We’re in the airport in Seattle, waiting for our flight home to Long Beach. It was a wonderful, but all too short, trip to Victoria. The weather was a dream: sunshine, and temps in the low 70’s – perfect walking around weather! We took a carriage ride on our first evening there through Beacon Hill Park, but as it was dark we missed a lot. So the next morning we went on a long run, going back through the park, then running along the waterfront all the way back to the hotel. Wow, was it pretty!
After showering and eating lunch at the Empress Hotel, we went over to the seaplane office to see if they had any openingsfor tours yesterday. We lucked out – they had an opening at 5pm yesterday afternoon! To while away the time, we went to Craigdarroch Castle – actually a mansion built by Robert Dunsmuir, a Canadian coal baron, in the late 1800’s. The tours there are self-guided, so we really got a chance to see everything (all floors are open). Then we walked back to the Inner Harbour for our seaplane tour.
The seaplane tour was very neat – the pilot had to take another couple over to Butchart Gardens, so we got to do a flyover of the gardens, then got a tour of Vancouver island on the way back. Seaplanes are pretty much like regular small planes, but the takeoffs and landings on water are quite smooth – you know you’re on water, but it’s so gentle you hardly know when you’re up or down!
We wrapped up the day having drinks at Vista 18, and dinner at Fire & Water as a wrap-up, then took photos of Victoria at night from our balcony (as promised, the hotel moved us to a room with a better view, but since they couldn’t get us up as high as they said they would, they put us in a big suite that had a balcony – nice!).
Today we started with another run around Victoria, then breakfast in the Concierge Lounge (I know, our life sucks, doesn’t it?), then taking the Victoria Clipper back to Seattle. We learned an interesting travel to Canada fact: getting in with a driver’s license is fine, you can do it. BUT when you come back, U.S. Customs wants to see either a U.S. passport OR a driver’s license AND a copy of your birth certificate! We could see how unwary travelers could get mightily screwed up on that little technicality! We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so I’ve been editing Flickr photos and blogging. Oh, and they have an Ex Officio store here, so I did some shopping for travel underwear. Six weeks of travel, one pair of underwear is their claim. One assumes one should occasionally wash said pair of underwear.
Gotta go and board! Pics are here.