Our neighbor to the north

Last Friday, David and I got on the Victoria Clipper, a high-speed catamaran that plies Puget Sound, and took a three-hour ride to Victoria, B.C. for an overnight getaway. (Leave it to us to go someplace wetter, colder, darker, and farther north than Seattle for a winter holiday, but whatever.) It was a smooth ride on a choppy sea, with dramatic clouds and patches of blue sky above. I enjoy boats, so already I was having a good time. The champagne continental breakfast we got with our package deal didn’t hurt, either.

When we got to Victoria, the weather was chilly and varied from thickly clouded to misty to showery. We had from lunchtime Friday to late afternoon Saturday to hang out in town before the trip back. We didn’t do a whole lot; we wandered the streets, visited Munro’s Books and Utopia (a funky T-shirt shop), went to a couple of vegetarian restaurants (Green Cuisine and Lotus Pond), and strolled in Beacon Hill Park, watching the fat, happy ducks in the ponds there. (We didn’t see any Canada geese; they’re probably all vacationing on the golf courses of the Lower 48 for the winter.) Even though we didn’t do much, it was still nice to have a change of scenery and a new place to explore.

We didn’t take many pictures, but here are a couple of shots.



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Me in front of the Parliament building just after we got off the boat.

This sculpture was in front of our hotel, the Château Victoria.

Here's David with a totem pole in Thunderbird Park next to the Royal British Columbia Museum.