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| Victoria's Inner Harbour |
Next stop, Canada. We got to the ferry a little before 7:30 for our 8:30 trip. There was a pretty sunrise so we took some pictures and got a coffee at a stand close to the pier. The strange thing was that there was a raccoon on the other side of the fence and people were feeding it. Ok, fine. The thing is, from where we are from, raccoons are a pest and we shoo them away. They were encouraging the raccoon to be there. Oh well.
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| We finally got to see snow on the mountains |
We boarded the ferry and went up to the top to the passenger deck. After about 20-30 minutes, someone said they saw a whale. I couldn't see it, I know big surprise, but Lisa said she could see the spout off in the distance. We went a little further and someone said they saw a whale on the other side. We got up to check it out and there were a couple of whales pretty close to the ferry. That was pretty cool.
The ferry arrived at the port in Victoria and made it through customs with no problems. We went to the hotel first and checked in. We were surprised because it was about 10:00am and they had our room ready. We dropped off our stuff and then headed to town. Victoria is a small quaint city with a bunch of boutique shops. Lisa really enjoyed that part. We started by going to Bard & Banker's, a Scottish-style pub. It was very detailed inside. The food was pretty good too. I had banger's and mash and Lisa had seafood sliders.
After lunch we started on the boutiques. There was not a lot of stuff for me, but Lisa really enjoyed them. There were clothes shops, housewares, outdoor equipment, nic-naks, treats and others. We took a city tour laster in the day. It was pretty slow at first, but it got better as the material picked up. We got to see all parts of the city. The shopping areas, Chinatown, Antique Row, good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, exclusive neighborhoods. All in all, it was pretty good. They dropped us off at the Fairmont Empress at the end of the tour. We decided to walk through. It is a very pretty hotel from the outside. The inside was a little lacking. The "newer" parts looked like they were from the 70s, and the older areas just needed some TLC.
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| Fairmont Empress hotel |
We walked back to the car to drop off our stuff and then headed to Ferris Oyster Bar. I had seen their website and from that really wanted to try it. We ordered a couple of drinks and some oysters. Lisa and I decided on the trip that we really like oysters. We had both had them before but they were nothing special. After this trip, mmmmmm.........yummy.
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| Outside our hotel before dinner |
Next was dinner. We got ready and went down to the lobby. The hotel had a shuttle that would take you to and from dinner. We had some additional riders on our ride. From what the driver told us, there was a native socialization conference in Victoria. Apparently, the natives that live on the reservations are sometimes stuck there and become, for lack of a better term, sheltered. The government and the tribes have conference to bring these people to the cities and allow them to adapt to more of a social setting. There were several of the people from this conference on our bus. I had no problem with them, but they were not the most well behaved people you would meet. They reminded me of some people at home that don't get out much too. when we got to our restaurant, Cafe Brio, the driver apologized profusely. We told him it was no big deal.
Dinner was very good. We had a family style meal. This allowed us to have 6 half items from the menu in order to try a bunch of them. The restaurant was more than anything an Italian restaurant. It wasn't stereotypical italian, but it was very good. We had a beet salad, squash soup, clams in a gravy-esqe broth, seared albacore tuna, itallian steak and a pasta dish. They were very good. We also had a local wine. It was good, but a little different than your standard pinot noir.
We called to get a ride back to the hotel, and the same driver picked us up from before. We asked him how the rest of that trip was and he just laughed. That was when he explained the situation to us.
Another good day. Next, Vancouver.
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| Parliament building at night |
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