Summer Recap pt. 6

It would be remiss of me, before writing about Victoria, not to mention that my Bevin is officially the Farkle Champion of the Universe... at least until we have a rematch.  All of day six was spent at sea, and we took refuge from our head colds in the game room rolling dice and sipping strong mixed drinks.  There was a rather boisterous (in EVERY sense of the word) family from Florida in there with us playing killer Uno and lamenting the over-night disappearance of the Apples-to-Apples game.  When they overheard Bevin and me "farkling" at the next table, well, let me just say that we were known as the "Farkle-people" for the rest of the trip.  It's my own fault though, I was rather outspoken about losing to my wife twice, especially when she over-came a 4000 point deficit to seal her title (I can be boisterous too).  In between games, we were able to spot grey whales- blue whales, humpbacks?- exploding out of the ocean just like you see on TV!  And those animals are HUGE!  They were easily four hundred yards from the ship but looked bigger than shrimp boats, an awesome sight to see.

Anyway, the seventh day had us pulling into Victoria.  This is where the nice lady nurse gives us both the medicine we so desperately needed.  Let me tell you, it's fun touring a foreign city with medicine head because it magnifies the disconnected feeling of being in a place you're not from.  This was the case for me, I won't speak for Bevin on that.  Victoria, like most of Canada, is very clean.  The actual city is only slightly larger than Victoria, TX but add in the metro area and it's about the size of Corpus Christi (minus the smell).  It's one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest.  There are some really neat places that Bevin and I would love to go back and explore further like the Parliament building and the Empress Hotel, but we did get a chance to visit Craigdarroch Castle! (http://www.craigdarrochcastle.com/)  This place puts many of the houses in Bay Oaks and Bellaire to shame, and it was completed in 1890!  We got a lot of great pictures and video of this house.  I won't go into great detail on its history, but this castle was an engineering marvel when built.  Many of the light fixtures were dual purposed in nature- wired for electricity and burning gas, there was central heating (no one really needs an A/C unit in Victoria), a ballroom on the fourth floor, intricate wood/glasswork everywhere...  It takes the concept of "dream house" to a whole new level!  I don't think the gift store in the Kitchen was part of the original design, but it was nice to see that even the Canadians get cheap touristy crap from China too.

They also have hippy college kids!  En route to the castle, our guide drove us through the campus of the University of Victoria where people used to take their pet rabbits and abandon them to "the wild".  And we all know what rabbits are famous for, right?  So now the campus is overrun by half-wild rabbits about the same size as overweight house cats.  They're everywhere!  Our guide mentioned that many non-violent means had been used in trying to alleviate the lagomorph overpopulation, but to no avail.  Killing the rabbits outright is the most effective method of culling the population, which is of course vigorously protested by the student body.  So after the castle tour, our guide dropped us off across from the Parliament building where we began taking picture and shooting video the green lawns and totem poles.  Sure enough, just around the corner and across the street from the Empress hotel, a small group of four "students" were handing out fliers and engaging passers-by with the sorry plight of the rabbits against "state sanctioned geonocide".  I just rolled my eyes and told Bevin that the poor and homeless people in Victoria would probably love to dine on rabbit meat.

Speaking of dining, my sweet wife spotted a hot dog vendor across the way.  It was well past lunchtime and she wisely said that we should eat where the locals do.  We could have eaten in any of the places lining the street, but this particular vendor had a nice size line trailing from his stand.  I quickly agreed with her, but we stopped by a 7-11 first for drinks.  Canadian Big Gulps taste the same as American Big Gulps, go figure!  The hotdogs at this stand were FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC!  The vendor accepted American money but gave out Canadian change, so that was kind of neat too.  We sat on a street bench, eating our tasty lunch and listened to a local strum his guitar.  He was too clean to be a college student, so I threw a two dollar Canadian coin into his guitar case, my way of saying thanks.  Victoria feels alot like Austin.  We also shopped in some of the shops, got mom some unique Pacific Northwest inspired prints to hang in the living room.  There was also a tabacconist along the street that had been open for over 100 years, and I always wanted to try Canadian tobacco so I bought two ounces worth of a pretty good blend.  Can't remember the name right now, but I'm sure I'll recall it when we go back...

A few more things before ending:  We got to walk around the gardens outside of the Empress Hotel before returning to the ship.  Bevin has to post some of the pictures she took of the flowers there.  There were alot of flowers that I didn't know by name, but the roses were very beautiful.  I'm sure they were fragrant too, but the medicine was starting wear off, so all I could appreciate was their look and feel.  On our way back to the ship, we got our passports stamped!  The border agent was a walking contradiction, he was dressed like a SWAT member, but spoke like a friendly, stereotypical Canadian, eh.  At supper time in the ship's main dining hall, we bought that nice nurse and her mother their favorite drink to say thank you for medicine.  It was a wonderful day, and made us sad that the trip was basically over.