Salish Sea II - Victoria

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It is, quite simply, perhaps the most wonderful place we have visited so far on this trip.

The weather is usually very pleasant, especially when compared to Vancouver or Seattle. Victoria sits in a "rain shadow" caused by the Olympic Mountains to its south, meaning it gets about 60% less rain than Vancouver (at least that's what one of our tour guides said). And although several of the peaks on Vancouver Island get snow -- there was still snow on some in June -- the city itself almost never gets any. Canadians call it the "San Diego of Canada."

After an easy 1 1/2 hour sail on a very large ferry from Vancouver, we arrived at the Swartz Bay ferry terminal about an hour north of downtown Victoria. We proceeded to the Oswego Hotel in the city center, just off the Victoria Harbour. We booked it because it is in a great location and comes as a suite with a full kitchen. We like to at least make our own breakfast when we can.

Our room was not ready, so we walked around the enchanting small harbour (going to use the English spelling while talking about Canadian things!) for a few hours. The grand Empress Hotel sits at the very end of the harbour. We learned that it is built over what used to be a swamp and is slowly sinking. It's still a grand old hotel, however.

The Empress Hotel at the end of the harbour.

There is also a major seaplane terminal right in the inner harbour. That really is an important way to get around the Salish area as well as parts north of there. There are many islands and fiords where there are no roads and the only ways in are by water or by air.

Victoria's seaplane terminal.

The BC Government building, where the Provincial Parliament meets, is right on the harbour as well. Built on a slight rise, it is an impressive structure that has hundreds of lights on it that come on every night. We could see its dome from our hotel room.

British Columbia Government House.

Government House dome with the lights on at twilight, taken from our hotel balcony.

The next day we did a food and history tour of old Victoria that was really excellent. Andy, our guide, really knows his stuff. If you go to Victoria, we highly recommend this tour. You'll sample all sorts of excellent regional and ethnic food, some located on walkable alleys. We walked quite a bit, so all the calories were burned off (wink wink).

The entrance to Fan Tan Alley in Victoria's Chinatown. Our guide mentioned that there are thousands of people of Chinese decent who live in Victoria -- but none of them live in Chinatown.

Another one of old town Victoria's walkable alleys with shops and restaurants.

A Philipino bakery at the end of Fan Tan Alley. Wonderful pastries!

We stopped an had a wee dram at this Scottish pub along the main street downtown.

That night we we had a great dinner at Heron Rock Bistro, which was only a few blocks from our hotel. Friendly staff, great food and a good wine selection were the highlights of the night. Highly recommended.

We woke up early the next morning and headed to the Butchart Gardens, a 55-acre explosion of flowers, trees and amazing landscaping about 45 minutes north of the city centre. It was begun by the Butchart family more than 100 years ago, much of it built into and over an old quarry. It is a must-do when in Victoria.

The gardens are built into an old rock quarry, where clearly a lot of work has been done to hide that.

There are over 55 varieties of peonies that were in bloom which made Ann smile a lot. It was still early for the roses to be in full bloom but there were still lots of flowers to be seen.

This rose brought back thoughts of home.

A very impressive totem in the Gardens. This is totem country, they are everywhere.

That evening we walked to dinner at Block Kitchen and Bar, which serves what it calls a "global-fusion cuisine." It was very good, although different. Phil had a drink called a "YUZU SHALL PASS," which was quite tasty.

Yuzu Shall Pass. Kudos to the bartender at Block.

The next day, our last full day in Canada, we went on a personal day-long tour of Vancouver Island. Our guide took us up to the central part of the island, where we saw some amazing views of the Salish Sea and walked among giant trees in an old-growth forest. We saw several really cool waterfalls and hiked a bit. It was a really good day. Phil even tried skipping stones for the first time in a long time. It was a fail.

Looking northeast to the mountains on the mainland behind the city of Vancouver.

The biggest Douglas fir on the Cathedral Trail. It's around 800 years old.

Completely failed at skipping stones. It's been a while.

A Canadian citizen expressing his foreign relations opinion in central Vancouver Island.

We were up early the next morning to pack up and head out to the Harbour Ferry terminal to catch our ride to Port Angeles, WA and back the to USA. Our foray into Canada was a tremendous time, and we will definitely go back!