Victoria, Tuesday June 24 to Friday June 27

Ray and I went to Victoria this past week. We left on the 5:00 ferry Tuesday afternoon and came back on the 5:00 Friday. Each time we got a super ferry. On the trip going to Victoria I saw 2 killer whales briefly as they were swimming in the opposite direction of the ferry. The captain announced the sighting. Ray took a nap on the ferry so was in the car. We made it in time for him to play badminton with his high school buddy in Victoria.

After we ate brekkie on Wednesday we went downtown to the Tourism Victoria's Visitor Info Centre to pick up our wristbands for the Tall Ship festival boarding and admission for Friday.

Then we went to Hatley Park National Historic Site to go on a 1 hour guided tour of Hatley Castle . It was interesting to learn about the history of the castle and the gardens. It was built in 1908 for James Dunsmuir, a coal and rail baron who also served as Premier and Lieutenant Governor of BC. Hatley Park is on the Royal Roads University grounds. The castle is where X2 and XMen 3 were filmed. Ray recognized some parts of it from the movies. In the distance we could see a few of the tall ships anchored. The castle was quite interesting to see especially alll the different coloured fireplaces.


The castle tour included admission to the adjacent gardens. There was an Italian garden, rose garden, Japanese garden, green house etc that we also wandered around in. Very impressive. There were a few peacocks in the gardens and for the first time I saw peacock babies, not sure what to call them- peacocklings??? They were so cute. There were 4 of them with one being yellow and more fluffier than the others.

After Hatley Park we went to nearby Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse. There was a military band playing there as well as some guys dressed in period costumes to shoot off some guns towards the tall ships that were anchored there. I think there were 9 ships anchored there. It was really windy there.

On Thursday we went to Breakwater at Ogden Point to see the Tall Ships before they went into the Inner Harbour to dock. It was soooo cool seeing them sailing around, quite something to see especially with their sails up. It was really cold on Thursday, not just by the water but inland too. It was sooooo windy walking out on the Breakwater and standing around out there. We went back to the hotel and took a nap afterwards.

We went over to Ray's friend's place and then went out for dinner with S, his wife and 2 kids. After dinner my high school friend picked me up at the house. I hadn't seen her since I was in Vic for the half marathon in Oct. 2006. Ray and S went to play badminton and my friend and I went to The Centre of the Universe which has an observatory, telescope and planetarium. We enjoyed the view of Victoria and could see Mount Baker too. Thanks S! Just above our heads there were swarms of mosquitoes. S said that the mosquitoes go up to the higher elevation to mate and weren't interested in us at all. Quite a switch since I usually get eaten alive but walked out of there without a single bite! I had a nice visit.

On Friday Ray and I checked out of the hotel and then after going for brekkie we went to the Tall Ship Festival downtown. We found a parking spot at a meter but it was only for 90 minutes. All the parkades were full as they had been even in the days before the festival as the festival grounds were on parking lots at the inner harbour. There were long line-ups to go onto the tall ships so we asked for the shortest one (15 to 20 minutes) and only saw 2 of the over 20 ships there. I think the Bounty had quite a few hours to wait. We went aboard the Lady Washington and the Lynx and took a look around. The Lady Washington was in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie but it was apparently called the Interceptor on the show. It was quite a change in weather from Thursday and was hot Friday. Ray made it back home in time to play hockey Friday night.