October was a crazy busy month, mostly due to tons of travel! At the beginning of the month, work sent me to Chicago (yay!) for the week to meet up with my new team and do some team building. It was a fun week meeting new peeps, getting reaquainted with many of my favorite foods (Edwardo's, Mia Francesca's, etc.) and even squeezing in some family time.
A couple of days after my return to Seattle, B and I packed up for our vacation celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. We found a smokin' deal for a 5 day/4 night cruise to Nanaimo and Victoria, British Columbia aboard a Celebrity cruise ship. We departed on Monday morning, and when we woke up Tuesday we were docked in Nanaimo. We booked an excursion to Port Alberni where we got to ride a steam powered train up to an old (but still functioning) saw mill. It was a little chilly and gray that day, but still a neat tour. My favorite part was the train ride (despite riding in an open air car! Brrr!! 
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On Wednesday, we woke up in Victoria. We decided to forgo the expensive cruise ship excursion to the beautiful Butchart Gardens and instead found our own transportation (public transit) there. 
As a result, we met the coolest bus driver ever! When we planned out our route, I thought we'd be starting at a proper bus station and would be able to buy our tickets there. Since our route was a little complicated and involved a transfer with an hour in between buses, I wanted to buy an all day pass. No such luck as it turns out the route started at some random intersection right outside of town. Our bus driver was a real friendly and chatty fellow and after explaining our planned trip to him he said to go ahead and get on the bus, and he'd make sure we got to where we needed. Well, this guy was so cool that he ended up dropping us off about 1/4 mile from the Gardens (no transfer needed!) AND paid for our fare ROUNDTRIP!! How cool is that?! 
The Gardens themselves were absolutely amazing. Highly recommended if you're ever in Victoria! Here are a few pictures to give you an idea:
The day in Victoria was also the date of our actual anniversary, so we celebrated by going out to dinner at what was reported to be Victoria's "most romantic" restaurant. This brought us to the lovely Camille's Restaurant. All of the food served is purchased from local farmers and their menu can quite literally change daily based on what is available. Our meal was absolutely delicious, and it truly was an incredibly romantic little spot.
On Thursday we spent the day at sea which was a little rough going. The water was pretty choppy and made me feel pretty queasy. Sort of a revisit of the morning sickness I had for 2 weeks in August.
We holed up in the library (most stable area of the ship) and read to our hearts' content. Friday morning brought us back to Seattle with just enough time to pack for our next trip - Chicago, here we come!(ETA: Link to photos from Canadian trip.)
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