The Adventures of Annie and Mitch: Oh, Canada

We decided to take our first trip abroad together, and went to Victoria, Canada, the capitol of British Columbia. It is indeed beautiful, like their license plates state. But Canada had some sort of weird black magic happening- it didn’t get dark until after 10 pm, incidentally my bedtime, and it made me at one point declare how hot it was despite being only 72 degrees. I don’t know what your game is Canada, but you’re up to something!

We took the Victoria Clipper to get there- a boat! It’s much quicker and easier to get to Victoria by water than by land. And the clipper is pretty efficient- buy your ticket, show up, flash a passport, and board. On the ride over I saw a whale come up to breathe. I’m not entirely sure what kind of whale it was, but I think it was a humpback and since there is no one to confirm or deny it, I’m going with humpback. Our clipper ride back was in the late evening, so we got to watch as the sun set, making it a sunset cruise. The clipper is a nearly 3 hour trip- seems to be a thing with boat rides…

Our Victoria trip was quick, just 2 nights, but we lived it up and spent like the kings we are not. Things are expensive there. But the Canadian dollar isn’t as strong as the American, so that’s to our benefit. We stayed in a darling Bed and Breakfast. It was a giant house with gingerbread decor and stained glass windows. It had a library, breakfast dining room, entry area and multiple rooms, all with their own names describing their part of the house. There was a large, taxidermied peacock in the entry room, which was definitely unique.

Our room was the Parlour room (extra U complete unnecessary in my opinion, but carry on Canada). It was huge! A giant, quite comfy, king sized bed, a sitting area with a fire place, enormous bathroom complete with jacuzzi tub, and our very own stained glass windows. Breakfast was served in the dining room at 8:30 and tea and coffee were available at 3. Mitch wasn’t a huge fan of the Breakfast time, but the food was great.

The tub had one of those really cute showers that looks like an old phone that you lift up to use to rinse. There was a holster for it, to keep you from having to hold it the entire time, which worked well. Except it was a bit tricky to arrange and the shower curtain, while cute, did nothing of use and the entire floor was soaked post shower. Not damn, not even wet, we’re talking fish could have probably lived on the floor, soaked. But the pressure was great, so worth splashing through to get to the door.

Since we were spending just 2 nights in Victoria, we packed it in (as usual), but did manage to squeeze in a nap for sleepy Mitch. We wandered the downtown area, located under a mile from our B&B and took in the sights. We hit lots of cute restaurants, including one of the many British style pubs called the Sticky Wicket- best pub name I’ve ever heard by far. We also got ice cream, more than once. Which was delicious, but weird since we were in Canada, land of ice and snow. But the weather was amazing- sunny and warm. It got up to 80 degrees the day we left!

We toured the Craigdorroch Castle, a mansion built in the late 1800s by a coal tycoon, but only occupied by his wife, three unmarried daughters, and two orphaned grandchildren because he died prior to it’s completion. After the matriarch died, the home served as a military and veterans hospital and a college before the historical society regained it and began to restore it to its former glory. We also checked out the bug zoo and got to hold a variety of creepy crawlies including several kinds of walking stick insects and a hissing cockroach. Well, Mitch held the cockroach, I opted out of that one.

We also got a HIGHLY ILLEGAL AND BANNED IN AMERICA KinderEgg. We like to live on the wild side. It was quite tasty and we got a lovely little flower girl as our prize. I can only assume she is a priceless import now and we will make sure to display her with the proper care and revery. We also got a “Crunchy” bar. It was crunchy fluffed butterscotch maybe covered in chocolate. Have I mentioned we ate a lot? We also walked everywhere, so snacks were necessary.

Before we left the area, we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf and got to see the floating houses up close as well as some very well fed harbor seals. There are 9 seals that live under the docks according to the shop keepers, and they are rewarded for their company with lots of fish. They were adorable and very excited to get a snack. From the wharf we water-taxied back to the downtown harbor area. Luckily we passed a chlorate shop when walking around downtown that Mitch just HAD to go in, so we had some incredibly good chocolates for the clipper ride back. Sometimes his sweet tooth has benefits.

Mitch was not sure about Mr Peacock