Yesterday we visited the inner harbor section of Victoria. This time the inner harbor was full of tourists and most of the old shops I remembered are gone. The rest of the area except the harbor itself, the Empress Hotel and the British Columbia Museum has changed so much that it is like any other big city. I was disappointed! We did visit the Empress Hotel, as elegant as it always has been. I had planned to have High Tea there but upon seeing the prices, I decided against it. We did look through all the public rooms and shops inside the hotel and that was a treat in itself.
The Empress Hotel. The hotel has wings on each side but I could not capture them on my camera unless I stood in the water of the harbor. You will just have to image wings with turrets and dormers - very elegant.
Stained glass dome in the Empress Hotel. Just beautiful and huge!
One of the many gardens at the Empress. They featured roses, geraniums, lobelia, a white flower whose name I can't remember, hydrangeas in addition to beautiful trees and shrubs. I want their gardener to live in PA and take care of my yard!
Following the Empress, we went to the BC Museum which I had visited 30 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed. It is still one of the best museums I have ever been to. The Anthropology Museum in Mexico City is a close second. They were having a special exhibit on "Gold" from Columbia and an exhibit on the Gold Rush in British Columbia after the '49'ers in California's Gold Rush. If anyone knows me, they know I like the history of the Gold Rush and Archaeology, so I was thrilled with their exhibit. They had amazingly lifelike natural settings for their animal exhibits and their exhibit on native cultures in British Columbia was exceptional. There are so many native languages and dialects in BC that it is mind-boggling.
After the museum, we visited China Town and had lunch in a great restaurant. It looked inviting from the outside, was elegant on the inside and I noticed pictures on the walls of famous visitors - Michael J. Fox, Pierce Brosnan and Goldie Hawn to name a few. The food was outstanding.
Gate to China Town.
Outdoor market in China Town.
We also saw a film crew filming a segment for the new Disney movie, "Wheels".
Film crew. They did shoot a shot that included Joe and I. I am sure that we will end up on the cutting room floor. Oh, well, so much for being discovered.
Today, Joe and I decided to explore another part of the island, so headed out in the old car. The only problem is that being an island, there are only a few roads and if you are going north as we did, you have to take Rt 1, the TransCanada Hwy. This is basically a freeway. We did pretty well on this road in spite of three really aggressive drivers that passed us with inches to spare. You can imagine our colorful language when that happened. The first time we were in shock, the second and third times we were just plain mad.
We stopped at Goldstream Provincial Park which was like going on the set of Jurassic Park - tall ancient trees, big ferns, dark forests and moss clinging to everything. The road was a one lane road with two way traffic. That got interesting from time to time as cars came down while we were ascending the road and hikers were sometimes in the road. We managed to hit no cars and all hikers are alive and accounted for.
Road through the provincial park.
The E-M-F coming through three ancient and tremendously large trees in the park.
These are red cedars and were used by native peoples for planking and they used the shredded bark for mats and for baskets.
I was standing in front of a tree that was between 400-500 years old. Just imagine that this very same tree stood about the time Europe was emerging from the Middle Ages. Amazing!
Joe with some really big red cedars. Wonder how termites it would take and how many years it would take to eat one of these?
Tomorrow we take the ferry back to Washington state and Friday the ferry leaves for Juneau. Can't wait!!
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