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.

A Victoria Christmas Holiday, Part 1

We’d spent time twice before in Victoria, BC, Canada, but it had been several years since our last visit. With fond memories of the city decorated for Christmas, we decided to book into our timeshare, Worldmark Victoria, for five days and invite Anne’s sister Charleen and her husband Dave to spend a couple of days with us. 

Anne and I drove to Sequim, WA, on Saturday, December 17, so we could catch the early ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria the next morning. On Sunday, after forty minutes queueing to get onto the ferry, we boarded at 8:20. 

I took photos of the Port Angeles harbor and a few coming into Victoria, but most of the time we spent watching the other people on the ferry. 

Selfie asleep on the ferry

We started disembarking at 10:30 and had cleared Canadian Customs (“We are staying for five days…at the Worldmark…just vacationing…No, we have no fresh fruits or vegetables with seeds…Thank you.”) by 11:00.

Our Worldmark 2-bedroom apartment was ready early, about twenty minutes after we arrived. The unit was excellent—two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen, dining room, living room with gas fireplace, washer and drier, and patio. 

Our view was of a marina of decorated boats, the bay, and part of Fisherman’s Wharf’s houseboats. Lovely.

We walked to downtown Victoria along the bay—a cold, windy walk of about 20 minutes. We learned our lesson on that first walk and most of the rest of the time walked inland from the shore—shorter and more wind protected. 

Anne viewing a Robert Bateman original on one of her favorite subjects.

Buy a new Irish cap at the Out of Ireland shop.

Victoria has a pleasant downtown shopping district with interesting shops (Irish, travel, bookstores, specialty chocolates, etc.) and its share of tourist shops (t-shirts, fridge magnets, moose droppings candy, maple syrup, etc.). We lucked into a great lunch spot, Pagliacci’s

—loud, crowded, serving delicious brunch and pasta fare. I hadn’t noted the restaurant in my searches, but locals say it’s just about the best in town.

Dinner was in our unit—martinis, BBQ chicken and bagels from a local upscale market. The availability of the full kitchen certainly helps keep costs reasonable.

Our first full day in Victoria started with breakfast in and a plan to drive around the bottom of Vancouver Island (still in Victoria). We walked the half-mile out Ogden Point Breakwater which gave us nice views of the bay. 

On the walk we met a local lady (she’s the one who took our photo by the harbor light) 

and had a wonderful chat with Wendy as we walked back to our car. 

The birds at Glover Point loved our car.

We made several stops for photos along the route, but the most interesting stop was at the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point. 

The path to the Chinese Cemetery.

Designated a Nat’l Historical Site in 1996, the Harling Point setting was selected in accord to the ancient concept of feng shui (harmony with the environment). Older graves were moved from the Old Cemetery and Ross Bay Cemeteries in 1903, and burials continued until the early 1950s. The  cemetery has several information plaques and is very peaceful.

We visited one of the many villages of Victoria, Oak Bay Village, 

Street sculpture in Oak Bay Village.

with its interesting shops and nice Irish pub, 

The Penny Farthing. After sharing a couple of tasty burgers and a Guinness in the Farthing, we discovered [I’m sure others had “discovered” it before, but it was new to us.] Roger’s Chocolates—sinfully delicious and almost as good as See’s. 

The drive back to WM was through another of Victoria’s neighborhood villages, Cook Street Village. Once at our digs, Anne stayed in to rest while I walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf (five minutes from our apartment) for photos. I first stopped at Moka House Coffee and Bistro for a latte—to keep me warm, of course. 

I wandered among the houseboats and shops on the wharf for a half hour or so. 

This harbor sealant Fisherman's Wharf floated just beneath the surface until someone would hold out food.

On the way back I picked up a couple of fish tacos at Finest at Sea 

(food cart and seafood market) to be appetizers for dinner which was left over tortellini and toast. Then it was time to work on photos with Christmas music playing in the background.

Tuesday, the fourth day of our trip, started with another relaxing morning with breakfast of sausage, eggs, bagels, and fruit. We tried to book in for a Christmas High Tea on Thursday, but all the bookings were taken—must book sooner next time.  

After some nice rainbow photos from our patio, we walked to town (about 11;00) for more shopping before Dave and Charleen walk off the ferry at 3:30.

A rainy downtown Victoria.

More chocolates from Roger’s was the first order of the day, followed by T-shirts for Anne and a browse in a specialty hat shop.  

We took a latte break at Starbucks after a wander through the two blocks of Victoria’s Chinatown—small, but has some picturesque shops.The find of the morning was a pen shop, Simply the Best, where Anne and I each bought a Lamy rollerball pen. In the shop we had a very nice visit with the owner and his friend. 

And what does the upside-down face on the totem mean?

On the way back to WM we walked through Totem Park next to BC Museum and shopped in the museum’s gift shop—it was nice to have the exchange rate in our favor. It was another cold, windy walk from the museum to WM.

NEXT: Part 2