Road trip to Victoria with the Motorhome Part 2 July 23 to 25

 Friday morning, Freya had us up again at 5:30 ... nope not sick just wanted us to get up! Oh well, this gave us time for coffee and figure out our plan of attack today.

As the little Victoria Harbour Ferry doesn't start until 11 am, we decided to drive into downtown, park and then walk some of the streets. We walked along the Inner Harbour to the Legislature. There are more tourists here now, but still nothing like when Cruise Ships come in. 

The new Johnson Street Bridge

They have the most gorgeous flower displays.

BC Legislature Building with the display of the lost first nations children from Residential Schools. Heartbreaking. They have 2 police officers guarding the main entrance to the building at the top of the stairs.

Here's a picture of me taking a picture of Ray. lol

We carried on across the street to the Empress Hotel. They also have beautiful gardens. We meant to visit Miniature World, but too many other things on our list today, so another time.

Sat for a few minutes to "people watch" and absorb the scenes at the Visitor's Centre.

As we carried on up the street towards Chinatown for lunch, I noticed the sign for the Madrona Gallery and we heard that E.J. Hughes work is being displayed from a friend of Kristi's. We own several of his prints, so we popped in for a quick look. All of the work displayed are originals, all sold for the ripe price of $60,000 to $150,000. Wow! Even if available, way out of our bracket. :)

After slowly taking in the sights, we headed along Government Street to Chinatown. We watched an article on CHEK News about the best Ramen you can get from The Village Restaurant. Apparently they get their homemade Ramen from a company up in the Comox area, who this restaurant partnered with. Authentically Japanese. Anyways it did live up to the hype, it was delicious. They have various types of broth and dishes but we both took the pork belly. :)

After lunch we headed around the corner to Chinatown proper for some pictures.

I was told by my girl I get my pedicure done by, that this Don Mee is the best restaurant for dim sum in Victoria. We will have to keep that in mind for our next visit.

Fan Tan Cafe where they really do have the best War Wonton Soup.

Noticed this plaque just as we left Chinatown.

After walking up this street, we turned the corner back down Government Street and stopped in various shops for a look around. The most exciting shop for us was Roberta's Hat Shop where Ray picked up a couple hats for himself and I ended up getting a nice sun hat. He looked for one awhile and hadn't seemed to find anything.

By the time we got back to our car, we were pretty tuckered out. Had a fabulous time though.

Back home, Ray took the car to the dog park again where Freya enjoyed herself. She'd turned her nose up at her breakfast this morning but, when we got back it was all gone. Definitely feeling better.

Later in the afternoon we decided to take the little ferry over to Fisherman's Wharf for an early dinner of Fish and Chips. The Ramen Soup was a long time ago. lol

Here comes our ride. We only have to go to the other side of the harbour.

Views from the ferry.

Our RV Park

In the afternoon ,Harbour Air has quite a few flights coming and going ... nothing like a normal summer though where there are 200 per day according to our captain.

First glimpse of Fisherman's Wharf.

We wandered along the pier to see everything before deciding on Fish and Chips at Barb's Fish and Chips. Originally we were going to go to Happy Hour and the Fresh Fish guy for 1/2 price oysters, but with all the hot weather they do not have any fresh. I'm guessing they got "cooked" too from the heat wave we had recently. They also advertised steamed whole crab at "market price", which turned out to be $40. Way too much!

Fisherman's Wharf businesses and houseboats are all very colourful. You used to be able to walk all the docks in front of the houseboats but due to Covid they are all closed off to protect the residents.

From this place, I picked up a little sundress for Amelia from France.

This one with the blue canoe is for sale ... anyone interested. lol

Coming back across the inlet was quite rough as the wind picked up, so a little rolly. lol Apparently last week they did not run over here for 3 days due to wind. We had a lot of wind at the lake as well.

Back home by 5:30 to spend the rest of the evening relaxing inside the coach, listening to music and I worked on the blog while Ray worked on his pictures. Another fabulous day.

Saturday morning woke up to another beautiful day. Freya actually didn't wake us up earlier than we wanted. We headed out the door about 9:30 to see a couple of parks close by the RV Park. First up was MacAulay Point Park where there is an old military battery. We walked around their trails for about an hour. It's a great dog walking spot but not for our old lady Freya. lol

 

A few more minutes down the road we came to Saxe Point Park, a small little park, but another great park for water views. There was even an artist there painting a gorgeous view.

There are interesting flowers at this park.

From here you can also look across and see the Fisgard Lighthouse of Fort Rodd Hill, the other battery.

Once we finished our wandering and then headed over to Spinnaker's Pub, where we were to meet Nadine and Dale, Jason's parents, for lunch. We stopped at the Roundhouse first for Ray to get some pictures of a railroad, a love of his.

As we were still quite early we took a short walk along the Songhees walkway at Spinnaker's Pub to Rainbow Point.

We walked along the path just far enough, to see our RV Park.

We turned around at this point and headed back to Spinnaker's for lunch and meet up with Nadine and Dale. Nadine's family always do "funny things" when they get their picture taken. lol

Back home we took Freya to the park for a walk and then retired in our chairs outside for the rest of the afternoon. At 5 pm Ray ordered Chinese Food for dinner with enough leftovers for tomorrow so I don't have to cook. :) 

This has been a great 5 days exploring things in Victoria we've not done for a very long time.