STUNNING VICTORIA, BC

If you ever get the chance to travel to the west coast of Canada, Vancouver Island in particular, do it. It's beautiful, plain and simple. The island is 460 kms/290 miles in length and is 80 kms/50 miles wide at its widest point; has a population of about 760,000 with 345,000 living in Victoria. Victoria, incidentally, is the capital of the Province of British Columbia. The climate on the island is mild enough in a few areas to grow subtropical crops such as olives and lemons and the odd palm tree has been sighted.

From Port Angeles in Washington State the ferry that we took takes you right downtown to Victoria harbour; from there we immediately drove to our RV Resort in Metchosin, about a 30 km/18 mile ride out into the country. Metchosin is right on the coast and is home to about 5,000 people, many of whom run small farms while the majority are retired. Metchosin is a haven for folks who like the outdoor lifestyle with tons of walking and hiking trails that offer some amazing scenic views. Don't look for places to buy your souvenirs along these walks as you won't find anything of that sort anywhere in Metchosin. You will, however, find a pretty high end restaurant and a general store that truly is a general store and sells some of the best home made meat pies, in the English tradition, and fresh, local sausages.

Weir's Beach RV Resort, was gorgeous. A stone's throw from the ocean and with magnificent views of the mountains to the west and a glimpse of Victoria to the east it was pretty much perfect. We spent hours each day walking up and down the beach while Kaede and Freddy ran and played to their hearts content.

As it was in San Diego, our social life in Victoria was pretty much guaranteed. Erik's son, Adam, lives in Victoria and having lived there for about 15 years Erik has friends with whom he had stayed in touch over the years.

Adam and Erik having lunch at a bistro on the Inner Harbour in Victoria.

The weather in Victoria was pretty stupendous for pretty much all of our time there. Stupendous weather in Victoria means no rain which, in turn, means eating alfresco.

Lunch at our RV site, Weir's Beach, Metchosin

I watched a Dad and his daughter build something in the drizzle.

Victoria is the home to The University of Victoria, a world-class university, but also Royal Roads University, a former military college that now is a learning facility for working professionals who want to further their education while continuing in the work force. The grounds of this university reminded us of a beautiful estate with magnificent lawns and a quiet peacefulness. 

The buildings are in a little gully hidden behind tees and massive lawns and are quite impressive.

Some of the jewels of Victoria, that most people are already aware of, would be The Fairmont Empress Hotel, Victoria'a Inner Harbour, The Legislature Building, Butchart Gardens and the many, many, many pubs.

The Fairmont Empress Hotel:
http://www.fairmont.com/empress-victoria/ is one of the oldest and most famous hotels around. It is on Government Street in Victoria and faces the inner harbour and has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Afternoon tea at the Empress is an indulgence that you owe yourself at least once in your life. If that doesn't appeal to you then a martini in the Bengal Lounge accompanied by some of their tasty curries certainly will.

The Harbour:
Victoria harbour is a seaport and seaplane airport as well as a cruise ship and ferry destination for tourists and visitors to Victoria and Vancouver Island in general. Along the harbour you will see the Empress Hotel, the Legislature Buildings, seaplanes landing and taking off, people dining at various outdoor restaurants and pubs. Here are some pictures of life on the harbour.

This is a water taxi that takes you around. Kind of cool.

Legislature Buildings.
The BC Parliament Buildings, home to the The Legislative Assembly, face the inner harbour and are diagonally across from the Empress Hotel. You will find a statue of Queen Victoria on the front lawn and a statue of a soldier to commemorate WWI, WWII and Korean War casualties from the Province of BC. The legislature offers free guided tours throughout the year if you would like to see how Provincial government works.

Stock photo of the Legislature taken from the harbour.

Butchart Gardens.
www.butchartgardens.com There is nothing that I can say here that would do justice to the Butchart Gardens. The gardens receive more than a million visitors annually, are a National Historic Site of Canada and offer 55 acres of absolute beauty.

One of many professionally done stock photos taken at Butchart Gardens.

Many, many pubs. Victoria is a city that is oozing with pubs. You find them almost on every corner downtown and scattered about the many Victoria neighbourhoods. They range from tiny and cozy to large and decadent but most offer darned good food and an assortment of excellent beers.

17 Mile House.

We had our lunch in this quaint little room.

It was a crazy sunny day in Victoria and the sun kept shining through windows.

The 17 Mile House.
www.17milehouse.com is a pub that is ...... yup, 17 miles or 27 kilometers outside of Victoria. It has an interesting history - was once an inn for travelers going west from Victoria and even had a reputation of being a place where married gentlemen could bring their lady friends who were not their wives with insured privacy. We enjoyed a couple of hours here when we stopped for lunch.

Just north of Victoria is the charming seaside town of Sidney. www.sidney.ca When Erik and I married in 2007 we lived in this area for nearly two years before returning to Brockville, ON and retirement. Sidney has a meager population of 11,500 people but has an infrastructure of a much more populated town, is minutes from Victoria International Airport and the BC Ferries to Vancouver at Land's End and is accessible by ferry from Anacortes in Washington State.

 

Interesting sculpture of a diver on the extensive boardwalk in Sidney-by-the-Sea.

A fish market and to the right a restaurant that serves excellent sea food.

Me (in red), the dogs and one of the sculptures along the boardwalk.

Sidney spit, taken from the end of the wharf.

Looking back at Sidney from the end of the wharf.

We spent a day in Mill Bay, Cowichan Bay area; it's a beautiful drive north on the TransCanada highway that takes you north out of Victoria and up and over the Malahat, 356 m/1,156 ft at its summit. The drive takes you along the Goldstream Provincial Park where you can see salmon spawning in the fall months as they make the long arduous journey homeward.

Mill Bay (about 3,200 population) and Cowichan Bay (about 2,400 population) are both small towns in the Cowichan Valley and are characterized by their beautiful scenery, proximity to the ocean and their attraction in the summer as tourist destinations. 

Mill Bay

Mill Bay

Float Homes in Mill Bay

Float Homes in Mill Bay

Incredibly beautiful Mill Bay

Speaking of pubs, this is the Six Mile Pub which, strangely, is located about 6 miles/10 kms from downtown Victoria. There is also a pub called The Four Mile Bar and Grill which we passed several times on our travels but I didn't get a picture. You will probably have to take my word on that one.




If you are wondering how many pubs there are in greater Victoria try a google search. However, when googling pubs in Victoria you get a variety of answers and, of course, not all of them are on the various sites that show the pubs but my guess would be there are LOTS.

From Victoria to Nanaimo (yes it's the birthplace of the Nanaimo bar) is about 110 kms/66 miles and only 58 kms/36 miles north of our last stop, Mill Bay and Cowichan Bay where we saw the lovely float homes.  Nanaimo, population about 84,000 is known as The Harbour City due to its location on a wonderfully scenic harbour. Nanaimo is only 96kms/55 miles west of the city of Vancouver on mainland BC and is serviced by a ferry terminal and float planes that link to many of the Gulf Island and Vancouver ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay.

Erik, Kaede and Freddy at the little seafood restaurant on the harbour.

Boats in Nanaimo Harbour

Harbour at Nanaimo.

From Nanaimo Harbour we took a ferry across to Gabriola Island, to spend the afternoon and to have lunch with one of Erik's ex-colleagues who lives there. Gabriola is one of the Gulf Islands, is only about 5 km east of Nanaimo and a short 20 minute ferry ride. This video is of the ferry that we will be taking as it enters the harbour.

I also wanted to show you this video I took on the ferry of the scenery going to Gabriola Island and a very special guest sighting.

Gabriola Island is small, only 57 sq km/22 sq mi with a population of just more than 4,000 and, as our hostess for the afternoon put it, living here is a lifestyle and not for everyone. If you love solitude and don't mind taking a 20 minute ferry ride in order to do shopping then your lifestyle would fit in here. 

More dining alfresco on Erik's friends' gorgeous property.

Kaede and Freddy love roaming the two fenced acres.

The view from their property. Tranquility at its best.

Our island  hopping is not done. Next we go to Saltspring Island, the most populated of the Gulf Islands ,and a stay in beautiful Parksville, halfway up Vancouver Island. Then, off we go to the glorious city of Vancouver and home again, home again, jiggedy jig. See you next time.