Victoria to Begin the Holidays

Victoria Parliament Building Decked Out for the Holidays

Holiday Harbour Lights

For the past three years we’ve gone to Victoria, BC, around the beginning of December as a way of celebrating our anniversary (Nov. 23) and getting a good start on the Christmas season. This year we added visiting with our good friends, Nick and Kathryn Delany, 

Kathryn and Anne in a small gallery in Sidney with Kathryn's art on the wall.

who have recently moved to a beautiful home in a development at Brentwood Bay near Butchart Gardens. 

View from the Delany's front window.

This year’s plan was to stay two nights with the Delanys after taking an early ferry from Port Angeles, then moving to our timeshare at Worldmark Victoria on the harbour and near town. 

Worldmark Victoria

The view of Fisherman's Wharf from our Worldmark balcony.

The Delanys, both outstanding photographers, planned a day of photo touring around their area as well as some outstanding meal, including rack of lamb for an American Thanksgiving in Canada. When in Victoria we planned some touring, some dining at our favorite spots, and lots of shopping.

Rather than a chronological narrative for this post, I thought I’d present the trip in topical fashion: food, photo touring, shopping, and…

We’re Lucky We Didn’t Gain a Bunch

We always eat well on our trips and this trip was no exception. Good meals started in Port Angeles our first night of the trip. We decided to try something different and we’d seen good reviews for Coyote BBQ Pub near the ferry terminal.

The restaurant is owned by the same people as Kokopelli Cafe, always a top rated restaurant in Port Angeles. Coyote BBQ was more cafe-style than a pub but the brisket sandwich was wonderful with a nice choice of house-made BBQ sauces. Our trip was off to a good beginning. I’ve mentioned the great meals we had at the Delanys, but they also took us to a fun find for lunch. Between photo stops we lunched at the Italian Kitchen at Grove Hall Farm in Duncan. Besides a specialty Italian market, the Kitchen serves delicious pizza and other Italian delights.  Another market to mention is in James Bay (one of the “neighborhoods” of Victoria). James Bay Thrifty is an upscale neighborhood grocery always crowded with locals and tourists (especially timeshare holidayers). Its butcher shop is superior—we stock up on the double-smoked bacon so we can bring a few pounds home—

Anne shopping for produce at James Bay Thrifty.

and the bakery and produce sections are both top notch. Even with the great food from Thrifty we still went out to the Beagle Pub in the Cook Street neighborhood. We've been to the Beagle several times before and know it has an interesting menu and serves good portions—it was a bonus that we could gets halves of cider instead of drinks too big for us weaklings.

We mostly ate bacon and sausage from Thrifty for breakfast, but we did go out once. Jam Cafe near Victoria’s Chinatown is a cafe not to miss. Funky atmosphere, good service, and a wild menu make this spot uber popular—check out the menu at www.jamcafes.com. 

Funky JAM Cafe

One last lunch needs to be mentioned. We met Nick and Katheryn again in our stay for a trip to Afternoon Tea at White Heather Tearoom in the Oak Bay Area.  The tearoom is quaint and nicely decorated with tea pots and cups. The Christmas Wee Bite is quite a spread. First, we needed to select our tea from about 25 choices—I had Mountain Berry. Next we had a three tiered (course) lunch brought to the table—scones, sandwiches, sweets. 

Afternoon Tea at White Heather Tearoom

The egg salad sandwiches on the second tier we the best, although everything was good.

It was more than any of us could eat, so much of the sweets tray was sent home with us.  At White Heather the Tea wasn’t as fancy a lunch as we’ve had at The Empress Hotel in downtown, but the food was as good, as plentiful, and half the price. We’ve been three times and they remembered us. Check them out at www.whiteheather-tearoom.com.

A Photo Tour of Victoria

Nick and Kathryn took us to two special photo stops in their area of the island. First, we drove to Goldstream Provincial Park—a large park on the west side of the island (16 km from downtown) with hiking trails, waterfalls, trees (mostly fir and red cedar), birds, and fish. The stream has a noted annual salmon run which attracts gulls and eagles which attract crowds of tourists. We were about a week late to see the eagles dining on the salmon, 

but it was both fascinating and gruesome to watch the gulls attack the dead fish. Along one of the trails and again near the entrance of the park we did get views of eagles in the trees,

but sadly no closeups.

About 40 km from Goldstream Park we did get up close and personal with mighty birds at The Raptors in Duncan. This is a sanctuary raising raptors in captivity and caring for the recovery of injured birds. 

Raptors such as bald eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, and owls are available for viewing on perches and in cages. Daily at 1:30 there is a flying demonstration designed both as informative and a photo op. 

The eagle has landed...on her arm.

Nick, Kathryn and I (as well as a couple of other photographers) had a great time trying  to photograph the beautiful birds in flight with our big lenses, while other audience had Bald Eagles, Harris Hawks, Great Horned Owls, Black Vultures, and Blue Falcons flying right over their heads. 

The staff control the flight of the birds most of the time—the owl went off script when it saw a bunny run from one bush to another. The owl went for the extra meal and the bunny barely escaped—a real wildlife moment. You can find out more about The Raptors at www.pnwraptors.com. 

Later in the week Anne and I visited Fort Rodd & Fisgard Lighthouse in Colwood, north of downtown. The fort is a 19th century artillery fort where we could walk among the the buildings, but they are only open for display on the weekends during off season. 

Fisgard Lighthouse from the fort.

Next to the fort is the 1860 built Fisgard Lighthouse. It’s available for viewing, but also is only open on weekends. The lighthouse was automated in 1929 and has a lovely location on an island connected to land by a walkable causeway. The light sits at the entrance of Esquimalt harbour  

A real Canadian Goose in Canada.

Our last photo tour was of the Royal BC Museum next to Parliament in Victoria. The museum hosted a special Maya Exhibit and Nick and Kathryn drove up to meet us there before Afternoon Tea. 

Portions of Mayan texts.

The Maya exhibit was interesting, but there was almost too much information to take in on one visit. 

Mask in the First People's exhibit.

Though, it was fun to photograph both it and the museum’s First Peoples exhibit.

A Grand Place for Christmas Shopping

Anne and I love shopping in Victoria, especially around Christmas time. The downtown stores are interesting and festive and we have fun finding Christmas presents for each other. 

Ann trying on a hat in the Irish Shop. She got this one for Christmas.

This year we each got hats from the Irish shop, Anne found earrings in couple of places, 

Downtown Victoria window display.

Victoria Street Artist

I got a great deal on a photo book, and we both got special Lamy rollerball pens.  We also enjoy wandering the shops in the neighborhood such as Cook Street Village and Oak Bay Street. 

Latte and pasty at Demitasse Cafe in Oak Bay neighborhood.

Oh Dear Me! Those deer aren't statues.

Wild meat sticks in a local butcher shop. All we had were delicious, though the crocodile had quite a bite.

In fact, while shopping in the James Bay neighborhood I saw an ad for a concert on Sunday afternoon at the Oak Bay United Church. It turned out that the 3:00 concert called “Gathered by the Fire—Ancient Music Celebrating Yule” featuring the Banquo Folk Ensemble was one of the highlights of our week. 

The group, formed in 1998, consists of five members who sing and play early instruments including recorders, guitars, hardy gurdies, citterns, bag pipes, and a variety of percussives (if that’s a word). The small church was a perfect  venue for the group and sound was glorious.

The Finest at Sea food cart near Fisherman's Wharf serves great fish tacos.

The entire trip was enjoyable as usual. We were blessed with good friends, good food,  decent weather, and a smattering of good photos.

WE WISH A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL WHO READ THE BLOG. MAY 2020 BE A GREAT YEAR FOR US ALL.

NEXT: I’ll be working to find interesting photos and topics for the 165th post to this blog which will begin its 7th year of publishing.

A Victoria Christmas Holiday, Part 2

To continue with our third day in Victoria...

...A short rest was in order before we drove to the ferry terminal to wait for Dave and Charleen (Anne's sister) to arrive. Anne stayed in the warm car while I braved the cold to visit with a local husky owner—after 12 years of racing a Siberian Husky sled dog team, it’s hard to resist a visit with a husky and owner. She (the owner) gave me some good advice on eateries and she (the dog) gave me some good licks. Our guests arrived and we got them settled in at our WM apartment.

For dinner we took the advice I had gotten while waiting for the ferry and walked back to Belleville’s Watering Hole (pub) 

Dinner at the Watering Hole

across from the ferry terminal. Loud and crowded, still very good for food and drinks. We then walked to the government buildings down the street to see them in their Christmas finery. 

An historic Manor House, now a hotel and restaurant.

The regional legislative building.

Then back to the room.

Wednesday, December 21 was the first day of winter, and the best weather of the trip. Breakfast was the first one I didn’t cook—Charleen and Anne fixed bacon, eggs, and Tolovana muffins. Delicious.

Today was the big touring day—especially for Dave and Charleen. We started out going around the south end of the city with stops at the breakwater, Chinese cemetery, and Glover Park. 

Then we headed north to the Town of Sidney where we had a serious coffee stop—seriously, 

that’s the name of the coffee chain, Serious Coffee—and introduced Dave and Charleen to Roger’s Chocolates [This is becoming a habit.]. We also stopped at a travel shop in Sidney. There Dave, Charleen, and I all became proud owner of new Tilley hats 

Dave and Charleen making their big purchases.

(made in Canada)—Anne already had a new hat from Ireland.

It took some backtracking but we finally found the Victoria Butterfly Gardens. It was to be one of the highlights of the whole trip. The butterfly enclosure was steamy hot, but once I got my cameras acclimated I had fun photographing several species of butterflies 

(the ones that would stay still long enough), some poison frogs, an iguana, and several birds. The exhibit is well set up and we spent about an hour inside.

The next several hours we spent at Victoria’s most touted (and rightly so) attraction, The Butchart Gardens.  Consisting of several garden areas (sunken garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden, Mediterranean garden, among others), three restaurants, a large gift shop, 

and in the winter displays of millions upon millions of lights, the Butchart Gardens is a prime tourist destination. 

We got there in the early afternoon and wandered first in the Japanese Garden (it’s not lighted for Christmas), then went into the Italian garden, and finally hiked the sunken garden—all the while looking for displays of the Twelve Days of Christmas; we found all but the twelve drummers drumming. After a first walk about in the afternoon light, we had a tasty dinner in the Blue Poppy Cafe (more interesting for us because we see Himalayan Blue Poppies most often in Scotland. 

The Sunken Garden

After dinner we took the walking tour again to see all the gardens glowingly presented in their Christmas sparkle. 

Eight Maids a Milking

As we drove out of the gardens at about 8:00PM under a tunnel of twelve lighted drummers drumming, we noticed the three km line of cars stopped and waiting to get into the gardens. Since the gardens closes at 10:00PM we figured many people did not make it in.

Back at WM we still had energy left for a couple of games of Bananagrams before we crashed.

We planned Thursday around Dave and Charleen’s ferry back to the mainland at 3:30. Once the Hoilands were all packed we first walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf to view the floating village, 

Floating Homes at Fisherman's Wharf

This harbour seal (I think) floated just below the surface next to the wharf waiting for someone to offer food.

and then walked to the edge of downtown. Anne and Charleen went to the Empress Hotel to see the Christmas tree display and the shops while Dave and I visited the Royal BC Museum. 

Lyuba

The main nature exhibit was everything you wanted to know about wooly mammoths, including viewing the most completely preserved mammoth, Lyuba a one month old mammoth over 40,000 years old. 

One of the totems in the museum.

The second area of the museum is dedicated to First Nation peoples (natives). Both exhibits are interesting and very detailed.

For lunch we drove to the Cook Street Village where we ate in a fine neighborhood pub, The Beagle Pub. 

Anne and brother-in-law Dave in The Beagle Pub.

I can report that the Oyster Po Boy was delicious. We then dropped the Hoilands off at the ferry terminal for them to catch the 4:00 ferry back to Port Angeles where their car was parked.

In the evening Anne and I packed, ate deep fried salmon from Finest at Sea food cart, worked on photos, and relaxed to get ready for the long drive home Friday, Anne’s Birthday present—a day in the car driving through the rain and snow. 

This plane followed the ferry out of the harbor.

Our Worldmark timeshare from the ferry leaving Victoria.

The end of the trip was not really indicative of the great Christmas Holiday we spent in Victoria, BC. 

NOTE: Someone asked what camera equipment I used. On this trip I used a Nikon D7200 w/18-300mm lens for most of the landscape/seascape and butterfly photos; a Lumix GX100 w/16-60mm lens for city scenes and in the gardens; and a Lumix SZ100 w/25-250mm lens for grab shots. 

NEXT: Notes from a week's trip to Las Vegas.