Victoria, BC
Back to the concierage lounge for breakfast (I like this system more and more). Breakfast was a vegetable frittata (I couldn’t try it for safety’s sake, but Tom said it was good), and everything that is ever on a continental breakfast buffet. My standard cereal and yogurt was available, as was a wonderful banana bread—I thought it was almost as good as Anne’s. Tom didn’t ry any. He seems to avoid banana bread and the ensuing discussions for some reason.
We walked around the streets near our hotel and the inner harbor area for awhile this morning.
Parliament building :
Empress hotel:
Flowers outside the Empress (fairly typical of landscaping all along Victoria's streets):
Checking out the visitor’s information place, we found a harbor tour that sounded like fun. 
The little ferries used for the harbor tours look like toy boats. They carry a maximum of twelve passengers, though ours was not very full. We made several stops along the way, where passengers could disembark and take another boat later if they wished.
I was fascinated by the seaplanes. There are two “runways” in the Victoria harbor, so boats have to be aware of the seaplanes taxiing or talking off and landing. There are strobe light buoys that warn of incoming planes. In the 45 minutes of our tour eight or ten planes either took off or landed.
We saw the ship that Winston Churchill used as a headquarters for a time in World War II, which is also the same ship on which Jackie Kennedy met Aristotle Onasis for the first time many years later. (I love trivia like that—which is why I enjoy sightseeing tours so much.)
We saw the two oldest buildings in Victoria, a former jail and a bank. They are a little run down and disreputable right now, but that area is undergoing renovation and both will be restored, with the original shells retained. Victoria is careful about preserving the past while forging ahead with modern projects as well.
We saw many new condo buildings. Our captain told us that five years ago one could buy a small one bedroom unit in one of them for $100,000. Today they sell for $600,000 to 800,000.
I loved the bird houses mounted on old pilings in the harbor. The tour guide/captain said that raccoons occasionally swim out to raid the birdhouses—if no one catches them in the act and chases them away.
To me the most fascinating thing on the tour were the floating houses. These are built on barge-like platforms, secured to docks. Some are built on site, and others are built elsewhere and towed in, usually from another area of Victoria where they are built. The yellow house is about 40 years old, and was towed from Vancouver.
The first floating houses we saw at Fishermen’s Wharf were older and smaller. Many have a business such as a gallery or café in the first floor and living space above.
The second floating neighborhood is in a more prestigious area, and some are huge—three to four stories. The large windows allow you to peek in and see lavish interiors Many have large sailboats or motorboats moored along side. The leases on the spaces they occupy are for 20 years. After that time they either have to renegotiate or tow the house somewhere else.
Whale mural by marine artist, Wyland:
Thursday was the opening of a floating boat show, but many of the boats were already there, so we did some window shopping.
Tom said this one might do:
But if I really intended to spend the money I plan on winning in the lottery on a boat for him, he would prefer this one:
We could not be in Victoria without a stop at the Empress Hotel. It is beautiful as ever. We went through some of the galleries and shops. The artwork is now almost exclusively Inuit and other Canadian Native American art. There were many wooden masks and carvings in bright colors that reminded me a little of our SW Navaho and Hopi art. The stone carvings, especially the ones of jade, are phenomenal. The detail is amazing.
Knowledge gained on this trip: Canadians use the term “First Nation” instead of “Native American”. They would name what we would call the Tsawwassen Native Americans, the Tsawwassen First Nation.
I wanted to go to the Bug Museum, and Tom humored me. We both loved it. They had two large rooms of Plexiglas cases of the most amazing insects and arachnids. Many of them could be held if one wished—a lot of the children did. Our guide was from Australia, and she told extra little stories about the creatures from her neck of the woods.
The stick bugs were unbelievable. Unless you knew what to look for, they were hard to spot among the real sticks and branches. There was another one that looked identical to a leaf, including a few slightly brown edges and ragged places—when predators are about it doesn’t pay to look like a too-perfect leaf. There were spiders of colossal size and beetles that could lift ten times their own weight. We were fascinated.
I would so love to take Bryce and Elspeth to a similar place. Bryce would love the spiders. Once he held one of them, Elspeth would have to as well. There were two little sisters who tried everything—the little one hesitant at first but not about to be outdone by the older one. I had as much fun watching them as I did the bugs themselves. The girls would get such looks of wonder on their faces. We also had a bratty little boy that everyone in the room except the parents who ignored him would gladly have tied to a stool.
It was perhaps a strange thing to do, but we liked it.
We went back to the hotel to regroup and decided since it was late afternoon that we were done sightseeing for the day. We took time to read the local paper and our books. We have done very little reading this vacation, and we both miss it. We have traditionally read several books each on vacations. I think the computers and blog are eating up our reading time.
We went for snacks and Tom asked the concierge if she could check with the kitchen to see if the chicken spring rolls had been cooked in oil that might also have been used for seafood. The chef sent word not to eat them as they came from an outside source and he could not vouch for them, but he would send up a plate for me shortly. I got a wonderful vegetarian spring roll plate—shredded vegetables and mushrooms in a mango sauce, wrapped in rice paper, and garnished with a bouquet of fresh herbs. It was outstanding, and so filling that dinner was out of the question again. I saw envious looks from around the room. Oh well!
The internet connection was was also having technical problems, so we are both behind in posting. Maybe the connection in Vancouver will be better.
Knowledge gained on this trip: Canadians use the term “First Nation” instead of “Native American”. They would name what we would call the Tsawwassen Native Americans, the Tsawwassen First Nation.
I wanted to go to the Bug Museum, and Tom humored me. We both loved it. They had two large rooms of Plexiglas cases of the most amazing insects and arachnids. Many of them could be held if one wished—a lot of the children did. Our guide was from Australia, and she told extra little stories about the creatures from her neck of the woods.
The stick bugs were unbelievable. Unless you knew what to look for, they were hard to spot among the real sticks and branches. There was another one that looked identical to a leaf, including a few slightly brown edges and ragged places—when predators are about it doesn’t pay to look like a too-perfect leaf. There were spiders of colossal size and beetles that could lift ten times their own weight. We were fascinated.
I would so love to take Bryce and Elspeth to a similar place. Bryce would love the spiders. Once he held one of them, Elspeth would have to as well. There were two little sisters who tried everything—the little one hesitant at first but not about to be outdone by the older one. I had as much fun watching them as I did the bugs themselves. The girls would get such looks of wonder on their faces. We also had a bratty little boy that everyone in the room except the parents who ignored him would gladly have tied to a stool.
It was perhaps a strange thing to do, but we liked it.
We went back to the hotel to regroup and decided since it was late afternoon that we were done sightseeing for the day. We took time to read the local paper and our books. We have done very little reading this vacation, and we both miss it. We have traditionally read several books each on vacations. I think the computers and blog are eating up our reading time.
We went for snacks and Tom asked the concierge if she could check with the kitchen to see if the chicken spring rolls had been cooked in oil that might also have been used for seafood. The chef sent word not to eat them as they came from an outside source and he could not vouch for them, but he would send up a plate for me shortly. I got a wonderful vegetarian spring roll plate—shredded vegetables and mushrooms in a mango sauce, wrapped in rice paper, and garnished with a bouquet of fresh herbs. It was outstanding, and so filling that dinner was out of the question again. I saw envious looks from around the room. Oh well!The internet connection was was also having technical problems, so we are both behind in posting. Maybe the connection in Vancouver will be better.
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