Vancouver Island

August 18th  2013

The harbor was alive with activity this morning. They have a lot of those little water taxis here like the ones we saw in Vancouver. The first thing we see are 5 of these little boats doing  a water ballet. It was so cute. 

 

The big activity in the harbor this weekend was the dragonboat canoe races. These are 48 foot canoes (that's huge) that carry 20 paddlers, a drummer, and a person in the stern to steer. This league is as much a social club as a competitive team sport. Both men and woman of all ages are in the same boat. Not clear to me how they control that mix to make the race competitive. I estimate there were 30 teams competing this weekend.

 

 

In the afternoon we signed up for a "small group" walking tour of Victoria. Little did we expect Barbara and I would be the only people in the group. Our guide took us all over the harbor and downtown area. We got to see all this stuff but the best part was the behind the story gossip he shared with us.
  • Homecoming Sailor Monument
  • Dominion Customs House
  • Windsor Hotel & Explosion
  • Roger's Chocolates a Tragic success story
  • Pemberton & Weiler Bldgs.
  • Bank of BC, Bard & Banker & Robert Service's story
  • Royal Bank (Munro's)
  • Morris the Tobacconist (and how he died)
  • Fort's brick road
  • Bastion Square (what were the brideships?)
  • Maritime Museum (and jail, and gallows, and...)
  • Rithet Bldg. and the old fort well
  • Wharf St. (Finlayson & Yates Bldgs.)
  • Waddington Alley
  • Johnson St. & Strauss' Bridge: a Golden Gate precursor
  • Market Sq.
  • Chinatown
  • Old Opium Factories
  • Fan Tan Alley
  • Gate of Harmonious (albeit compounded) Interests
  • Yen Wo Society Bldg.
  • Chinese Benevolent Associations
  • Chinese Pharmacy & School
  • Masonic Temple
  • Old Hudson Bay Bldg.
  • City Hall
  • Oldest Synagogue in Canada
  • St. Andrews Roman Catholic Cathedral
  • Carnegie Donated Library
  • Fort St. 'Antiques Row'
  • St. Andrews Presyterian Church
  • Weiler's Bldg. sub-sidewalks and Pagliacci's
  • Eaton Centre
  • Trounce Alley ...and much more!

 

 

This was a wonderful introduction to Victoria. Our guide kept us so busy I didn't have time to take pictures except when we got to Chinatown there was an unexpected street demonstration of bamboo stick "fighting" which we watched for a few minutes.  

 

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