Day 7- Victoria, British Columbia

Day 7- Victoria, British Columbia

We both agree that we have really enjoyed this cruise, that we are feeling really relaxed, and really ready to go home.  It was nice to wake up and see our own Olympic Mountains while we ate breakfast this morning and know that we could do whatever we wanted in Victoria but take a ferry up here another time and do something else.  Here are the views from the ship.

A little lighthouse at the end of a long pier with the Olympics in the background.

The Olympics (which I was glad to see!)

There are some famous gardens that I want to see at some point but Rich had been in downtown Victoria when he came up with the Navy Band and wanted to show me how pretty the city was.  So, we took about a forty minute walk, mostly along the harbor into the city. 

First views of the city as we walked into town next to the harbor.

Loving that sky!

Once there, we decided to go to the Royal British Museum.  I wasn’t feeling very well and it was on the expensive side so we decided to skip the exhibits and see an IMAX movie about the Canadian Pacific Railroad.  It was an interesting mix of scenery shot from helicopters to give you the IMAX experience of feeling like you were flying along (you can’t see the helicopter but you feel like you are in one), shots from cameras on the train so you can feel like you are rushing along, and the history of the building of the railroad.  It was interesting to see how much trouble they had finding a pass through the Rocky Mountains and, in fact, the most recent improvements were made as late as the 1990s because there was such rugged, steep terrain to get through.  On our way to the museum, we passed the famous Empress Hotel where you can have high tea (for a hefty price!) and the Parliament building.

The Empress.

Parliament (and our heads)

The museum.

I was feeling better after the movie and we headed out to an Irish Pub that Rich had been to in order to get some lunch.  It was an interesting area because we were in Canada, in a city that is heavily influenced by England, on a street where all the street musicians were playing Irish music and there were Irish pubs on every corner.  Where were we again?  Anyway, we had some clam chowder and seltzer and felt pretty refreshed.  We decided to try some gelato for the first time as well.  Now, it was a hot, sunny day and we each ordered two scoops in a dish.  If I had known it was a dish from a dollhouse, I would have either gotten a cone or only had one scoop!  The spoon was also dollhouse sized and you couldn’t eat it fast enough to keep from making a mess.  We realized simultaneously as we walked down the street that we had a real problem.  Somehow, Rich avoided wearing the ice cream on anything except his hands.  I, of course, dribbled it all down my shirt AND all over my hands.  It was very sticky but also delicious!  And we now understand that gelato is meant to be eaten in a cone and one scoop at a time!

(There are obviously no pictures of the gelato incident...I was WAY too sticky!)

Next we walked down to the harbor and saw the whale watch ships, the harbor tour ships, and the very cute water taxis.  In fact, they were so cute that we decided to take one part of the way back to our ship.  It was fun to be down right next to the water after having spent the whole week towering above it!  We landed in a place called Fisherman’s Wharf which had some interesting floating houses that I believe people were renting (or perhaps living in!) along with some more little shops.  We finished our sunny, beautiful day walking back to the ship.

We took the yellow cab on the left.

Rich enjoying the cab ride.

Floating houses at Fisherman's Wharf.

A better view of the floating houses.

A "paddle through" window at a little sandwich shop.

The wharf from the street.

We spent some time reading and watching the boat pull out in our favorite chairs in the lounge.  As we were leaving to go down to dinner, Rich said “Is this the last time we’re going to be up here?”  Oh.  It was.  Then we went down and had our last dinner with our favorite waiter (who had saved “our” table and watched our stuff so we could get our food at the same time and eat together) and then sat in the pool area for the last time (although a noisy bunch of other people had taken our table and proceeded to be noisy for most of the evening) and played Phase 10…which I won!!  After reading for a while, we went down and packed everything up and went to bed. 

In case you can't see it, that is a pedi-cab selling Tilly Hats!

Evening reading and Phase 10 spot with the indoor pool right behind me, sloshing around and sounding just like ocean waves breaking.

It’s sad not to have a great cruise vacation to look forward to anymore but we are both glad to be going home.  We miss the dogs and our bed (the cruise bed wasn’t very comfortable) and it’s always nice to get back to our own space.  However, it was a cruise that we enjoyed so much that we would like to do again in the future.  Any takers?