Above: The ferry "Coho", which I took from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia.
This weekend I went to British Columbia, as I had an invite to go over for a visit with a friend whom I haven't seen in years. At 4:00 on Friday I boarded the "Coho", a passenger and vehicle ferry which provides service between Port Angeles and Victoria. The ferry ride was about 90 minutes long and the trip over was nice and smooth.
Below: My car on the vehicle deck of the ferry.
Below: Looking out over the stern of the ferry as we leave Port Angeles.
Below: The Canadian Coast Guard Cutter "Sir Wilfrid Laurier" docked at the entrance to Victoria harbour.
The ferry arrived in Victoria just before sunset, and I met up with Barb shortly after clearing Canadian customs. We found a place to park and explored the downtown area on foot. Victoria is a beautiful city, and I was awestruck by the lights and the amazing architecture of the buildings. The design of the buildings reminded me of Europe.
Above: Victoria Harbour Ferries decorated with Santa's sleigh and reindeer.
Below: Lights on the British Columbia Parliament building.
We walked around for a while, then heard an announcement that the Victoria Harbour Ferries were going to be performing a routine to the tune of "The Nutcracker Suite". Just after the announcement a bunch of Santa's walked by, and asked us if we had been naughty or nice, then gave us a handful of mini candy canes. After passing us, they walked right down to the ferries... the Santa's were the captains of the ferries :-) After we watched a bit of the ferry ballet (basically they just rode around in circles while the Nutcracker song was being played) we were pretty hungry so we went to dinner at "The Old Spaghetti Factory". It was a delicious meal, with some of the best bread that I've ever tasted :-)
Below: We saw several eagle sculptures like the one pictured here, with different designs painted on the wings. Some of them were quite striking. For more information about these sculptures, visit http://www.eaglesinthecity.com/
Above: Barb has a Honda Element, too :-) It was cool seeing our cars parked side by side!
The next day we went for a walk on one of the local beaches and found some really amazing driftwood. Some of the pieces were almost whole entire trees... and pretty big trees at that! I asked Barb to take my picture next to the one pictured below, so you could see how big it was.
On my last evening on Vancouver Island we went to a different beach to watch and photograph the sunset. We found a nice, rocky beach with a panoramic view of The Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains beyond. As it got darker we could also see the city lights from Victoria down the shore. We saw a lot of kelp on this beach that had been washed up during high tide... some of the pieces looked like giant snakes. I didn't do as much shooting in British Columbia as I did previously on this trip, but that's okay as it felt really good to slow down for a couple of days and just relax a bit. I have a lot of stops yet to make on this trip, so a couple of slow days were definitely welcome!
Thanks, Barb, for offering to have me come and visit, and for showing me around beautiful Vancouver Island! Your kindness is much appreciated and will not be forgotten :-)
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