Sea Voyage to Another Country (Again)

May 24th, went over to Victoria to hang out with PW and WC. It was a beautiful morning for the crossing.

May 24, 2013. Port Angeles from the stern deck of the ferry. Looking good. (Click for larger image.) Still sunny when we got to the other side. Victoria Harbor, May 24, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

Usually we drive west along the West Coast Road, it's a reflex: 'I dunno, why don't we head out to French Beach, maybe we could have a fancy dessert at the Point No Point Inn and look across the Strait to Clallam Bay, ooh, shall we go to Jordan River.' This time instead we went not west but north, where Victoria proper backs up into the Saanich Peninsula and becomes Greater Victoria. We went to Quick's Bottom Park and took a walk. It's a wetland, it was quite preposterously green. Managed to find the decrepit old bird blind, though it was midday and not many birds to see (and no pix). We ventured onto back roads.

Quick's Bottom, Saanich, BC. May 24, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

The next day we set forth in search of Gowlland Tod Provincial Park. It was rumored to be an easy walk to Tod Inlet. We trundled down a ways along the slope below where Butchart Gardens is, then came to a trail sign that made clear there was much further to go, and besides it was thinking about raining, so we turned back.

Random woodsiness on the trail to Tod Inlet, May 25, 2013 (Click for larger image.)

We had lunch in Brentwood Bay, while it absolutely poured down rain into the marina and on all the decks of the restaurant. Then explored local roads. Went out to Willis Point, wherever that is (by then I was turned around 180 degrees, thought we were looking east when we were looking west).

The end of the road at Willis Point, where the houses run out and by golly there's a boundary sign for Gowlland Tod Provincial Park. Where for heaven's sake were we? (Click for larger image.)

A rest, a quick stop to say hello to one of PW's daughters at her downtown job, and I was back on the ferry for the journey home. As usual, took several dozen photos of water taxis while the ferry loaded; also seaplanes, tall ships, cruise liners. It started raining again halfway across the Strait.

The Coho coming in (Click for larger image.) (Click for larger image.) The flock of cruise ships that will leave before midnight, arrive in Seattle the next morning, and set sail again at 4PM. (Click for larger image.)

The bottom pins are Victoria harbor. The one to the east, WC & PW's yard. In the middle of the peninsula, Quick's Bottom by the highway 17 sign, Tod Inlet righthand upper pin, Willis Point to the left.

(Click for larger image.)

Glorious Day, With Sea Voyage

Saturday morning early, AO and I were on our way to Victoria. It was a glorious morning.

November 10, 2012, waiting at the ferry terminal. (The Olympic Mountains on the horizon.) (Click for larger image.)

The log yard as seen from Port Angeles Harbor (Click for larger image.)

Port Angeles, with the mountains to the south (Click for larger image.)

First we went to the Royal BC Museum. I don't get lost in there any more (fourth visit with a guest this year), but you know, there's not enough light nor enough air circulation in that museum. Probably good for the artifacts, but we people were ready to be out of there at about the one hour point, as usual. After a determined sweep through the giftshop (cards! bookmarks!), we ambled around the side of the museum to Thunderbird Park, as one does.

Thunderbird Park, Royal BC Museum, Victoria. November 10, 2012. (Click for larger image.)

And then shuffled through the sunny leaves-falling streets behind the Parliament Building, admiring fountains and buildings and the wonderful peaceable ambiance of Victoria; even just two blocks from the tourist ground zero of the Inner Harbour there were no parking meters, no traffic; just houses, apartments, buildings now occupied by Parliament-related offices... We rendezvoused with WC and PW at the James Bay Tea Room for a long long talky lunch. With tartlets for dessert. Me and PW staked out the lemon tartlets, AO had to try a Nanaimo bar and a butter tart.

In the James Bay Tea Room. (Click for larger image.)

WC drove us to the art museum (actually, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria). I wanted to see the Emily Carr exhibit. WC stayed in the Emily Carr exhibit, but Emily clearly did not float AO's boat; other parts of the gallery did, and the garden, and the beautiful afternoon. And the gift shop (cards! bookmarks!). We had to keep one eye on the time, missing the afternoon ferry was NOT an option.

Sorry, can't show you paintings (Click for larger image.)

The days are so short. The advantage is how much of a day has gorgeous low sun angles (when there's sun). By the time the ferry sailed it was already golden evening.

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Was very sad not to see the harbour taxis flitting around, they are not running this winter. Had to make do with float planes and bridges for entertainment while we sat on the upper deck waiting for the ferry to sail. I think that was good enough to show AO why I love hanging out in Victoria Harbour.

Then home.

In the Land of Tea

Then we took the sea voyage to another country, the next country north, the one visible across the Strait from my windows. Victoria, here we come! Arriving at the Victoria's Inner Harbour offered the usual pleasures: sea planes, houseboats, water taxis. For some reason EBD did not think living on a houseboat and having the groceries delivered by a little yellow or green water taxi was the most yummy idea ever...

Pulling away from the dock in Port Angeles on the Coho, August 30, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Victoria Harbor: Water Taxi With Houseboats, My Fantasy Life (Click for larger image.)

Harbour Air (Click for larger image.)

First stop, the Parliament Building. We had just missed a tour (they're free) so started trotting around on our own, ran into the tour outside the Legislative Chamber. An actor strode into the group in full historical costume, and took over for a while. The best thing was the The Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Window, which was put away for safekeeping during a remodel in 1912, and forgotten entirely for 63 years. Found in the basement and put back on display in 1975.

Outside the Legislative Chamber (Click for larger image.)

Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Window (Click for larger image.)

Then we trotted on to the Royal BC Museum, and did a quick runaround most of the galleries, and also the Thunderbird Park.

Thunderbird Park, Royal BC Museum, August 30, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Museums, the Empress Hotel, statuary, historical posing, and horse-drawn carriages full of tourists notwithstanding, Victoria is also the seat of government. We were very entertained by miscellaneous workmanlike buildings and their signage on the streets behind the Parliament Building as we were walking to the Tea Room.

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Lunch at James Bay Tea Room and Restaurant. Thanks to PB for the suggestion. It is SO not the Empress Hotel. For those patrons who were in fact having High Tea, it cost them 1/3 as much as it does at the Empress, and did not arrive on a silver three-tiered serving stand. (We had pot pies.) The walls are covered with photos of the royal family. The teapots all had crocheted cozies on them.

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Then back to the museum for whatever we had missed on the first pass, and some lurking by the harbor. EBD watched a flame juggler work the crowd. I watched boats. We walked past the Emily Carr statue. WC came and picked us up for a bit of driving around, and then supper with him and PW in their sunporch, and then they brought us back to the ferry for the ride home. The days are so short now. It was already sunset.

Harbor Watching (Click for larger image.)

Emily Carr (Click for larger image.)

Leaving Victoria (Click for larger image.)

In Which Many Places Happen

On Wednesday, went with EW to Neah Bay. She spent two happy hours in the Makah Museum, then we went on to Hobuck Beach. There were gulls, and quietness, one intact sand dollar, one passing eagle, and one dead bird (a gull). EW lives in the desert. All our greenness and damp air and oceans and so on, including grey skies and bits of rain, are very pleasurable for her.

Hobuck Beach, August 8, 2012. Sand dollar, Dendraster eccentricus (Click for larger image.)

On Thursday, a very full perfect day. Over we went on the ferry to Victoria. Ferry was late on account of thick fog, was foghorning itself along for 3/4s of the trip until popping out into the sunshine, then got stuck behind a huge double barge full of dirt (huh?) on its way into the Inner Harbor, then when finally the ferry could move it went too fast and failed to stick its landing, had to try a second time to line up the ramps correctly before we could debark.

Houseboats in the Inner Harbor, Olympic Mountains on the skyline across the Strait, Victoria, BC, August 9, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

For these three reasons we lost nearly an hour of our planned time in the Royal BC Museum, which turned out to be ok with me because I had become disoriented and claustrophopic in there and had to go outside, even though the First Nations artifacts were amazing, mural-sized vintage photos are a whole different experience from seeing the same ones in books, and the dinosaur exhibit was also terrific.

T Rex, Royal BC Museum, Victoria (Click for larger image.)

Then we trotted off to our reservation for high tea at the Empress Hotel, EW's lunatic desire. Finger sandwiches, scones, little tartlets and other fancy desserts, all on a three-story stand and much tea and faux Brit elegance at vast expense (EW's expense). You put the milk in first if you are having proper British tea. And of course you let the waiter pour to refill your cup. EW got up, refilled her own cup and put the milk in after. The waiter pretended to reprimand her. 'M.I.F. is the rule. Milk in first.'

WC fetched us from the curb in front of the hotel after tea, and off we drove west along the shore to an easy-access beach. This was carefully planned by me: Wednesday we drove west to Neah Bay and back on the Olympic Peninsula shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Thursday I wanted us on the Vancouver Island side, looking back across to where we had been. The weather cooperated. West we went to French Beach Provincial Park, admiring the other side across the blue water all the way along. EW and I took off our shoes and got our feet wet, then she flopped out for a nap on the cobble shore while WC and I sat on a log and discussed my health. (Sigh.)

French Beach Provincial Park, August 10, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Leisurely indirect drive back into Victoria proper, and an impromptu early supper in WC & PW's sun porch, pizza and leftovers of our Empress high tea goodies. It was fine. They dropped us off at the ferry terminal early and went home to presumably do something more sensible about their dinner, and EW and I had a happy time loving the Victoria harbor and all its activity. Sea planes, water taxis, the Clipper setting forth, etc etc while we waited for the ferry, which was again running a little bit late. We sailed for home. A brass band on a small boat paralleled the ferry as we departed the harbor, giving us a mariachi serenade. We waved and cheered for them. Woo hoo. I mean, really, whatever gods orchestrated this day outdid themselves. A waterborne mariachi band sendoff?

It would be sort of terrific to live on a houseboat and let the water taxi deliver your groceries, no? (Click for larger image.)

Mariachi Send-Off in the Inner Harbor (Click for larger image.)

So Friday we went up to Hurricane Ridge. Conditions were against us. The air was thick with Asian smoke again, as it was a few weeks ago; you could barely even see Mount Olympus; also the road to the Hurricane Hill trailhead was closed for paving work. By necessity we stuck to the trails near the Visitor Center, and managed to have a tiny bit of Lupine Heaven even in the flat smoky light.

Bailey Range & Mt. Olympus behind, in smoky air, August 10, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Lupine Heaven on Hurricane Ridge, August 10, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Saturday we went to Rialto Beach. See next post.