Here begins the honeymoon saga

We have been back for over a week now, but it just seems like so much needs my attention that I haven't been able to blog much....or feel like I have the time to spend on blogging. However, I am setting aside a little time each day this week in order to tell you that story...one of the big stories of my life.

I didn't know if I would make it through the wedding day. It was beautiful, and I had a lot of fun, but it seems like details that I had agonized on for months were falling, and falling and falling to the wayside as if they never existed. Things always go wrong and one has to be flexible. I think (for the most part) I acted flexible that day--but a person can only handle so much and get so much done, and I had had both one of the most stressful, and yet pleasurable years of my life....coming off of that (at school) and trying to get this wedding together. Well..it was inevitable that somethings would not go as planned. Oh well. I personally (along with Steve) had worked on the music, words, and process of the ceremony the most, and I think this showed. I loved the ceremony. I loved the candles, and the screens. i loved the colors. Maybe Glads shouldn't be my favorite flower seeing as they did not want to show their faces that day and probably shouldn't have been present..shouldn've stuck with the hydrangeas....but live and learn. Enough of the ceremony talk.

I will not tell you ALL the details of my honeymoon, but I will tell you the parts that you are probably most interested in.:) Saturday night Ray took us to the embassy suites--so that our car would not have to stay at the airport while we were gone....we could catch a shuttle from the hotel we stayed in. The embassy suites is a BEAUTIFUL hotel,btw.
Sunday morning, June 11.
We woke up at 4:15am. Neither of us could reall sleep very well. We were both exhausted from the wedding, but we knew we had a full day ahead of us and any one part of it could set our schedule off and ruin all our plans.

We went to Will Rogers and got on a plane to Denver. We ate a cinammon roll each at about 6am--which would be the last thing we ate (except for tiny bags of snacks on airplanes) until about 7pm. From Denver we went to Portland, Oregon, and then took one of those tiny tiny planes from Portland to Seattle. From Seattle we rented a car and drove for three hours to Port Angeles. We had to get to P.A. by 4:10 Washington time in order to keep our reservation for the ferry. From the time we left the airport we had exactly three hours...which meant no time to stop for food, or any other necessities. If we didn't catch the ferry it was the last one of the day. If we didn't get to cross over to Canada we would lose our reservation with the empress hotel. The only night they had open, and we would also be paying $400 for a room we didn't even use.....so we suffered in silence.
On this drive--which was a beautiful drive through huge trees, and wonderful remnants of the Puget Sound, and the coast....we listened to Mike's CD that he made for us. It was lots of fun...even though we were VERY tired, and low on blood sugar.

We made it to the ferry on time. Just barely, but we were there. Once we settled our car into the line, and they checked our passports, etc., we were able to make a run to the dairy queen for some totally abismal burgers..but hey...it was food.

By this time we both had headaches, and the food didn't seem to help, but we still enjoyed the trip across the strait (or whatever it was)....we could see Washington and the USA fleeting into the background, and beautiful water. I love bodies of water. I don't know what it is about them...but there is something so beautiful and mysterious about an ocean, or river, or stream...
As we had left 100 degree temps behind in OK...it was now ocean weather. We were freezing and kept doubling up on our layers of clothing.
We finally arrived in Victoria. Victoria must be paradise. I will tell you the events which took place to make me believe this...but to begin with the flowers were the biggest and brightest I think I have ever seen. Such color and such abundunce.
And our hotel...wow! (besides the parking charges of $25 a night...)..we had a bed and breakfast suite, and when we walked in there was n card lying on the table addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Kluge--inside it congratulated us on our marriage. How neat is that???!!! And there was a can of the Fairmont Empress Tea Bags that they sell downstairs for beaucoup bucks, and two lovely chocolate truffles waiting for us. Steve kindly let me eat both the truffles, and I savored them and delighted in them immensly. The Empress is one of the oldest hotels on the island. A luxury hotel where celebrities, and presidents, and queens have stayed. And I think the bed that we slept in was literally the most comfortable bed I have ever laid in my life.....NO EXAGGERATION. There was a jacuzzi bath, and fluffy robes to use in our room too. After we freshened up a little, we headed out to look around a bit, and get some food. This is of course Sunday...on a small island..heading towards 9pm (11pm for you OK folks)--long day still for us...so it was hard to find anything open. But we finally opted for a small italian restaurant. Steve was convinced that the owners of this place were connected to the mob. They did have a sort of a

We took pictures outside the hotel. There are gardens connected to the grounds of the hotel, and I don't think we could take enough pictures...we were so amazed with the size and color. We headed back to the hotel for one of the best sleeps of our lives.

On Monday we hung out at the hotel until we had to check out. They only had room for us for one night because a big conference group was coming in on Monday. We wanted to enjoy the luxury of it for as long as possible. We had breakfast served in our rooms. You know, like you see on tv? A table was brought into our living room by a little guy who looked like a waiter. It was so awesome. We got to order anything we wanted, and it was included in our package. Hot tea, coffee, juice, pancackes, fruit, meats, ......it went on for days, and it was all served so elegantly.

We took it pretty easy on Monday. We were still tired from the last few days, and we needed some major rest. So we went to Beacon Hill Park, and took a scenic drive around the island. The air and weather was SO gorgeous. We say the coast, the beautiful cottages, and mansions...and the flowers...my gosh!!!! I just can't stop talking about them. They were so absolutely amazing. Nature too is so tamed that it acts itself out in public. We saw three ducks...two males, and one female. The males were fighting for the female. The guy who won basically told the other guy to scram, but he kept following the other two at a distance. It was so totally hilarious. Steve kept saying how the female must be a real babe because there was another female not too far away that seem totally unattached, but he had no interest in her.:)

Tuesday was the big whale watching day. This was probably one of the most fun things we did while in victoria. We got on a tiny boat with 12 people, and headed out quickly (bouncing and bobbing--sea water spraying you in the face) an hour out from the harbour. It was cold, but they gave us an elegant (sarcasm) head to foot orange suit that kept in some of the heat. We were lucky because 40 killer whales had come into the harbour the day before and were heading back out. We were able to catch up with them, and see all sorts of neat things. they were flipping, and doing all sorts of shows for us.

I think I will tell the rest of the story in pics.