Travelogue: Victoria and Vancouver Island

Victoria, BC - Inner Harbor

I was in Victoria four years ago for the JASNA AGM of 2022, and I fell in love with this lovely city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. My husband and I knew we wanted to return and spend more time, so we picked the city's annual Classic Boat Show as the best excuse for another visit.

But the boat show only took a couple of days, leaving us ample to time to explore the city and do day trips out of the city.

Butchart Gardens

Top of the things-we-must-do list was visiting Butchart Garden again. We did this in 2022, and it was spectacular. Roughly 30 minutes north of Victoria, this 55-acre, family-owned garden is one of the most wonderful gardens in the world. I particularly love the sunken garden--basically a worn-out limestone quarry was transformed into a lush paradise of color and texture that is almost overwhelming.

I actually didn't take any pictures in the sunken garden because I just wanted to drink it in and not be distracted. Here are a couple of pictures from other parts of the garden.

Sooke

One of the day trips we took was due west about an hour to the tiny town of Sooke, nestled in dense forest. There were quite a few enticing hikes, and we chose one that took us down to the beach where we found this cool waterfall flowing right onto the rocky beach. 

The hike to the beach was short but vertical, taking us through a wonderful rainforest.

Chemainus

I heard about this town a few months before our planned trip, and I knew that I had to visit it as I absolutely love street art. Here is the blurb from Wikipedia about the town:

Founded as an unincorporated logging town in 1858, Chemainus is now famous for its 53 outdoor murals. This outdoor gallery has given birth to many businesses, including a theatre, antiques dealers, and eateries. The tourist industry stemming from the murals helped rejuvenate the town after its large sawmill closed in the early 1980s and was replaced by a smaller, more efficient, mill.

According to the nice lady at the Visitor's Center, the town has over 60 art installations, mostly murals, but some sculpture as well. Most of the murals depict the history of the town.

I literally took dozens of pictures, but here are a few of my favorites. 

Malahat

Driving back to Victoria after visiting Chemainus, we stopped at the Malahat Skywalk. It's a 10-story spiral tower that offers incredible views of the channel separating Vancouver Island from the mainland.

While I definitely loved the views, I also really liked the elevated boardwalk that lets you stroll high up in the pine forest canopy. I kept on thinking about the Richard Powers's book, Overstory, during the walk.

This must might be my favorite image from the entire trip. This could've been the view the native peoples saw for millennia before European explorers pushed their way here. Vistas unexplored. Distant horizons beckoning. 

Duncan

We stopped for lunch in the little town of Duncan, and I fell hopelessly in love with this town. We visited the local bookstore, Volume One, after lunch, and we bought Ariel Lawhon's latest novel, Pirate Queen, which my husband promptly commandeered. Canot wait to read it myself.

Fun Coincidence: Grace O'Malley is the name of the Pirate Queen in Lawhon's novel, and we actually saw a boat at the boat show earlier in the week called Grace O'Malley. As with all of Lawhon's protagonists, Grace was a real person. Great name for a boat!

Back to Victoria

Our week in Victoria was absolutely wonderful--we did lots of walking (well over 10k steps a day), found some great restaurants, strolled through the Empress Hotel like we owned the place, and visited a couple of museums. 

The Maritime Museum that sponsored the boat show is quite small but had an interesting exhibit on the uniform of the navy. We also learned about Ferdinand Waldo Demara who impersonated many people including a naval surgeon. The museum had a clip from the Groucho Marx show, You Bet Your Life, that included an interview with Demara. It's in the second half of the video.

We also went to the Royal BC Museum--we skipped the featured Egyptian exhibit and focused on the local stuff, including the Natural History Gallery and a reconstructed old-timey town. There was also a partial reconstruction of George Vancouver's ship, Discovery, from the late 18th century.

But the trip didn't end there. We took the ferry back across to Port Angeles and then spent two days in Port Townsend at the Wooden Boat Festival--our 4th time attending the festival. 

View of the Johnston St Bridge from our hotel room.