Tag Archives: Victoria

Honeymoon Day 13

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Day 13
August 13th, 2004
Victoria, BC, Canada to Seattle, WA

She Says

Woke up early so we can get breakfast this time and drop the car off at the ferry so we can be certain to get a space on the 3pm to Port Angeles. Tired…food should help.

Sitting up in Vista 18 for breakfast looking out I come to the conclusion that Victoria is what you get when you mix the brighter points of SF and Monterey, then throw in some castles. Some tall buildings, but fairly flat. Has a Pier 39 feel to the street life, but more Monterey bay relaxed attitude. Not too Steinbeck, not too city. I’d like to come back sometime.

They weren’t kidding about the getting to the ferry early. The 10:30am just left and we got in line at 10:45 as a stand-by!!! But we’re first in the stand by line, so we have a 99% chance of boarding the 3pm…good odds, but still… There are already people parked for the 7:30pm ferry!!! (Apparently Fridays are very busy as per girl at ticket desk.)

Wandered through Thunderbird park, the Fairmont Empress hotel lobby, and more of the shops by Yates and Douglas. Doubled back to see the Dragon Boat Festival tents start to open up at the inner harbor. Dropped by the Gatsby mansion, but since its a B&B, we didn’t go in. Also didn’t have a chance to go to:
Parliament
Under sea gardens
Hatley mansion
Royal BC museum
Helmken house
Emily Carr house
Bastion square
Bent mast pub- supposedly haunted
and 4 other Ghostly Walks

But hey, we get a good view of the ferry building since we have to be in our car by 1:30pm for customs check. Then we get to load up, hopefully at 3pm! I think the ferry folks should invest in a shade tent.

Thousands upon thousands of my skin cells have revolted and declared war and will not be appeased until freckles are formed. Great.

Finally, on the ferry. It seemed like there was no way possible that so many cars could have fit on the boat, but we made it, as well as about 12+ others…

Pulling away from Victoria was sad. It was saying like goodbye to ignorance of the world. A reminder that we only have 2 more nights to our honeymoon…

Oddly, the ferry, The Coho, announced that there were orcas in the nearby waters and we actually veered off course, as per 1 regular, to see them.

While trying to park to get gas at Port Angeles, a car with Oregon plates was just sitting in the middle of one of the entry ways. Bryan asked ” why are they just sitting there?” I said:” because they’re waiting for someone to come out and pump their gas. ”

Just a little bit away from Kingston is the Norwegian village. Too bad we don’t have time to stop.

It took until 5pm to get out of Port Angeles and another 2 hrs to get to Kingston. We made it in time to catch the 7:15 ferry to Edmonds, but the ferry is running a little late.

I’m just glad that it won’t be another case of waiting in a parked car for 2 hours. This trip is only 30 min, and it should be about another 30 or so on Hwy 5. Maybe we will get to eat dinner before 9pm???

He Says

Got up early and had breakfast in the Chateau Victoria’s restaurant. It was nice. And an even better view than in our room that is only 10 floors further down or so.

Went to drop off our car for the 3:00 PM ferry and were only first in the stand by line. Fairly likely that we are going to be able to get on the ferry.

We got out of the car and started to explore the area around the ferry dock. Saw and awesome condominium complex that was right on the water, the unit on the top floor looks awesome. I wish I could live there. We got a closer view of the Parliament Building and Thunderbird Park and then on to the Empress Hotel.

Wandered through the lobby and checked out the area where John Adams had told us a ghost story about the evening before. Wandered through the attached conference center and then on to some shops.

Went to a shop that specializes in Bear paraphernalia and bought a present for my mother.

Started heading back towards the ferry. A lot more walking today even though everything is close, our car was holding our place in the ferry line.

Checked out the Gatsby House B&B and had some ice cream at a nearby ice cream shop. They did something I have never seen before. They put a jelly bean in the bottom of the sugar cone so that the melting ice cream would not leak out the bottom. Interesting.

Got back to the ferry and waited for the ferry and watched all the cars that were there even earlier than us go by, and go by, and go by. I was starting to worry that we were not going to get on this one, but we did.

When we were just starting the crossing, the captain announced that there were Orcas in the water, and actually turned the ferry to get closer to them.

The rest of the trip to Seattle was fairly uneventful, but we did not get there until late. Had a little trouble finding the Westin. Parked and waited longer than we should have at the front desk to check in. When we finally got into our room, it was very nice. Not a suite, but still a nice room.

Kryis called her cousin, Jasun, to see if we could hook up tomorrow. We watched some TV and went to bed.

Ghostly Walks with John Adams

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John Adams is a preeminent storyteller and historian in the Victoria Area (and all of the pacific northwest). He has been guiding Ghostly Walks in Victoria since 1970.

Ghost Stories

Since part of the point of the ghostly walks are the stories, it would be a shame to ruin them by retelling them here. Suffice to say, they were good stories, and well told. There were numerous stories on our tour about the Empress Hotel, St. Anne’s Academy, and the Helmcken House.

Our Review

Kryis and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. John Adams in an excellent storyteller. It does not matter if you believe in the supernatural or not. The pacing and tone of his voice add beautifully to the carefully constructed stories. There is no doubt that the tour was worth it, although we did not see any apparitions on our tour.

We went on the tour as part of our “Haunted Honeymoon” you can get more information by visiting our honeymoon page day 12.

Official Website for Ghostly Walks.

Honeymoon Day 12

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Day 12:
August 12th, 2004
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

She Says

Woke up too late for breakfast so we headed out for Bouchardt Gardens. Very large and very lovely. The gardens would be quite peaceful if they weren’t so crowed. Its a Thursday and the place was packed.

It makes the whole relaxing stroll through a wondrous garden into a push shove, wait for someone to take their picture, and then have people who speak another language just Stop in front of you and block the walkway as you try to progress in a carefree stroll through these historic gardens…

Unfortunately the Dining Room (in the Bouchardt home) was closed for a private party when we first got there and we had to wait until 1:30 before we could sit and eat, so we went to the Italian and Japanese gardens and gift shop. We rushed through the rose gardens, but there were so many people, it was hard to move anywhere quickly.

The gift shop had lots of odd maple sweets. We bought sugar candies, lollipops, cookies and maple butter.

High tea was neat. Little finger sandwiches, quiche, Cornish pasties, scones, tart, cookies, chocolates and Teaberry tea. Bryan had water and chicken breast with hoisin sauce

After, we left Bouchardt and went to the butterfly gardens. Ok, so I took lots of pictures and used a lot of the camera battery, but the butterflies wouldn’t sit still and pose properly. There’s a lovely waterfall and “river” that runs through it for the koi to swin in. Koi are always nice to watch.

Very peaceful. The whole place could have been a wonderful zen if, again, it wasn’t so crowded, but I did get to see lots of other pretty flutterbys.(Not as tattered as the ones at the Crystal Conservatory) I found a few stuck to a t-shirt, so I bought that for my mother.

Next stop: Craigdarroch Castle Its not wide, but it is 5 floors tall. Owned by the Dunsmuir family. Lovely wood paneling and stained glass. I got a book on Victoria’s Castles and candies and postcards. Too bad we ran out of space on the camera’s memory stick. Would have liked more photos.

I also wish we had more time so we could go to Hatley Castle…

For some reason blackberry has registered my handheld 4x today??? Go fig.

7:30: haunted tours. Ghostly Walks by John Adams. Man has real personality and a sense of show. For his stories see other notes. Bought his book “ghosts and legends of Bastion Square” from him. Talked about places Bryan and I have stayed at along our trip. I gave him the flyer from my purse on Winchester Mystery House. (He hadn’t been there yet)

Back to the room, eyes burned by mild winds and heat, legs sore.

He Says

Got started late, and we had a lot to do so we hurried and drove to Bouchardt Gardens with the hopes of being able to eat there. Got there, parked and went inside looking for someplace to eat.

Kryis did not want to eat at their cafe type restaurant, she wanted the fancier one, but when we went there, even though the hours said it was supposed to be open, there was a sign on the door that said “closed.”

We wandered around a little hoping to kill some time so that when we went back to the restaurant it would be open and we would be able to eat.

We go back and are told that the only opening is in a few hours… How could they go from being closed to being booked for the next few hours in only about 30 minutes? Apparently, the first time that we got there they had had a big party taking up a lot of the restaurant and put the closed sign out.

By the time we got back they had taken down the sign and started taking reservations for later. So, as hungry as I was I needed something to eat to tide me over. We went to the Coffee Shop and I had something to drink and a Rice Crispie Treat. We checked out the gardens while we waited.

They were beautiful. It is amazing that this place used to be a rock quarry. I think I liked the Japanese Garden the best out of all of them. The biggest problem was how crowded it was. The number of people and the noise that came with them detracted from the serenity and beauty of the gardens. Oh well, got to pay for their upkeep somehow.

Afterwards we went to the Butterfly Gardens that is just a little ways down the street. There were a great many different types of butterflies and some tropical birds and koi as well. It was pretty.

It was not as big as I had imagined based on the descriptions I was given from other people I know that had been here before… but it was still very cool. Kryis took a lot of pictures both here and at Bouchardt. It was a good thing we had all of our memory sticks empty at the start of the day.

Afterwards we went to Craigdarroch Castle. It was very nice, but we were running out of space on our memory sticks. I conservatively took pictures of the house. Rationing them out as best I could so that I could get pictures of most of the cool rooms in the house.

I enjoyed reading the history of the family and their rise and fall from fortune in the room that told the story of the house and of the family. I spent a while in there while Kryis went and wandered off somewhere as I continued to read. After we explored the house, we dawdled in the gift shop for a while.

We headed back to the hotel to vacate some space on our memory cards for the night. We went on a “Ghostly Walk” with John Adams. A local haunted story expect. He had a very good presence and delivery as we walked around downtown Victoria. He pointed out different places where ghosts are said to inhabit and stories of how and why they were there. It was very good. But being so late, we did not really take many pictures. ShruG.

After a long day, it was nice to get back to the room and collapse. Had to be prepared for the next day when we were going to be waiting for the ferry.

 

More information on Ghostly Walks with John Adams can be found here.

Honeymoon Day 11

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Day 11
August 11th, 2004
Vancouver, BC to Victoria, BC

She Says

Woke up in the Opus and decided I really like the comforter and duvet. It was like sleeping in marshmallow creme! Its nice and fluffy inside, but the outside fabric has a nicely textured rayon/poly like feel. The only problem? Its white! I don’t know what is the filling to the pillows but they were very comfortable. Not too hard, not too soft. It doesn’t feel like down or feathers, but after dismantling the layers of pillow cases, I found a contour feather sticking out.

Breakfast at Elixir, the Opus’ restaurant. fluffy pancakes with caramelized peaches and vanilla whipped butter. The hot chocolate was overflowing with whipped cream. It looked much like a volcano in a huge white coffee cup.

The people in Canada have all been very friendly and helpful. Our waiter at the Marriott, the waitresses at Elixir, and the Opus staff…

We drove about Vancouver. The Chinese gardens were not very interesting, and china town was small compared to SF. Stanley Park was impressive. We drove thru wishing we had had more time to get out and hit the trails. Lots and lots of big trees to see and museums and such as well. (Imagine Golden Gate Park with less meadows and more trees.)

After, we drove east to find Playland, the nearest amusement park. Small and county fair-ish, but the way there took us through a very…interesting part of town. So this is where they put the crack dealers and prostitutes…

Running low on time, we went off to hunt ferries. We managed to catch one. I took a picture. Whilst waiting in line, I watched a raven chasing a seagull, it was funny.

The view from the ferry is beautiful. After about 40 minutes of open ocean, we get another 45 minute mini tour of the islands on the way to Schwartz Bay on Vancouver island.

Remind me that I need to tell people that we are honeymooning every time Bryan and I go on vacation!!!

We got upgraded to a suite here as well!!! No extra charge, just regular room rates and we are on the 14th (13th) floor with a spectacular view.
The kitchen is ok, a living space is nice, but the View…WOW!

They even left a note on the dresser to congratulate us on our marriage and little boxes of chocolate!

All because when I booked the rooms, I told them it was our honeymoon!!!

So Bryan and I broke out a bottle of Jones Green Apple Soda, 2 wine glasses and the chocolates and we toasted to our honeymoon…

Only being about 6pm, we hit the nearby streets. I find it interesting that a lot of signs are in English and Japanese. French I could see, but apparently there is a large Asian culture here according to travel guides.

The Crystal Conservatory has bats!!! Indian fruit bats. Also in the nocturnal section: Short tailed leaf nosed, Egyptian and Jamaican fruit bats. They’re all so cute…

Miniature world was interesting if you realize how much work must have gone into all the models. There was a working model of a lumberyard (that they couldn’t run due to fire regulations) that had a video to show how it worked. Nifty.

The harbor area is much like SF, it has street performers and vendors. Lots of touristy places and restaurants.

Dinner was teppanyaki at Japanese Village. The plum wine was very good. Takara brand.

He Says

We had breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It was a good breakfast. After breakfast we tried to drive by some of the other attractions in the city. We went to the Chinatown and checked that out, and drove around a little more of the town.

We drove though Stanley Park but did not get to stop and walk around or explore. We knew going in that we would not have enough time to do Vancouver in one day, but we got a nice sampling for when we come pack some time

There was something about Vancouver that made me really want to play Sim City

I was really was tempted to go and check out Point Roberts… a small little peninsula not attached to the rest of Washington, only to BC that is still part of the U.S, but figured we did not really have that much time, so we just headed strait to the ferry.

The crossing was nice. Going through the San Juan Islands was beautiful.

When we got to the outskirts of Victoria I was wondering why people said that it was so beautiful, it did not look all that beautiful to me. But when we got to the more touristy part of downtown, I could definitely see why. Our hotel did not look all that impressive from the outside, and getting there was interesting due to an odd arrangement of one way streets near the hotel. But…

We were upgraded to a suite here as well, just because we were on our honeymoon. Great! Room was nice. Separate living room and even a kitchenette. It also had a great view of the Empress Hotel.

After relaxing for a little while in the room and checking out the tourist pamphlets and such we headed out to explore some of the local attractions. We went to the Crystal Conservatory and Kryis got to tell me how “cute” bats were. I think they are ugly. They might be fascinating creatures, but “cute” is definitely not a word I would use to describe them.

After that we went to Miniature World, which was interesting. The best model was the one of the sawmill that was actually functioning, but they were unable to have it running due to fire regulations. Too bad. The video of the model being operated allowed us to see what it all could do though.

We walked along the harbor and saw some of the street performers before deciding to get something to eat. We went to a Japanese restaurant and then to bed.