Getting up early, are you mad?
You wouldn’t think there’s much joy in getting up early, especially with kids. They’re like little alarm clocks…
Oh, who are we kidding?
They’re like garbage trucks right outside your window emptying a bin full of glass, chunks of construction metal and concrete.
Now, it’s not something the kids do out of cruelty, no more than a meteor smashes into a planet does it out or cruelty – They are simply natural disasters with limited awareness of the effect they have on the world around them
Hey, it’s 7am, I think I’ll slam every door in the house closed, then play the drums at a concert hall level, then make a sound like I’m falling down the stairs so you can’t, you know, ignore that.
So why get up early when, for the first time in a long time, you could actually sleep in?
Plus, in a hotel room, it’s 10X harder! First of all, it’s hard to sneak around without anyone waking up. You must have the dexterity of a Cirque du Soleil acrobat and the patience of a bomb disposer.
But I wanted to get the blog done and the only time I could do that is in the early AM.
So, I eased out of bed without making squeaks cuz the Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World has mommy senses (which can detect her child sneezing from a mile away), unplucked the iphone from the charger, had a quick pee without it sounding like Niagara Falls, slipped into my clothes, found my shoes without asking my wife, “hey, where are my shoes?”
Then, I found my wallet without asking my wife, “hey, where’d I put my wallet?” extracted my hotel key from underneath a pile of coins, avoided tripping over the boys’ shoes that I asked them three hundred times to put under their bed, padded towards the door without sneezing as my allergies kicked in and my nose ran like a stream after a rainstorm, then unlocked the lock, pried the door open and shut it without a huge click as loud as a cannon going off.
All so I can write.
But there’s also another reason I got up so early.
The world is a different place at 6am. Crisp. Fresh. And largely free of people.
Is the word a better place without a lot of people? Well, yes, for sure, but more importantly, it’s a lot more peaceful.
In Victoria, on Canada Day, on this day, it was especially peaceful. The sky was a bright, desert-sky blue. No crowds filled the sidewalks. No cars roared by or honked.
Gulls cried overhead. The odd boat puttered out of the Inner Harbor. The air smelled of the sea, not exhaust fumes and sweaty people who forgotten to put on deodorant. The coffee was freshly made, the baked goods newly delivered and smelling of cinnamon and warm chocolate. I didn’t have to fight anyone to get a seat or wait behind anyone who stared up at the food board and took a freaking year to decide to have a black coffee…
So why wouldn’t you want to experience that?
Why wouldn’t you go for a walk along deserted streets, passing by the hanging flower-baskets dripping after just being watered, stop at a café, sit down and look out at the glistening ocean waves while listening to Bach play on the café speakers and think, my goodness, isn’t the world wonderful, my goodness, wouldn’t the world be better without, you know, morons, anger-filled nutjobs, stressed out parents, activists, honkers, clueless idiots who stop their shopping carts in the middle of the aisle and block the entire aisle…
Without, you know, people?
Cuz that is what the world is like at 6am. At least in Victoria. Today.
A perfect time to write. Because later, who knows what will happen?
A few sites to check out if you’re going to Victoria
https://www.tourismvictoria.com/ A good site for all things touristy.
Trip Advisor – Personally, my go-to site for tourist stuff.
Visit a City – You can plan days (so if you only have 2 days, they have suggestions)
Free Touristy Things – So you don’t have to spend billions.
Top 10 List – that leads to other top 10 lists.