Cruisin’ Canada: Victoria Island, B.C.

Cruisin’ Canada: Victoria Island, B.C.

Today was a RED LETTER day: William and Romney earned their first stamp in their passport today.

We started the day by waking up to the sun shining over the Crescent Bay in Port Angeles (aka: the Salt Creek Recreation Area) There was a thick fog hanging over the water, but the sky was clear, blue and gorgeous and the temperature was perfect. It was time to pull out of our little heaven, and head to the ferry to hitch a ride to Victoria, B.C.


We arrived two hours early, parked the RV in the que to board and headed out to explore the farmer’s market that was happening downtown Port Angeles.

I always like to find a cool piece of jewelry as a souvenir of the places I have been. It’s my own little version of the t-shirt with the name of the place stamped on it. Then every time I wear that piece I remember where I was when I picked it up. The farmer’s market was a great chance to shop for that piece, and support a local artist. This trip’s piece is an enormous silver and rough hewn emerald ring. I picked it because I loved the sudo-victorian embellishments (for the Victoria part of the trip) as well as the color of the stone, which perfectly matches the color of the water of the lakes and rivers we have been exploring.




The farmer's market had this wonderful art piece in the center of the square. The boys were wonderful sports and let me take their picture in front of pretty much everything that wasn't moving.





After celebrating my find and grabbing a farmer’s market lunch, we raced back to the boat to drive the RV onto the ferry. The size of this ship was mind-boggling in the same way that a giant cargo aircraft is. How does it manage to stay on top of the water with as much weight as it holds? We walked around the deck of the ship, until the waters got pretty rough and William got pretty woozy from motion sickness.



Bill and I were also feeling a bit “off” for a half hour or so. Only Romney seemed to not be bothered at all by the intense ups and downs and side to sides we were experiencing on the ferry. The waters calmed and so did everyone’s queasy feeling. The sun and wind felt amazing and it was such a treat to be “on” the water instead of merely admiring it from the shore.






Victoria is a breath-
takingly beautiful jewel of a city.
It is bigger than I expected, and much lovelier than I imagined.








With hanging baskets of flowers from every street light, wild blackberry bushes, hydrangeas, roses, and every other imaginable flower (since I have pretty much named most of the flowers I know by name, not having much of a green thumb.)



We walked the entire length of the walking path that runs around the bay area (though Romney’s legs were pretty much done by the half way point.)





We watched the moon come up over the bay. We rode a bay ferry, stopped into shops, visited the famous Empress Hotel and dined al fresco, just trying to get a feel for the city.




All 3 of my boys are completely worn out from the day’s adventures. It is a lot to cram into one 24 hour period, but the city girl is much more in her element and has a plethora of energy still to spare. That being said, this city girl is most happy with her (notice I said “her”, since it is true the idea came from me alone.) choice to do this trip in an RV, and not how we had originally thought we would do it with our car and hotels. There are places we never would have seen or thought about seeing if we had stayed in only major cities on the way here. We would have missed some of my favorite places (Salt Creek, Ft. Stevens to name my favorite rural spots so far) and it would have been limiting to the experiences we’ve had. It has been a pretty fine balance of “rural” and “city” so far, the best of both. A yin and a yang to our vacation if you will. I am trusting we will all arrive home content, bringing that balance back with us.