Day 7

I began the morning with a bit of trepidation. When you plan an excursion for others to partake in, there is always a bit of anxiety about whether those "others" will enjoy it or not. On this particular morning, I had scheduled for us a tour of a university.

That doesn't sound especially fun, I know, but Tobias only has two full years of high school left and we're going to have to start taking him to various schools to have a good perusal so he's familiar with what's available and what's going to be a good fit for him. Therefore, I thought we ought to take advantage of being near this school.

So we set out for a good breakfast. (A belly full of yumminess helps the school tour go down.)

Crepes are big in the Northwest, so we all partook. Jeff and the kids each got a fruit filled crepe.


(He's really not as creepy as he appears to be.)

I, however, opted for a crepe stuffed with scrambled eggs and bacon. Peek a boo.


Mine was the best. :)

Then we went to find the university. Before we got too far from the cafe, we caught sight of a strange, strange appearance.

Ummm...okay. Amazingly enough, when we were in Victoria a few days earlier, we saw Darth Vader playing a violin, but we weren't quick enough with the camera to prove it to you.

No, really.

Really.

Okay, go to YouTube and search for "Darth Vader violin". What pops up is what we saw.

Well, it turns out that I had nothing to fear about the university tour. It was great! Afterward, we ALL decided we wanted to go there. The bar has been raised pretty high in Tobias's mind. I don't know how other schools will be able to compete. Seriously, it's an impressive school on beautiful grounds in the middle of a fantastic city.

The only drawback to the tour were the coughing fits that I kept having every time I asked a question of the guide. I'd pose a query and then not be able to hear his answers over my own hacking. Once I had to leave a building to recover control. Ick.

While we were walking through the university's arboretum, Jeff found Delaney this lovely, lacey leaf:


We returned to our friends' house and saw the Younger cuddling with Darling Doggy.


With our friends (except for Dad who was working) we headed into the city to visit a museum. Our first stop, however, was a store with lots of quirky wares.

Delaney came this close to buying the horse head.

Kids these days!

Then, on to the museum...


...that is unfortunately closed on Tuesdays.

Closed on Tuesdays? I knew about the whole museums are often closed on Mondays thing, but Tuesdays? Alas...

We consoled ourselves with a jaunt into Rocket Doughnuts.


We heard a crazy rumor about this place so we knew we had to investigate. It turned out to be true:


Hmmm...well none of us really cared for the bacon topped maple bar that we felt compelled to purchase and share, but with decor like this...


...we felt it would be in our best interest to finish it quickly and leave quietly.

After a couple more stops, we realized that it was time for us to head to the airport.

Jeff was thoughtful:


I snapped a final shot with my good buddy who I knew I would miss sorely:


*sigh*

Once we arrived at the airport and returned the rental car, my spirits were lifted slightly by something I found in the restroom. (Yeah, I realize how worrisomely that reads.)


Have you seen one of these things in action??? Dyson Airblades make drying your hands fun. Tobias describes them as "a roller coaster for your hands" and he is oh-so-right.

Actually there is another hand dryer that is even better than the one you see above. It blows air at your appendages so hard that your flesh ripples like that guy's face on the Maxell cassette tape commercial. Awesome. That one's called the Xlerator. Look for it.

There was something else at the airport I had to take a pic of. This one's for you, Christy:


Perhaps you've seen it before, but it was new to me so I clicked it with you in mind. :)

There were some lovely sights from above as we left the Promised Land. :)


However, I quickly realized that I was likely the most hated woman on our entire flight.

My cough was worsening. You know the kind where you feel like a mini evil imp is dangling from your uvula holding a feather with which he is tickling the back of your throat?

You hold on as long as you possibly can, but suddenly a coughing spasm erupts from your very bowels bringing with it various bodily refuse and it doesn't stop until your brain feels bruised from slamming into the front of your inner skull and you begin to look around for nearby elderly ladies in case you need to bum a Poise pad off of someone.

Yeah, that was me.

The first time it happened, a good looking guy with an Australian accent who was seated directly in front of me turned around and asked, "Are you sick? Well as long as my kids don't get it, you'll be alright."

Excuse me? Was that a threat with that smile, Dundee?

I seriously had no clue how to respond to that so I just held my moist-with-sputum tissue in front of my mouth and tried to look pathetic. It wasn't hard.


See?

(Consequently, Jeff did not hear the words of the Aussie. He was too busy trying to disappear from the Chatty Chuck he found himself seated next to. See him behind me? It looks like he's even plugging his ear! Turns out that "Chuck" had a great business opportunity for Jeff. No, he did not disembark the plane with our telephone number, thank goodness.)

And that was our fabulous trip!!!

*sigh*

Thank you and goodnight.