The red, white and blue vessel above is one of several Victoria Clipper ships, some of which transport people at high speed either locally or between Seattle and Victoria. I rode one many years ago and during that trip also saw a new one being delivered aboard the equivalent of a floating flatbed. This one sat in the harbour all day until I returned to the harbour after having become disoriented and walking way more that I intended to.
Three sailplanes were docked in the harbour. Shortly after I took this photo the red and white one fired up it’s engines and propelled itself out to the “water airport” I mention in a post a few days ago where it took to the sky.
And exactly 24 hours after I arrived in Victoria on it the day before, here came the MV Coho, transporting another batch of travelers from Washington State:
Monday I drove into downtown Victoria and parked in a multi-story Parkade deck about three blocks from the Inner Harbour. My plan was to walk to see many of the various attractions I had noted on my “things to do” list. I was a little concerned that the city and the attractions might be too crowded because large cruise ships dock near Victoria and discharge many of their passengers into town. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared it might be. Here are some of the things I saw as I walked around the city:
An “on the sidewalk” toilet:
A store selling some pretty amusing t-shirts:
Later in the day I saw two different people wearing the raven t-shirt. I believe what I saw out by the water was a crow, not a raven. Ravens have noticeably curved beaks while crows do not.
Some words of wisdom from the late Jimmy Dean (who died in 2010, yet still promotes his products in radio and tv ads):
A very hungry seagull which, surprisingly, I didn’t see all that many of as I walked around by the harbour.
City Hall:
Signs near Chinatown, including special street name signs:
I had to wait in order to walk out into the middle of the street for that one.
Some amusing signs:
Some nice tilework in an entryway to a courtyard in the open space between buildings:
But the thing that impressed me the most were all the baskets of pretty flowers hanging on the lamp posts around town:
They were everywhere. I think that always adds a nice look to a city street. I also walked around many residential streets near the harbour and they, too, were well adorned with pretty flower beds. The only place that overdid it a bit, IMHO, was the Empress Hotel, a swanky hotel near the harbour. Their display was quite gaudy and could have been cut way back without sacrificing anything.
I could have gone in to the Empress for high tea and sipped the nectar with my pinky extended but I’m too cheap.
I saw this statue near the harbour as well:
“I will now make this bird disappear by passing it through this horseshoe”
About a block from the Empress Hotel was this large whale topiary:
And finally, outside the ferry terminal building, an example why you might not want to buy a dark blue car instead of a lime green one:
The ferry from Port Angeles, Washington State dropped us off in the harbour in Victoria mid-afternoon. I had a scenic drive which would take two hours each way planned so I decided to go ahead and get it checked off the list since I didn’t know my way around the city. It was easy to get on Route 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) from the ferry terminal and then I hopped on Route 14 which would take me around the bottom of the island to the southwest and then follow the Strait of Juan de Fuca which separates Vancouver Island from Washington State.
I passed through little towns like Langford, Sooke, Shirley and Jordan River. The road eventually turned inland and climbed up into the San Juan Ridge of mountains. Ultimately the road would end at Port Renfrew. I never made it that far. Once the road started climbing up into the woods, a) the drive became like something I could do in North Carolina or Virginia – driving through a tunnel of trees, but more importantly, b) the road had lots of curves, but more distressing were the severe undulations which often caused the car to almost bottom out if I went too fast. I now drive a Toyota Camry which, when loaded with all my stuff, sits pretty low to the ground (and I bought it with low profile tires on it compared to what I normally buy). I finally said “enough” and turned around. I was getting carsick on land!
Here are some panoramas looking west towards Washington State. The photos make them look tiny, especially using the panorama format, but actually looking at the mountains of Olympic National Park was very impressive, even from a distance.
This crow landed on the rock in front of me as I was getting ready to back out from my parking place by the beach.
That photo was taken at Jordan River and from there it would take me about an hour to get to my Airbnb for the next two nights.
Now that I have been in Canada for nearly a week I have decided to put all my posts from the United States, traveling from Durham to Seattle during July, on hold and post them at a later date. I took lots of photos in Ohio (Cleveland and Cincinnati), Indianapolis, a surprise destination in Kansas, Boise and Seattle, plus unexpected finds I stumbled upon along the way. It takes time to go through them all and select which ones I want to post (and I am now using both my smartphone and my digital camera). So they will wait until I get back to Durham, or if I get snowed in somewhere up here in the Great White North.
I do want to tell the amusing JohnBoy story I promised you before I switch countries. This took place the morning I drove west of Boise and then south past Kuna to get to the Snake River.
When I arrived at first overlook there was a small car already in the parking lot. I didn’t see anyone around and assumed they were down by the top of the cliff overlooking the river (which I couldn’t see from the gravel parking lot).
I was moving my car around trying to decide which way to angle it to make my sunshields in the windows most effective. I tried pulling in behind the silver car which was parked parallel to the edge of the parking area but with the front of my car facing the edge, thus perpendicular to the silver car. I was quite shocked when something popped up into the rear window and looked towards me.
In that split second I thought “there’s a frickin’ baby gorilla in that car!!”. I swear to God that’s what it looked like. Now keep in mind, I had my sunglasses on, and the back windows of the small car were tinted, making anything inside it look dark.
I pulled my car to the other end of the parking area, got my smartphone out and walked over to the car to take a picture. About that time, a man who had been sleeping in the back of the car opened the back door and got out. Boy did I have egg on my face…
He walked over to the lavatory to use it and I waited at a distance for him to come out. I started to explain why I was approaching his car the way I did (he might have thought I was going to break into it) but he muttered something that implied he wasn’t terribly interested so I left him alone, used the lavatory myself, and headed down towards the river.
Now I know what you’re thinking…. JohnBoy, why in the world did you think there would be a baby gorilla inside someone’s car near Kuna, Idaho??? I will direct your attention to a post I made in 2017. Enter “Boise” in the search box on the home page and then go down to the link that will take you to a post titled “Boy, I sure didn’t see this one coming”….
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