Thursday, August 18; Victoria, B.C. Day

            We had to get up at 6 AM as we had to be in the passenger line by 8 o’clock. Port Angeles was only a 20 minute drive from our RV Park, but we weren’t sure about the morning traffic, so we were trying to play it safe. As it turned out, we left 15 minutes later than we had planned, but there was no traffic, so we got there on time. Jan gets motion sickness, so she took her Dramamine. However, the Strait was calm that day and the Ferry, being quite large, barely rolled at all. The trip took 90 minutes as we watched the tall Olympic Mountains in Washington State on our stern give way to the rolling hills of Vancouver Island on our bow. We met another retired couple on the ferry who lived on the island and had US/Canadian dual citizenship. They owned a 42 foot power boat that they used to explore the islands and waterways. I wondered if we could have done that with Leita, which I think was 32 feet long.

Jan on the ferry with the Empress Hotel in the background

The boat made its way into the harbor and turned right as the harbor went in deeper and right up into city, with Empress Hotel right at the head of the harbor and the parliament building to the right. The harbor was a buzz of activity with small sightseeing seaplanes taking off and landing, small harbor ferries darting back & forth, bright yellow high speed power boats for whale watching and kayakers paddling along the shoreline. Jan & I managed to walk around most the harbor, passing beautiful flower gardens and expensive (I’m sure) condos looking out over the harbor. Flowers were everywhere. There were 2 hanging baskets of flowers on every light pole and planted in numerous flower beds. The architecture has that British flair and huge Canadian flags fly proudly over many of the buildings. I thought about what good friends our 2 countries have been over the years and how unusual that was seeing that people are always fighting at one time or another.

I thought the best way to see the city was to buy a ticket on a hop-on, hop-off tour bus, but as it turned out, the city is small enough to walk around, but we took the whole tour none the less. We walked thru China Town and the famous Fan Tan Alley, which I guess was the scene of prostitution and gambling back in the 1800s and where Mel Gibson rode his motorcycle in the movie “Bird on a Wire”.

Dave at the the entrance to Fan Tan Alley

We brought sack lunches and found a picnic table in Market Square, which was surrounded by old brick buildings and reminded me of The Cannery in San Francisco. Hardly anybody was there; we didn’t know why, but we guessed because it was mid week.



Jan in Market Square amoungst the flowers

We got back on the bus and got off at fisherman’s wharf and the famed (so it was hyped) Barb’s Fish & Chips. This fisherman’s wharf was tiny compared to San Francisco, consisting of 2 docks lined with colorful floating homes, Barbs Fish & Chips, an ice cream shop, and a few souvenir shops. I waited in line in front of the Barb’s Fish & Chips order window for at least a half an hour while Jan secured a table under the awning outside. While in line, there were some British young people in front of me in the line. One of the blokes marveled that “Their Queen” was on the Canadian currency as if Canada had stolen something from them! The fish & chips were good, but not worth the wait.

We walked up and down the 2 docks and admired the houseboats, some of which were for sale. I guess the housing crisis has even hit houseboats in Victoria. One of the homeowners was a diver and had attached to the side of the house various goodies that he had found on the bottom, including cell phones, pagers, and even other scuba gear.

Houseboat with items found on the harbor bottom

Really liked this houseboat



What is the message here!?

The bus then took us up into the hills where we saw the estate homes of some of the city’s early citizens and then out by the beaches. We would have liked have to walked along the beach, but it was getting late and the wind off the strait was blowing hard. As we got back into the city, we decided to have dinner early so we could relax and not be pressed for time to catch the ferry at 7 PM.

Dave outside one of the pubs (flowers everywhere)

We found a nice restaurant overlooking the harbor and took a table outside on the patio. It was shielded with plexi-glass, but we were still a little chilly. Jan ate her dinner with her sweater hood up as her head & neck were cold. The sun was getting low in the sky and reflection off the water was blinding me as I was the one facing the water, so I wore my sunglasses throughout the dinner. We decided to be good, so we each had salads. Mine had a piece of grilled wild salmon in it, which was delicious. (At this point, am I sounding like Aunt Charlotte with the meal to meal descriptions of the trip?)

Here comes our boat!

Anyway, we made it back to the ferry on time. As we sailed out of the harbor, the sun was just setting and the fog started to surround us. We were in the observation deck, so we could see that the bow of the boat (outside) was full of people. Suddenly, as the fog closed in, the passengers were all gone and replaced by a single sailor, who stood right at the very tip of the bow and peering out into the darkness. With all the electronic sensors & radar on board, just what was he looking for?! As we approached the dock in Port Angeles, we watched the Capitan maneuver the big boat up to its mooring. I remembered the days when my brother Rick & I practiced maneuvering our Dad’s 32 foot boat into Charlie’s dock and smashed into it a few times.