Au Canada

On Wednesday my mom, sister, cousins Christian and Rick, and cousin-in-law Serge, took a day trip to Victoria, B.C.

We took the 8:20 ferry out of Port Angeles, which required an early wake up given the one-hour drive from Port Gamble. It was raining when we left, but by the time that we boarded the ferry and the sun cleared the mountains it was beautiful. The success of our day-trip hinged in part on the weather and we ultimately got very lucky with how things worked out.

The ferry ride went by relatively quickly and we arrived in Victoria around 10am. Here are some pictures taken during the journey across the Straight of Juan de Fuca.























And here are some pictures as we entered Victoria Harbor.












After arriving in Victoria we walked around for the bulk of the day, seeing sights such as the Legislative Assembly, the Empress Hotel and the harbor front












For lunch we stopped at the Bard & Banker (pictured below) and all ordered exactly the same thing – a Canadian offering similar to a Reuben that the waitress highly recommended. Fortunately for her (and for us) we all seemed to like it.

Upon ordering we were introduced to a particularity of Canadian life that most of us were unfamiliar with. Apparently in Canada it is customary for the waiter / waitress to ask how the bill should be split and it is not uncommon for it to be split “by person” (even for large groups).

I figured this would be complicated by shared appetizers, bottles of wine, etc., but apparently the system is pretty well established and runs smoothly. This was definitely a first for me – in the U.S. and Switzerland, one typically receives a disappointed stare after asking for two separate bills (let alone one per person…).

After lunch we walked east about 20-minutes to the Craigdarroch Castle, a Victorian-era mansion built by the Canadian coal magnate Robert Dunsmuir.

It definitely stood out, though probably not as much as it did over a century ago when it was built. The self-guided tour was nice, as you could devote as much or as little time as you wanted to the various rooms.

After finishing up at the castle, we walked back to the harbor and searched for some of the traditional Victorian houses.

We then called it a day and headed back to the harbor to catch the ferry for the trip back to the U.S. Here are some pictures at Sunset as we approached the Straight of Juan de Fuca.