Victoria and Vancouver

We went across from the Port of Seattle to Victoria on the Clipper- basically a ferry that serves food. Crossing took about 3 hours, and when we arrived our friend Andy was waiting for us. We went back to Andy and Graham’s lovely condo to unpack, then headed back to the Fairmont Empress for High Tea.
The Empress is a gorgeous old hotel known for their “Tea” and we loved it. 3 tier platters with everything from watercress/cucumber sandwiches to scones. Of course, they also served a selection of teas, being a bit of England and all that. All of our daily allotment of calories all at one sitting, and our daily budget for food at the same time. Good thing we were staying under the largess of Andy and Graham- tea per person was $72.

We brought the better weather with us and we had blue skies and sunshine again. The guys showed us around their beautiful area, including of course the world famous Butchart Gardens. Truly spectacular. Although they say every season of year has it's benefits, by visiting in July we got the most amazing roses, begonias, snapdragons- every summer flower you can imagine. Really a mesmerizing day. We enjoyed Victoria very much, and then we were off again- this time on the ferry across to Vancouver to see Marion. This trip was really our Mexican/Canadian friends tour! Really fun to see them all in their “natural habitat”. As it turned out- Andy, Graham and 2 of their friends (also from Mexico) needed to run an errand in Vancouver, so we drove their car onto the ferry and rode across with them. We had breakfast while crossing, and arrived in Vancouver in time for lunch. We said "goodbye-we’ll see you in PV" to everyone and met up with Marion right on schedule. She lives about 20 minutes out of the city, in White Rock, in an unbelievable 2 storey condo overlooking the harbor. After she showed us the techie things like how to turn on the lights, run the shower and put the curtains up and down, we rode in her private elevator up to her private roof balcony. There, a pair of seagulls were raising 3 babies, on her roof. Unfortunately they didn’t understand that it was Marion’s roof, and every time we went out onto the deck they barked at us for interrupting.

One full day we spent in Vancouver, an attractive city surrounded by water. We continued to get clear weather, for which we were very grateful. One day we walked down to the water in White Rock, where kids were crabbing and fishing. Marion explained to us what makes a crab “legal”, as we watched a young boy try repeatedly to unhook the pincers of an “illegal female” from his net. Marion finally went over and helped him hold the claws and release it from the net.

Andrew and Gordon were actually in their Vancouver condo during this time, so they came over to have lunch with us.

A wonderful respite, all in all, after the walking in Seattle and Victoria, and after 3 nights there in paradise, Marion took us back into Vancouver to catch the Rocky Mountaineer train to Banff.