We went to Esquimalt Lagoon this morning after a late start. It was nice to lay in bed a little longer this morning without having anywhere to rush off to. The beach was quiet and it was nice to look out over the low waves to the several small boats further out. I had wanted to come here as I have photos of being here around Coopers' age with my grandfather. We enjoyed all the driftwood, wading, and the sounds of the beach. The kids made a semi-functioning see saw out of driftwood and made some sand creations involving shells, sticks, and seaweed. There was, what appeared to be, an old military lookout a little down the coastline with a large military vessel even further along near a holding facility hosting our newest Sri Lankan visitors. After some desanding and sanitizing at the van we decided lunch would be great. Dum Dum continues to resort to periodic episodes of evilness as evident in his informing us we could easily navigate to Moxie's for lunch. My fantasies of broccoli cheese soup and cheese toast were abruptly ended with the realization of the evil plot when there really was not any Moxie's to be found. We bypassed all the typical fast food restaurants and we finally agreed on Swiss Chalet as a compromise for hungry bellies. After a brief rest back at the hotel, we headed out for the museum. We parked two blocks away and enjoyed the walk each way to and from the van seeing the vintage double decker red British tour buses, the beautiful huge roses, the cobblestone streets, and the old ivy covered Empress Hotel. My eyes began to glaze over with the tedium of looking at row upon row of jars of preserved frogs and lizards causing my brain to resort to it's usual methods of trickery in trying to make me leave the museum. My boredom was gratefully alleviated with the First Nations exhibit. The exhibit is beautiful and extensive, showing incredible handiworks of leatherwork, beading, weaving, woodworking, masks, and other artforms. The totem poles were tall and magnificent. This exhibit was incredible from the pit hut to the "conceited white woman" mask :). We all enjoyed Century Hall with it's small shops, tiny movie theatre showing Charlie Chaplin movies, and the Grand Hotel. We headed back for another break at the hotel before heading to my grandfather's birthday dinner. The atmosphere and the food at The Old Spaghetti Factory was charming and my manicotti was just as good as the restaurant in Winnipeg. My grandfather was quite taken aback when the staff came to sing Happy Birthday to him with a bowl of ice cream with a sparkler in it. He gave Debbie the "you're in trouble" look, but she just laughed and we could all see he was secretly pleased as he speedily and thriftily ate every last trace of that ice cream. The evening's entertainment was concluded with James brandishing the tiny green plastic sword from Cooper's cookie monster ice cream smoothy and calling out loudly "shivering timbers"....too bad he never learned how to speak fluent pirate like the rest of us sooooo...... "arrgghhhh. Shiver ME timbers"!! Great day!