than the other 400 houses built in Victoria in 1889!

This is the wood panelled stair well that is central to the mansion.

The organ which sits at the top of one level of stairs so it can be heard through out the house.
This is the original hat, coat and umbrella stand.
The recreated breakfast room.

The gentlemans smoking room.
The mosiac floor in the turretted tower.
The view from the tower.
The drawing room.
The Castle.

The ornate iron work was beautiful.

Wonder if its haunted...
The Tower - no damsel in distress here.

Now to the most gorgeous place in Victoria. I can imagine that the gardens are beautiful all year round but it's 'Fall' here so the changing colours were simply stunning!

My model hard at work again.

A little more old money history.

Looking out over the Sunken Garden.
Changing colours.
One of the many statues that adorn the gardens.
My turn to be the model.

Soo much red.
The contrasting colours were so vibrant.
Model hard at work again.
There are several fountains in the gardens. This one is below the Sunken Garden and changing every few seconds.

Looking back across the Sunken Garden.
Couple of dorks we found in the garden.
More colour everywhere.

The contrast of colour.
Intricate rivers feed the gardens.

Nothing to say really, its just gorgeous - and I'm not really a garden person!

It wouldn't be Canadian without a totem pole!
Looking at the seedling garden and another lake. They do fireworks from here in the summer months.
Funky tree.

How skinny is my model?
The start of the rose garden.

Unhappy model poking out tongue as the rain started...
Walking through the rose garden.

Entering the Japanese Gardens.

The Dolphin Fountain in the Japanese Garden.

The Butcharts were so rich that they had their own pier to greet visiting dignatries.
Funny looking tree.

This is part of a cool star shaped pond.

Looking over the croquet lawn to the restaurant.
The courtyard garden within the walls of the house.
Another of the 100 year old fountains. It amazes me how they could build something like that and make it work...
This old boar statue was a gift from a dignatary. The nose is rubbed gold by all the tourists trying for some good luck!