Day 7 of The Great Adventure found us on our way to Victoria, British Columbia (i.e. Canada).
We weren’t going to be pulling in until the early evening hours, so we had all day on the ship to play.
I spent a lot of time in the Crow’s Nest, checking out the scenery through the large windows. I saw the Princess ship. You might remember that this ship was, for the most part, our companion during the week…
For lunch, we had been invited to the dining room to a specially-prepared fare for frequent cruisers.
I loved the view from the dining room…
We were greeted with glasses of champagne and specially-designed tiles (which will make great coasters)…
The menu was fancy and not vegan friendly. I settled for the salad, minus the meat on top. I passed on dessert; however, the dining room steward brought me a lovely plate of dessert.
After lunch, we headed back to the Crow’s Nest to await Team Trivia.
I took a few more pictures.
After a while, I caught my first glimpse of Victoria, British Columbia, the final stop for the Westerdam…
After trivia, we headed to our room to pack. We were going to be in port most of the evening, and we had to make sure we got our suitcases in the hallway before midnight.
Packing was not fun, let me tell you.
Imagine four people in a room the size of a closet, trying to cram a gagillion souvenirs and two large bags of dirty clothes into the suitcases they came on ship with.
Not easy.
We grumped at each other for the first ten or fifteen minutes before settling in and getting things done.
Then, we headed to dinner. I had the fruit dish as an appetizer…
The dining room’s large windows provided such a great view of the setting sun…
I watched this small boat accompany the ship’s entry into port…
The Princess was pulling to port as well…
We hurriedly ate dinner, eager to get on with the business of touring Victoria.
Now, I’ve gotta tell you that my children had been eagerly awaiting the moment when Super Sis and I would be stepping on Canadian soil. It had, after all, been at least 25 years since we had visited our “homeland.”
Chicky took a picture of us stepping off the ship.
I can’t show you this picture because 1) It shows our faces but most importantly 2) My eyes look like some lunatic’s.
If you’re one of my Facebook buds, you can testify to both points.
I can, however, show you the picture of us (or rather me since I cropped out Super Sis’s head, which showed her face a bit) kissing Canadian concrete…
Folks, this is what happens when you cross a Redneck who loves NASCAR with worldwide traveling adventures…
We saw this sign as we entered customs…
I felt a pull of my heart strings. I know it sounds strange because I’ve spent most of my life in the United States; however, my Canadian roots go deep. My grandpa had a farm, and he had maple trees on that farm. One year when he came down to visit us in Alabama when I was a youngster, he brought us original maple syrup…not the Aunt Jemima kind. I remember how different it tasted. As an adult, I now appreciate how authentic that syrup was.
I felt a few tears well up in my eyes. I was, indeed, back in my “homeland,” setting all of Chicky and Rooster’s jokes aside.
This sign forewarned us that the American dollar wouldn’t go quite as far in Canada…
As we began our nearly 1.5 mile walk downtown, I saw this horse-drawn tram…
Our walk took us through a residential area. The gardens we passed were lovely, with such beauties as this…
The residential area opened up to a beautiful harbor with large hotels surrounding it…
We walked past the Parliament Building…an immense, ornate piece of architecture…
The boats in the harbor reminded me of Florida…
I don’t know if you can see, but the flowers in the lawn spell out “Welcome to Victoria.”
The next picture is of the Empress Hotel, a famous hotel that opened its doors in 1908 and is known for its traditional Afternoon Tea…
Street performers were out in full force…
I don’t know what the next building was, but I just knew that it was BIG. Podunk, USA doesn’t have big buildings like this…
It was so neat to be able to walk down the store-lined street…another new experience for a Redneck like me…
We spent a longggggg time shopping.
I had not seen yarn up to this point, but I was on high alert.
Folks, yarn called out to me like a siren, I kid you not. I was minding my own business when I turned me head to look in a completely different direction from that in which we were headed.
I spied this sign…all the way from the corner down the street…
…And I went running…
…Only to discover that the store had been closed for three hours. I had to make do with looking through the window…
Look at that glorious yarn.
It could have been mine.
Sigh.
I’m sure the store keepers had to clean up a lot of drool I left behind.
Sigh.
Victoria was a WONDERFUL place to shop. Sure, there were your “touristy” stores, but there were also a lot of unique stores.
I found a cute little tea shop that sold a wide variety of teapots and other tea making devices. I didn’t buy anything, though, and kicked myself later when the Mr. told me I should have. Why do guys always tell you it’s okay to buy something AFTER you’ve walked away. Hmmm.
Eventually, we had to begin our walk back. The buildings around the harbor were lit up in white lights and presented a lovely panorama…
We popped into the Empress Hotel for a closer look, but we didn’t get past the lobby since we didn’t actually have rooms there…
The Parliament Building at street level was even more impressive after dark…
The harbor was gorgeous at sunset…
One last glance at the Empress Hotel…
As we neared the port and our ship, I got this terrific picture of the moon’s reflection on the water…
Ships were beckoning their passengers back. The Princess is the ship on the left, and the Westerdam is on the right…
After a late night snack on the Lido Deck, I headed to bed, taking another look at my souvenir from the day…
It had been a wonderful day. I was a little sad that the journey was nearly over…until I remembered that we still had another day of adventures planned…
Filed under: Vacation | Tagged: British Columbia, Cictoria, Holland America, travel, Vacation, Westerdam | 3 Comments »
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