Friday Photo Shootout - Relaxation

You can find more FPS posts here.

I spent most of today in Victoria, which isn't really my home town. However, the part of my heart that was left after San Francisco got through with me is in Victoria. I live in Nanaimo, but I love Victoria.

Today's trip wasn't meant for relaxation. We had errands to run. We spent the first part of the visit sitting in the passport office - but I had a book to read (Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, which - at least so far - is just as good the second time around as it was when I read it on the plane coming home from England - maybe three years ago? Has it been that long? Really?). So even the passport office experience was fairly relaxing.

Then the fun started. We headed down to Dallas Road, where we sat for a few minutes beside the duck pond. There were no ducks. Hmmmmph. Geese, seagulls, but no ducks today. Nonetheless, the pond was a very relaxing place.

After our few minutes of meditation by the pond, we met a friend for lunch - at Spinnaker's, our usual haunt. We lingered over our meals. Mine was a spinach salad with hazelnuts, blue cheese, and a delicious vinaigrette, so it was worth lingering over. While we ate, we gazed out over Esquimalt harbour, where boat after boat sailed by, filled with people who like to do their relaxing on the water.

As we left the restaurant, I stopped to smell the roses - really. Often, these days, I am disappointed when I lean over to smell a rose. So many of the hybrids have little or no scent. Not at Spinnaker's. I bent to smell a red rose, and then I called everybody else over to smell it. It was fabulous. The nearby pink rose was also fragrant.

Even the drive back to Nanaimo had its moment of relaxation, when we pulled over at a viewpoint atop the Malahat Pass and spent a few minutes enjoying the view.

Thus, my busy day became a day of relaxation, punctuated by moments of business. I liked that.