Anniversary in the Pacific Northwest, Part 2
Victoria, BC was experiencing mild sunny days in the mid-sixties which was a fine escape from a Texas summer in the mid-nineties.
The Queen Victoria Hotel was nestled among tree-lined parks and charming neighborhoods just two blocks from the inner harbor, ample shopping and the BC Royal Museum.
Our evening event was a private sunset sail on a tall ship. We needed to bring our own dinner and drinks, so we set out by foot to find dinner. Our first stop was the Strathcona Merchantile for some fine wine and local craft beer. Finding our first Canadian meal was a bit more challenging, but fortunately we found ourselves at the pier at Red Fish-Blue Fish for fresh seafood street food. Yes – street food. One word: Awesome (sung).
We located our tall ship Thane with First Mate Susan and Captain Lenard waiting for us along with their crew, Tuxedo Woods and Trinket McMuffin (two black and white domestic short-hair cats). During our outing, we learned from Susan’s rather sporadic and mostly dismal narration that she and Lenard spend their winters in Thailand (although they don’t speak a lick of Thai), Victoria’s municipal government makes poor decisions (reference the $92MM Johnson Street Drawbridge replacement project here and here), people pay stupid money to live in shoe-box sized boathouses (2.5MM+), and Victoria’s skyline is scared by the effects of mold remediation (several of its multi-story waterfront hotels were covered from top to bottom in green drapes). Her account sounded like any town in America. When Susan wasn’t talking, the sights and sounds of the water were delightful, the sunset was full and our foursome conversation flowed like our wine.
Once the sun put itself to bed, the rain clouds quickly rolled in and the temperature dropped like a stone. A chilly rain began to fall before we docked, so we took shelter in the nearby historical Empress Hotel where we wandered through its marble halls and ornate dining rooms.
The next morning we made a thirteen mile drive west to Sooke where we planned a morning of zip-lining through the Canadian forest. We started on a training zip line to learn safety rules from our guides. Then we took a military ATV up the side of a mountain to our first of seven progressive zip lines graduating to 1000 in length and 150 feet high. Amy was a little apprehensive about zip-lining, but she did great! We shared the experience with a family with two boys. Conner, the younger boy was only eight years old. Even with our encouragement he visibly shook with each leap over the edge. With each taller platform, Conner became increasingly hesitant. By the fourth zip-line, little Conner was frozen in fear. Half our group cheered to receive Conner on the other side. After several minutes, Conner finally came. We found out later his mom bribed him with unlimited video games for the remainder of the day. Ironically, with gusto he insisted leading the adventure to its conclusion.
The scenery was breathtaking. Below is a rough video I took with Becca’s hand-held Flip video camera.
Part 3: Pints and Gardens.
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