Victoria -- Day 5

Our fifth day was yet another beautiful day, and we started it out by walking through the neighborhood of James Bay. We stayed in this neighborhood last time, so it was a bit like walking down memory lane (past the bank where we got our marriage license, the little breakfast place, the coffee shop).  We eventually made it to our destination, Niagara Grocery.  We were in search of Cold Comfort ice cream, a gourmet ice cream in lots of cool flavors, made by one woman in Victoria and sold in very few locations.  She makes them in small batches, so when she's out, she's out.  Lisa stumbled upon this, and knew we needed to find it.  We did, but the hard part was choosing a flavor.  We agreed on cinnamon pine nut praline, and enjoyed it for dessert that night.  It lives up to the hype -- it is really good!  We also really liked the no-frills packaging:

Then we took a nice walk to Vic West and the Westsong Walkway.  We recreated one of my favorite photos from our last trip of me daydreaming about a life in Victoria, with a new twist:

Here I am again from another perspective.  Hard to believe there's a city of 70,000 just beyond that rock.

Then we headed to Fol Epi bakery, another find of Lisa's.  I think she would have moved in if they had let her (ironically, there are apartments above and all around this bakery).  That round brick structure is his oven.  In front of the window was their herb garden, and while we were sitting there, a guy came out to clip rosemary with flour all over his shoes. This is Lisa's Mecca.

The whole outdoor eating area is in a very cool modern development that I think was mostly apartments with businesses scattered within.  You can see some of the apartments behind me here, and the cool water garden (there were plants and gardens everywhere, despite looking like new construction):

We enjoyed a roasted pepper and goat cheese pizza, Italian sodas and pain au chocolat. So good.

 On our way back to the city, we stopped on the Johnson St. Bridge to get this cool view of the city and mountains:

Then we got in the car and drove up the peninsula to the seaside town of Sidney. There are beautiful views of the Gulf Islands, and although you can't see it very well, that faint white blob in the middle is actually Mt. Baker, in Washington. I love looking out at clouds, and realizing they are mountains.  At home I like to pretend the low clouds are mountains...

After spending a nice afternoon exploring Sidney, we took the scenic route home (and passed the house we bought our wedding flowers from).  We really love the peninsula area -- curvy roads, farms, roadside stands, and every now and then an excellent peek at the water.

We took a quick hike around Swan Lake at the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary.  It was a nice little walk, complete with a few dozen adorable ducklings swimming about...

When we got back to Victoria, we stopped at Upland Park near Oak Bay for a late afternoon snack (did I mention we hit our 4th bakery of the trip in Sidney? We were never without a treat or 2).

I love this shot of Oak Bay -- I don't know what Lisa did to make the mountains look so clear and huge:

I think I was trying to get another shot of Mt. Baker, which was still barely visible.  It didn't come out, but it is still pretty.

Finally, we took a quick walk down the main street of Oak Bay village, then went back to the hotel to relax and eat dinner -- a United Nations smorgasbord -- leftover Thai, lasagna, and fish tacos! (and of course the ice cream for dessert)....

A view of the Parliament building all lit up:

If you are wondering when they turn off for the night, it's 1AM. On our first night here, we got in just before 1 and even in my tiredness decided to take a photo. By the time I got the camera and walked back to the window, the lights were off!

Victoria -- Day 4

We had a few hours left before we had to return our bikes, so we took one more ride.  We went along Dallas Road, which follows the southern coastline and is definitely the scenic route through the city area.  We thought it would be a leisurely ride, but there were a few more hills than we were anticipating, and our legs were a little sore (not to mention our rears) from the long ride the day before.

We went through some beautiful neighborhoods, with quaint seaside houses.

As we moved east, we could see a fog rolling in...

And in no time it looked like this:

This was the view of the water, but behind us was clear blue sky.  

We rode as far as we could, but eventually the fog made us very cold (plus we were riding SO FAST). We turned around and headed back.  In all, we biked another 12 miles, on top of the 20+ from the day before. So much for a leisurely morning.

Once we dropped off our trusty bikes, we opted for even more freedom and rented a car for the final few days of our trip.  We wanted to explore new parts of Vancouver Island, so we headed up Route 1 to the small town of Duncan.  It was a beautiful drive up (although a lot of traffic, and a few scary deer sightings).  We stopped at an overlook to take in the view.

This is looking east toward the northern reach of Saanich Peninsula. The land you see in the very distance is actually the San Juan Islands.  The ferry you see is headed to Mill Bay from Brentwood Bay, where we got married.

We had a nice couple of hours in Duncan. We ate lunch and poked around a few shops.  It reminded us a little bit like New Bern (but not as big) or Hendersonville.

Then we headed to Goldstream Provincial Park. Our first little hike took us to Niagara Falls (western edition).  The water was icy cold but felt good on my feet. A local was building up the nerve to go all the way in, but he only made it to his waist.

It was so pretty here!

Then we went on perhaps the most challenging hike of my life. We thought we'd just do a little mild hiking, especially with our already tired bodies. We picked the wrong trail.  To our credit, the maps were not very clear and not drawn to scale, so our quick but uphill climb turned into a grueling test.  Considering the highest peak at home is the 22 ft above sea level "hill" that our house sits on, we were in over our heads.

This is the trail. It was more rock climbing than hiking.  The photos don't really grasp the perspective, but most of this was near vertical, and nothing but large rocks and gravel.

Sadly, we did not make it all the way to the top.  I'm afraid to know how close we were, but Lisa finally was the voice of reason and made us turn back.  Our legs were so shaky at this point, she was afraid of one of us stumbling on the way down (going down is so much more painful than going up).  Once we finally decided to head down, we were quickly passed by a woman bounding down the rocks like a mountain goat.  And she was ~4-5 months pregnant.  

This was a rather steep stretch of the trail. You can see in the middle there (if you look really closely) a wooden bridge WAY down in the valley.

 We made it off the trail in mostly one piece, so we rewarded ourselves with a good foot soak in the stream.

After a physically challenging day such as that, we were in immediate agreement on dinner plans.  Italian for some good carb loading.  We picked Pagliacci's (good reviews) and it was yet another restaurant with a long waiting line out the door.  It helps to have just 2 people; we only waited about 15 minutes.  Food, excellent.  Ambiance, OK.  They pack so many people in there, it was like eating at a communal table.  We met nice women on holiday from Scotland, though!

Victoria -- Day 3

We continued to expand our radius from the city, this time by bike.  Today we discovered that just because you're thin, you can't eat cake all the time and call that exercise. It was an awesome day, but man, were we whipped.

Victoria has a great system of bike trails, one of the main ones being the Galloping Goose Trail. It is 55 km long and connects with many other trails throughout the area. Two-thousand commuters use it to get to work every day. Amazing. So we rented bikes and checked out the Trail, heading west out of the city.

The start of our ride, on the Selkirk Trestle

 We made it to Thetis Lake, a popular swimming hole and park.  We ventured away from the beach and splashing kids, and found a quiet spot for our picnic.

Lisa eating her bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich). She says it wasn't as good as in Oakland, but I didn't know any better. It was yummy.

We thought about going swimming (I put my feet in and was surprised at how not frigid the water was). The idea of biking in wet bathing suits didn't appeal to us, though. I guess we'd make lousy triathletes.

Picnic -- complete with Perrier.

 After our lunch we walked the trails a little, and found this cool vantage point of the lake:

Off to the right, there were about 10 high school students jumping off the cliff. They weren't as high as we were, but still...

 Back on the trail...

We overshot our next destination some, but it gave us an opportunity to visit part of Royal Roads University, and the site of Hadley Castle. We didn't spend much time here, but it was nice to see.

In an attempt to avoid a rather large uphill climb, we took the scenic route on a footpath through the woods. We had to walk our bikes and it was a little quiet and creepy, especially since this was the sign at the entrance:

Luckily, we didn't see any cougars.

Lisa looked very worried when I stopped to take this photo.  There was rustling in the bushes....

 Finally we got back on track and headed to the Fisgard Lighthouse.  See it?

It's a cute little lighthouse, although their reds don't match. It bugged me.

We knew we'd be getting into rush hour (biker rush hour) so we finally headed home. With just a quick break to enjoy the sugariest lemonade I've ever tasted from a couple of 10ish year olds parked beside the trail.

We estimated our trip was about 20 miles.  Not bad for a couple of "skinny fats." We ended the day with dinner at Red Fish Blue Fish, a converted shipping container known for its fish and chips. We waited in line for about an hour (typical).  It was good, but so much food! Then off to bed in a tired, greasy food coma....

Victoria -- Day 2

On our second day in Victoria, we ventured out of the City Center to visit some nearby gardens and parks. There's no better way to get a feel of a place than by taking public transit. Victoria has a great bus system, although it took us a little time to figure out the routes and schedules.  

After a quick breakfast we armed ourselves with day passes and hopped the bus just outside our hotel. We took a short ride through the neighborhood of Fairfield (Victoria is made up of a number of neighborhoods, each with their own little stretch of local shops and restaurants). We got off at the start of another neighborhood, Oak Bay, and visited the small but charming Abkhazi Gardens.  This place is jam-packed with different plant species, all on one acre.  Their volunteers are extremely knowledgable, and were happy to talk about the history of the place and point out some of the more notable species.

Lisa liked these little guys -- they kind of remind me of mold spores (but much cuter):

We took lots of "Artsy-fartsy" pictures like this--just for you, Dad!

Then we hopped back on the bus in search of lunch.  We decided on chicken shawarma from the local Lebanese restaurant. We got them to go, threw them in our pack, and got on another bus to take us west of the city to the town of Esquimalt. There we first visited Saxe Point Park where we had a picnic lunch on our high perch on the rocks. 

I love the way a lot of the parks here are laid out. They are kept rather natural and have paths to all these great cubby holes -- rock ledges, meadows, beaches. Rarely is a park nothing but a big expanse of lawn with a rusty swingset!

Then we walked through the town, directly north to Esquimalt Gorge Park. There's a nice walkway along the gorge, and was being used by kayakers and swimmers. We came across a nice Japanese garden, too.  Victoria isn't called the City of Gardens for nothing -- every park has gorgeous well-tended gardens, and it is tough to find a private residence that doesn't have a well landscaped and lush yard (in fact, most properties don't even have much of a lawn, it is just garden).

Lisa in front of the Gorge

Japanese garden

We finally hopped the bus again to take us back into Victoria.  Dinner was at Baan Thai, which we had visited on our last visit, and it was so good we had to return. We also got this to go, and enjoyed it in our suite while watching the cruise ships come in.

happy!

Victoria -- Day 1

As many of you know Lisa and I have a love affair with Victoria, BC. We love this place -- the food (3 Vietnamese restaurants in one block!), the people, the scenery, the amenities of a city but with access to complete wilderness in less than an hour. We'd move there if we could, but that is proving challenging.  Anyone know anyone in the Vic area willing to hire a couple of hard workers and sign off on their visas?  Just checking.

We just returned from a weeklong stay and wanted to share our photos and all the things we love about Victoria and the surrounding area.

I'll start out with our view. We stayed right downtown at the Executive House Hotel -- 12th floor suite with stunning views. I'd wake up early (easy to do when the sun is up at 5:30) just to watch the world go by. We took a zillion photos from our balcony (the mountains look different every day!) but I'll narrow it down to just a few. You'll get the idea.

Why stay at the expensive Victoria Empress Hotel when you can stay just behind it for a fraction of the price?  Our views are better,  too!

The bustling city at sunset

Mountains! 

We started our first day at the Blue Fox cafe for breakfast. Yummy. We had enough food to take home and eat the following morning. Great little place and worth the 20 minute wait. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city by foot. Our first stop: the Inner Harbor to watch the ferry boat water ballet.  The Harbor's 5 ferry boats maneuver to impressive choreography while music plays on loudspeakers. Adorable.

We walked along the waterfront watching seals frolic and ooh'd and ahh'd at the gardens and properties along the waterway.  At noon we headed back toward the city center to get a good spot for the start of the annual Pride Parade, signifying the end of pride week. We did not plan this, but we're glad we were there to witness it. It was such a great community gathering -- and there was not one whiff of hostility or controversy anywhere. That would never happen here in NC! My favorite parts were the 87 year old woman riding the carriage in her first ever pride parade and the 50+ year old man driving a pick up for some organization (I forget now) singing along to Pink at the top of his lungs. At the end, the entire community flooded the streets and followed the parade to its end point, a local park set up for a day of festivities.

This was the end of the parade, when the street became a sea of people and became part of the parade themselves. Notice the pride flag flying -- even the Empress Hotel flew the flag!

Later that afternoon we spent some time in Beacon Hill Park, a lovely park in the heart of the city with gardens, water features, lots of play areas for kids, trails and viewpoints, and lovely meadows like this one:

 They also have a children's petting zoo that holds a goat stampede at opening and closing every day. We knew we did not want to miss this bit of Victoria entertainment.

To close out the day, we shared a pizza at Pizzeria Prima Strada in Cook Street Village. It was good, although we are skeptical as to whether their mozzarella was truly buffalo mozz.  No matter, it was a great end to a great day.  I'll try to post more photos and adventures soon!