Victoria, BC

We drove from Blaine, WA to Sequim (pronounced squim), WA. We are at GilGal RV Park right on the edge of town - a nice park with paved roads and sites and full hookups w/50 amp, cable TV and DSL internet at each site.

On Saturday we took the ferry from Port Angeles, WA, just down the road, to Victoria, BC. The ferry ride took an hour. Surprisingly it was a very smooth ride.

Dean and I decided before going to Victoria that we were just going to tour the city by using a jump on, jump off tour bus. We purchased our tickets for the Big Bus upon arrival in Victoria and rode the full route deciding where it was that we wanted to get off and explore on our own.

Chinatown and Government Street were musts. Also the harbor area along with the Capital Building and the Cultural Center. The other areas, and there are many, we saw most of what we wanted from the bus.

Funny, I hadn't thought about Victoria being British Columbia's capital since it's on a island. Their capital building is really beautiful and very large. It is a popular place for tour groups to have their picture taken. I believe there must have been 15 bus loads of students from Japan in town with us. Every time we passed by the capital building, there was a large group, in uniform, having their picture taken. The lawn in front of the building seems to be treated as a park with people just relaxing there.

I did find Victoria a very interesting city with a mixture of cultures. Walking the streets is the way to tour this city. By doing this you can get the real Victoria - a truly international city. Chinatown had it's street vendors with fresh fruits and vegetables while Government Street had many high end designer shops. Languages varied from English, French, Japanese, Chinese, German and many more that I didn't recognize.

We enjoyed a great lunch at an open air cafe right by the busy harbor with it's sea planes coming and going, the many ferries and the whale watch boats. What a great place to people watch to!

We returned home by ferry early evening and retired early as it was a long day with a lot of walking which I have to admit, we are not used to. There is much more to see in Victoria and we hope to return one day.

Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/SchultzTravelPhotos