Greetings from Victoria Part 3

Hi Everyone,

I'm still in Victoria and I am staying with my Mum's best friend. The plan was to spend five nights with my Aunt and Uncle and another five nights with my best friend. Yesterday I ended my time with Aunt and Uncle. I had a fabulous time and I learnt so much about my family roots on my Mother's side. It was a family roots type of trip. Everyone in the family was fantastic and we were able to make connections. The conversations flowed really well and I was able to share the love of technology instantly with my cousins Ann, Chris and Nadine. On Tuesday I was privilleged to meet my second cousins Penny (Anne Louise) and her brother David in Nanaimo. These cousins came from my Grandmother's side of the family. I was very lucky to meet these people as these are the only cousins I have got left on my Grandmother's side in Canada.

It was a great surprise to the trip as my mother has always written to Penny since being in New Zealand and it was lovely to meet her and her brother for the first time on Tuesday.
Nanaimo was a 2.5 hour drive from my Uncle's house.
Throughout the drive we made a few stops to take photos and we stopped at a place called Chemainus. Chemainus is a really neat place and it is famous for it's murals on walls. These murals depicted historical times in the area such as the the transport(trains), occupations,culture etc.

When we arrived in Nanaimo we went to Penny's house.
I got to meet her Corgie dog called Josie. Josie didn't like her picture taken and hid under the table. I think it was the zoom of the camera that scared her.
During this time, Penny bought out a present for me and it was some beautiful sterling silver earrings with Indian patterns engraved on them. In Canada the indigenous people are North American Indians and the art from these people are amazing. On the earrings there were pictures of whales engraved. She also gave my Uncle a container with these chocolate and custard bars in called Nanaimo Bars.
These bars are famous in Nanaimo and throughout Canada. I was lucky enough to try them for my dessert that night.

After we were shown Penny's place we went to a restaurant in the older area of Nanaimo and had lunch together. The restaurant had a whole lot of 50's & 60's memorabilia hanging all over the place. The restaurant was famous for making these giant hamburgers that used a 1 lb meat pattie and was about $25.00. I was told that if you were able to eat this massive hamburger you would get it for nothing. I decided not to have one as the size put me off and I felt you can only eat so much at the end of the day.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my second cousins and it was great to talk about my family and what everyone was up to. I also learnt what they did in their spare time and places that they have travelled to, which broadened my horizons.

On the way back my Uncle decided that it would be a great idea to catch a car ferry to take us from one end of the town to the other. We caught the Ferry from Brentwood and it took us to the area where the Butchart Gardens were. This would mean the drive back home would be only 15 minutes.

During that night I found out more about these Nanaimo Bars and learnt about the family connections to the town Nanaimo. My Aunt and Grand mother lived in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Before I ate the bars I took a photograph and I found out that the bar had a chocolate flavoured biscuit base, a custard layer and then a chocolate layer on top. There were three layers in total: chocolate, custard and chocolate. (YUMMY)

It was a memorable day out.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and loved meeting my second cousins.
Now I have met all my cousins on my Mother's side and it has been a wonderful experience.

Well that's all of the news from me, will write more later tomorrow morning.

Take Care and Best Wishes,
Have an enjoyable and safe holiday. Looking forward to seeing you all in person on Monday October 13th ready to share more of my holiday journey with you.


Love From,

Miss Paton