Advertisement
Published: August 24th 2010
Legislative Building at Sunset
Waiting for the lights to come on the legislative building across the Victoria Harbour.Andras gets only one week of vacation a year (one!) but with a brand new passport in his hand, and an underused one in mine, a trip outside the border was imperative - so hello Canada! For the longest time American citizens didn't need a passport to cross back-and-forth over the 49th parallel and the city of Vancouver is similar to Seattle in so many ways that in order to feel like we were actually "going someplace else" we ferried across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the decidedly more European feeling city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, and spent our time there rather than on the mainland. As the legislative seat, the atmosphere of Victoria certainly puts the 'British' in British Columbia, at least as far as two Yanks are concerned, and if one looks closely enough the differences between American and Canadian culture also become more readily apparent beyond the preference for Tim Hortons over Starbucks or vice versa.
One of the largest differences would the acceptance of multiculturalism as an official policy of the government, which again while seemingly similar to the American attitude of non-discrimination, openly embraces and seeks to retain the patchwork of identities
and cultures that comprise the people of nation, rather than attempting haphazardly to incorporate them into a unifying white-wash (pun not intended, but fitting). It's evident in the food, the architecture, and most explicitly in all the tourism material we came across (which almost goes too far as to promote certain peoples as Canadian ethnic groups rather than as Canadians). In short, the longer I spend thinking about Canada the more I come to realize it is far more than just 'like America but with the metric system' but a unique nation of its own. One would think this kind of revelation needn't be made but ... toss in a common language, the world's longest un-militarized border, ridiculously open trade and business arrangements
and the fact that the Northwestern part of the U.S has more in common with the western part of Canada ecologically and culturally than the rest of both nations respectively and it starts to make sense why many occasionally forget that Canada is, indeed, a
foreign nation. But I digress.
The trip got off to a rocky start but it was smooth sailing from then on out (and I mean that literally
and figuratively). Just like
Mist on the Lake
By Deception Pass the
last time we tried taking a vacation, Andras' company got in the way and we had to postpone our departure. Unsure of how easily it would be to wake up extra early and fight traffic for three hours arriving in time to catch a 7am ferry (because isn't that how all good vacations begin?) we left Friday evening and camped in a state park a few miles away from the docks. We'd reserved the last spot available which was anything
but tent friendly. Probably the worst campsite we've ever stayed in - and we've done
a lot of camping. It was a basically a rocky, gravely, sloped drive to park an RV without even a spot for a tent pad - so we move the picnic table over the fire-pit and placed our tent down where it used to be. Dozens of screaming children on bikes kept flying past until well after the sun went down, and in the middle of the night some un-leashed dog decided to come sniff and poke around our tent, so when we got up brightly and early with the rising sun neither of us felt guilty making as much noise as we needed (which
Legislative Building at Sunset
Taken maybe twenty minutes before the first one - if only the lights had come on earlier! in comparison was practically none) to pack up and get to the ferry terminal on time. Like I said, a rocky start (get it? It was 'rocky' because we camped on bed of rocks....oh nevermind).
But after that things mellowed down. Andras got himself a cup of coffee and the marine layer we thought would be a lingering presence had burnt off even before the boat departed. We initially had a prime location at the front bow but the wind ended up being a bit much so we left the rest of the crowds and went out back where not only was the wind blocked but we had it all to ourselves! As we pulled away we watched the sun rise over the peaks of Mt. Baker and then wove out way in between the San Juan Islands, passing sailboats and ferries running local routes as we sailed westward towards Sidney and the Saanich Penninsula. We even did a little "hey we're here on the ferry going to Victoria" video with the new camera but after all that time I've spent convincing him that this would be fun additions to the blog and that he looked great on camera,
after reviewing it I don't want to post it because
I sound terrible and the angle made it basically an interview with my teeth, rather than with us. I guess that was because we were all grins, eh?
Once in Victoria Andras was in for a big surprise (and I was in for a tough day of trying to keep that surprise from him!). Even though I was trying to do this trip on a decent budget so we can save for our RTW honeymoon next year, I really wanted to surprise Andras with a relaxing vacation a good deal different from our usual roughing-it. As he says, "I just don't want to have to be responsible for setting up my own bed all the time." Fine. But I had convinced him, with reasonable certainty, that accommodations in Victoria during peak season are too expensive for just an overnight (it is pricey) and largely booked (also true) so "the plan" was to spend a few hours in Victoria and then find a first-come-first-serve campsite somewhere between the city and our next destination where I
had booked us a nice ocean-front cabin for a 'proper' romantic get-away (Which he already
Cat on a Boat
This brave little fellow was on the prow(l) around the Victoria Harbour knew about. I thought about making that a surprise too but being unsure whether I should make such expensive arrangements without running it by him first to make sure it was something he would enjoy, I ended up spilling the beans weeks early to the usual response of "You
should have surprised me!" Darn it all.) What he
didn't know was that I had also booked us a last-minute room in a downtown B&B which was running a late-summer special. And see, we're awful at keeping secrets from one another, simply awful, so even when I
try to make something a surprise I get this give-away smirk on my face every time I try to lie to him, so it was a big deal that I managed to pull this off.
I directed us downtown a block past the Ambrosia B&B under the guise that parking would be free in the nearby park so we would save money. It worked (and I got a sneak peak at where the B&B was). We walked downtown and saw all the sights there were to see. We smelled roses outside the Empress Hotel, walked hand-in-hand along the harbor, and took some photos
Stopping to Smell the Roses
That's what vacations are all about, right? of the beautiful Legislative Building. I told Andras how the whole building lights up at night and how great it would be if we could see it, but alas, we probably needed to find a campsite. I almost though he had caught on when we were sitting outside the Empress and he suggested we could just walk in and see if they had an open room, and when I didn't respond I thought he was going to guess that I'd done that very thing, but instead he took my silence for disapproval of spending the money.
After a few hours he was starting to stress that we wouldn't find a campsite so we begrudgingly walked back to the car. In fact, he was pleasantly surprised how calm
I was about the whole thing. To really sell it I even had us spend about 15 minutes flipping through tourist brochures and scouring maps looking for a campsite to go to. Finally I said I had one in mind and directed us out the park, and in a loop through the one way streets almost back to where we started in "search of" the road out of town. When we looped
Canada Cone!
I can never pass up the offering of a 'nationalist' labeled food. back to the road we had parked on I pretended to have gotten us all lost and turned around, and had him pull over in the shade so I could figure it out - right in front of the B&B! After being flustered for about 30 seconds I suggested that maybe we should just go inside that building right there and stay the night. He was so confused about what I was talking about and why, and when I said "Because I booked us a room there for the night" it was the best smile I've ever seen and one of the only times I've ever been able to actually surprise him! That was probably the highlight of the whole trip (I think I was more excited about having kept a secret than actually having a bed and shower within walking distance to downtown).
Now that he realized we
didn't have to go hunt for a campsite, we had the entire rest of the afternoon to enjoy Victoria. There was live jazz music playing in the park so we listened to that for a while, headed back to the harbor and got some hilarious 'Canadian' ice-cream cones, and had
On the Ferry
Sailing to Victoria time to visit a Saturday farmer's market to procure some island grown blueberries. As the day got late, we positioned ourselves on the docks and waited for the sun to set and the parliament lights to come on - which lit precisely at 9pm. While I was trying to get 'the photo' I wanted, Andras nabbed us reservations at the seafood restaurant Pescatores, and we wrapped up our brief visit with a delicious celebration dinner (in celebration of vacation of course).
After a nice and refreshing sleep in a plush and comfortable (real!) bed, our host Gavin served up the most wonderful breakfast of salmon and asparagus crepes with pesto-cream, fresh from the oven blueberry muffins with saskatoon berry jam and poached pears with caramel. And tea. Lots and lots of tea. Yum! And more than makes up for not having afternoon tea at the Empress (which, while popular and famous, I think is overrated and overpriced). I love the combination of culinary influence that is found in so many of the dishes out this way - it's like the best arrangement of my favorite ingredients, with honed technique and served with a sense of propriety (which is to
Oh Canada!
It occurred to me that I don't know the nickname for the Canadian Flag - the Maple Leaf, perhaps? say: West Coast, French and British).
The next morning we started down the coast towards Sooke, only to realize that Andras still had the key to the room in his pocket, so we drove
back to Victoria a second time but eventually we left and prepared ourselves for a rural, isolated retreat - just what we need. For once, we didn't do a whole lot of outdoor exploring or cultural observing, and just let ourselves be tourists along with the dozens of other tourists in the city. So enlightening- no, but certainly quite a bit of fun. Exactly the type of time we've needed after months apart and endless days on the job. No pressure. No deadlines. No objectives or goals or pursuits. Just ... to enjoy.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.159s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 9; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0653s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Where We've Lived 
Where We've Been 
garrettnb
Garrett Beier
Glad to see you had a good time in our country of the north. But for the record, that building you refer to as parliament is the Legislastive Building. Parliament is in Ottawa, each provincial capital has a legaslative building. Also, you've got yourself some fine photos, what are you shooting with?