Victoria, British Columbia

On Sunday (16th July) we went from Seattle to Victoria on the Victoria Clipper. We were fortunate enough to be met as we disembarked by Pat and Brian (the parents of our friend Phil), and they welcomed us into their home for the next few days. They were great hosts and drove us all about Vancouver Island showing us the sites. On Monday Brian drove us all around Victoria itself, so that we could get our bearings. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the parliament buildings and to the Royal BC Museum, which were both great. Behind the museum there is Thunderbird Park with a long house where they sometimes carve totem poles (they weren't the day we were there) and there are lots of totem poles standing in the park (here's a pic of one of them).

On Tuesday we went 'up island' to see the scenery and various small towns. We drove through Nanaimo, which is a large town about half-way up the east coast of the island, and stopped for lunch in Coombes at "Goats on the Roof" (its a farmers market and cafe/restaurant with goats on the roof grazing, but that day they weren't there - we think it was too hot). On Tuesday night we went to a great little restaurant for dinner called Camille's. Phil and Scott had raved about it from their recent visits, so we took Pat and Brian there to thank them for putting us up. It was really good food, in an intimate setting. Apparently it is haunted, but we didn't see anything out of the ordinary!

On our last full day in Victoria, we visited the world famous Butchart Gardens. This is a collage of a few of the pictures that Ash took (he thinks he is David Baley these days!). The flowers there were amazing (apparently they cut the heads off flowers that don't point towards the visitors!) though Andrew was a nervous wreck because of all the bees and wasps! In the evening we had another great BBQ at Pat and Brian's, with Phil's sister Michelle, her husband Fred and their daughter Hannah.

Where are we?