August 15 - 17 Ray has eye surgery

Sunday morning at 11 am, Malc and Kathy arrived to look after Freya for the next couple of days while we are in Victoria for Ray's eye surgery. After instructions, we were out the door by 11:30 and on our way. A beautiful day, but breezy. We stopped at Mill Bay expecting to get takeout from the Bridgeman's Bistro, but they are so short staffed with only 2 cooks we were told no. So, we carried on. The manager looked very harried, I felt bad for him and told him no problem .... and hope he can get more staff.

Once we arrived in Victoria we decided to park in the lot on the water and have lunch at one of the adjacent restaurants. We decided on the Lido Bistro, right beside one of the Whale Watching Tour wickets. Ray ordered a Donair and me the ham, bacon and pineapple pizza's. Delicious.

Cheers!

Yummm

Once our bellies were full, and since it was still too early before check-in, we walked up the stairs to Government Street. and slowly meandered around. 

The old rock wall that holds up the road for the parking lot.

With Covid there are a lot more patios open to eat at. This one sure displays gorgeous flowers.

Inside the Bay Centre showing the atrium.

This mural was cute, showing people hanging out the windows.

It was lovely and looking at Victoria through another lens (pardon the pun). lol

After wandering around it was time to check in to the hotel. Imagine my surprise NO A/C!!! Debbie does not do well when I'm hot, it makes me very cranky! (Ray here, YUP!) Well I'm so glad we did not bring Freya. Next time I will check the fine print. I picked this hotel as it was right on the harbour and dog friendly as we expected to bring Freya when I booked. Ray wanted to be as close to The Empress as possible to get his night shots and not have to worry about walking too far or in undesirable areas with the homeless troubles in downtown Victoria.

After we settled in for a while, we went downstairs to the restaurant and ate dinner, well Ray did, I just had a few chicken wings. I was still full from that amazing pizza at lunch. Back in the room, I stripped down to my undies, and usee the old swamp cooler idea with the fan and a cold, iced wash cloth to tolerate the heat. IThe heat doesn't bother Ray as much, having grown up in Kelowna. As the sun came down Ray headed out to get some golden light pictures of the Empress Hotel and Harbour.

Here is a picture of the sunset.

Ray came back to the room and waited for the sun to set before venturing out again.

The Parliament Buildings

The Empress Hotel at night.

The new Johnson Street Bridge

Monday morning we were up at 5 am after a terrible nights sleep and I dropped Ray off at Royal Jubilee Hospital by 5:40 am. I came back to the hotel and managed another 90 minutes sleep after dousing myself in cold water. lol Hospital called at 8:45 to come and get him. Once we got back to the hotel it was breakfast time with "The Captain", arrrgh . :)

After breakfast we headed out to shop at the Victoria Costco as I needed a few things. I also did not want to take Ray too far to see how his eye is after the freezing comes out. As it turned out his good eye was feeling the strain so back to the hotel we came. Very cloudy but still muggy at 22C outside. We were so full from breakfast we decided to have an early dinner instead at the restaurant across the street.

The Steamship Grill and Bar's patio is right on the water, well shaded and lots of patio heaters with the air temps only at about 16C. Happy Hour was between 3 and 6 so as we were there at 4:30 I got my beer for $5 and our appie was $5 off at $9.99 which we shared. Our meals were great. Definitely a place we would go to again. Back to the room for the rest of the evening. At least it was not quite as warm tonight in the room. The temp still said 24C but the breeze from the fan was cooler as it's set up against the open window.

Nice hair! I had been wetting it constantly with a wet face cloth. lol

We headed to his post op appointment stopping at Tim Horton's for a coffee and donut first. After his checkup and finding out yes you do have an "air bubble" in your eye for awhile, we hit the road to come home. Ray says the air bubble moves around and feels like he is a carpenters level. Landed back in Lake Cowichan by 10:30 am. A big shout out to Malc and Kathy taking such good care of our girl Freya while we were away.

Ray definitely has a "scary eye". Getting blacker by the minute. Poor guy. Looks like I punched him. lol

Freya was happy to see us and slept pretty good after we settled in later in the afternoon.

Now to finish packing the motorhome for our adventure to Fanny Bay tomorrow.