Hello from Victoria (2) -Exploring Victoria and Its Vicinity
Another perfect day with beaming blue skies, great temperatures
and no humidity greeted me yesterday. After a lovely
strengthening breakfast and some business issues, Clare and I
set off by car to explore British Columbia's capital Victoria.
We started by parking our car pretty close to "Mile Zero", right
next to Beacon Hill Park. This expansive city park is right next
to the waterfront and at its southern end you have a perfect
view across the Juan de Fuca Sound to Washington State's Olympic
Mountain range.
Beacon Hill Park has beautiful landscaping, hundreds of flower
beds, a petting zoo with screaming peacocks, serene shady ponds
hosting various families of ducks, an assortment of totem poles
and a great variety of shade trees, many of which I have never
seen in Toronto. The whole waterfront around Beacon Hill Park
reminded me very much of California and seeing the odd palm tree
just reinforced that image. I had to remind myself that we are
still in Canada here.
Our next step was to explore the waterfront to the east along
Beach Drive. We moved past lovely well-kept houses and various
inlets and bays and about 3 km east of downtown we arrived in
the Oak Bay area. When we saw the Tudor-style gables of the Oak
Bay Beach Hotel we decided this needed further exploration. We
stopped the car, went through the lobby and outside the back
door and saw one of the most beautiful patios and backyards on
the ocean. The hotel, just like so many other places in
Victoria, has gorgeous landscaping and a multitude of
brilliantly coloured flower beds, right next to the Pacific
Ocean.
Coming up next we checked out the Oak Bay Marina and then turned
inland towards the quaint Oak Bay shopping area, bedecked in
hanging flower pots, and featuring many outdoor patios. We knew
an exploration of the Empress Hotel and the Provincial
Parliament Buildings was on our menu, so we started heading
downtown on Yates Street. We turned right at the waterfront and
to find a parking spot in this bustling neighbourhood, we ended
parking on Johnson Street, right in front of a retail store that
had large mechanical doll dressed up as an old lady with a big
hat in front of it. The doll was able to open and close its
eyelids and move its head from side to side, much to the
fascination of the local tourists.
We filled up the meter and made our way along the waterfront
along Victoria's serene Inner Harbour Area. Past various
buskers, mimes and outdoor performance artists we slowly made
our way towards the Empress Hotel, a gorgeous chateau-style
grand hotel dating back to 1908. Just southwest of it are the
intricately styled Parliament Buildings, built between 1893 and
1898. With expansive lawns and flower beds out front and
introduced by a statue of Queen Victoria, they offer an
impressive visual delight.
Having strenghtened ourselves with a tasty turkey sandwich and a
delicious ice cream, we slowly walked back past the Empress on
Government Street and checked out the various retail stores.
This area is just hustling and bustling with people, and we saw
several street musicians and bands. Many of the retail stores
are located in historical buildings that have been painted in
bright colours. Just as our meter was expiring we briefly
checked out Market Square, an outdoor market area with many
ecclectic little shops.
Back in the car we crossed the bridge at the north end of the
Inner Harbour and checked out the west side of the harbour which
features a beautiful boardwalk, flanked by upscale condominium
buildings, most of them retirement homes, surrounded by luscious
landscaping and fragrant flower beds. Sea planes were landing
and taking off, and the tiny local harbour ferry boats were
zipping around on the water.
After gazing at the Empress Hotel and the downtown area from the
west side of the Harbour, we decided we were going to explore
Victoria's next-door neighbour: Esquimalt, a much more basic
area that is home to a large naval base. Esquimalt is definitely
not as scenic and dressed up as Victoria, but it still appeared
to be a pretty tidy place. We continued to head west on suburban
roads and ended up having a beautiful nature experience at the
waterfront of Albert Head Lagoon. We drove in through curvy
roads in a shady forest, parked our car, and walked on the
beach, besides hundreds of stranded wooden logs, to a shady
corner at the west end of the lagoon where Clare and I had a
beautiful chat about life, human relationships, changes in
lifestyles and mentalities in the new China and other esoteric
topics.
Around 5 pm we decided to head even further west and we decided
to find another hidden lagoon, called Witty's Lagoon which is
part of a regional park system. We found the entrance and parked
our car since only a footpath takes you down to the lagoon.
Sheltered from the heat by a lovely overhead forest canopy, we
walked down a steep slope past the Sitting Lady Waterfall. Along
the way we saw hundreds of wild blackberry bushes that were just
getting ripe, and we sampled some of nature's bounty. After
about 20 minutes of walking beside a marsh on the left hand
side, we finally ended up on a beach at the Southern tip of
Vancouver Island that offered a perfect view of the majestic
Olympic Mountains range.
18 minutes of uphill hiking later and we were back at the car,
ready to drive downtown where we were picking up Haishan,
Clare's husband, for dinner. The perfect meeting place was the
Empress Hotel, of course. We picked him up and drove back over
the Inner Harbour Bridge and reached our dinner destination: the
Spinnaker Brew Pub at the Western End of Victoria's Harbour. On
the outdoor patio we had a gorgeous view of the Victoria
Harbour, looking down at the condo buildings, ships and sea
planes that were still going back and forth. It was a little
chilly outside at that time, but the restaurant supplied us with
blankets to protect us against the evening cold.
Having strengthened ourselves after a long day of sightseeing we
arrived back at the house at about 9 pm and given the fact that
I had pretty much been awake since 4 am due to jetlag, I thanked
my gracious hosts for their hospitality and made my way to bed.
It's now just about 2:15 am, that means I get another 3.5 hours
of sleep before I have to get up, pack my bags, eat a brief
breakfast and then get dropped off by Haishan on his way to work
at the Victoria Bus Terminal. From there I'll have to say
goodbye to pretty Victoria and make my way back to the mainland
by ferry and bus, to check out my next destination: Vancouver. I
am already excited.....