Sightseeing in Victoria: a photo essay

Sight-seeing in Victoria
Dave and Arta 
with Moiya behind the camera

Rogue Art at Royal Oak Bay
The mother whale who tended her dead baby for 10 days.

We stayed close to home, trying to sight-see Victoria.

I have done this once before with Greg, Wyona and Rebecca.

Their excursion had stopped for a day in Victoria.

What Greg wanted to see was the houses here, so we drove through quiet, treed and flower garden-laden neighbourhoods.

... cherry blossoms at the long house ...

This was different.

Moiya, David and I were on our own with a lunch that she had packed.

Always take Moiya on such an adventure.

... I have only seen the outside and not the inside of the longhouse ...

She brings the best lunched.

We walked up Mount Pkols – sea level to 1.5 km.

The vantage point there lets a person turn in a circle seeing the US, then the north sea, then Vancouver and continuing around a full 360 degrees, a perfect view.

... totems at the longhouse ...

Blessedly, the sun was behind the clouds and rain was predicted for the day.

So we drove, trying to beat the rain, over to Mount Tolmie next, still hopping out of the car to find the highest vantage point to see the city.

The cherry blossoms are out but the trees aren’t fully leafed out, so it is possible to see between branches to the Juan de Fuca Straights and seemingly further.

... so many sail boats to see ...

The wind was blowing.

We had the hoods up on our rain jackets and it was too cold to picnic, so we drove home and picnicked on Rebecca’s living room table, her fire warming our backs as we planned for the next part of the day: see downtown, then drive to Beacon Hill Park.

We walked along the harbour, from Front Street to the Legislative Building, and going into the yachts listing in the harbor.

We walked back, wishing we had stopped at the Information Centre, which was closed by now.

But we were glad we hadn’t stopped in a way.

... Dave and Arta at the harbor

They would have given us so much literature that Moiya and David would have had to stay another week to go see everything and I would have been right by their side.

We finished off the day by driving along Beacon Hill Drive, and then down through Oak Bay where David went very slowly for us so we could admire the homes that back onto the ocean.

Breath-taking.

... wondering if we should take the water taxi ...

Occasionally Moiya would ask if I were enjoying the drive. I was trying to keep the wonder of it all to myself.

My evening was spent in a chair in front of the fire, too tired to move anymore.

When I was fall asleep someone would suggest that I go to bed.

But it was just too hard to get out of that chair, so I let them keep waking me up and then I would fall back to sleep again.

Hard to lead a person to bed, especially when they are too tired to make it on their own.

Arta