Our first full day in Victoria began at the Royal BC Museum, which was practically next door to the hotel. If you find yourself in Victoria, this is really a must see – I have nothing but great things to say about the exhibits and the volunteers we encountered.
The exhibits are impressive life-size recreations of everything from the various ecological zones in British Columbia (historic and present) to an entire 19th century townscape, sawmill, ship and Native American village. The volunteers eagerly engaged us as we wandered, pointing out information in exhibits we may have otherwise missed and, in one case, giving us some practice panning for gold (yes, a gold mine is recreated here as well, and why not?).
The recreated ecological zones were convenient since they allowed us to skip the hassle of traipsing through nature ourselves, what with its insects, and dirt, and lack of coffee shops.
Saved us a time machine rental, too:
Some more contemporary critters:
And just why is Mike so terrified?
Two words: giant beetle. This monster is singlehandedly responsible for the devastation of thousands upon thousands of acres of forest. And is that a surprise, since it is big enough to eat a chihuahua? Keegan pauses to read the fine print. Oh. I see. Unlike everything else in this museum, which is built to the scale of real life, this is apparently a magnification. I refuse to be embarrassed.
It’s easy to lose hours in the museum, but once in awhile we were granted windows to peer upon the outside world. And we saw this…
It was gorgeous outside. It was time to move on and enjoy the outdoors for awhile.
It was also time for lunch. Strolling along the harbo(u)r, we ran into this man. He looked like he had been around awhile, so we asked him where some good eats might be.
The man went by ‘Cook’ (which led us to think that he might have some good instincts on where to dine), but then blabbered on and on about how he was the first European to set foot in what was now British Columbia and how, just before that, he had been the first European to discover the Hawaiian islands. Tried to sell us a timeshare there too. Luckily, in spite of all of this bull…pucky…his lunch suggestion was the real deal.
Meet Red Fish Blue Fish:
The fact that it is a little shack should not deter you. In fact, never let that deter you since some of the most fantastic cuisine is happening in food carts these-a-days (for more on Portland’s burgeoning food cart culture, click here).
You can read my Yelp review on this place here. All I’ll say on this blog is YOU MUST EAT AT RED FISH BLUE FISH IF YOU ARE IN VICTORIA.
Behold:
As brilliantly golden as the sun above was this perfect batter. You may think it audacious of me to be comparing the batter to the maintainer of warmth and life on this planet. I care not. That day we ate fresh, flaky halibut encased in crispy sun batter. There is no other truth.
We wandered about and began to make our way to the east, to visit one of the premiere attractions in Victoria, Craigdarroch Castle.
En route, this bird opened up its rear hatch with a projectile that missed my shoulder by less than a foot. In return, I shot it. With my camera.
Now lower your voice two octaves and very slowly say it with me. Craaaaigdarrrroccccch….
Cue maniacal laughing and a bolt of lightning.
I said lightning! Cue the damn lightning! Forget the lovely blue skies - soon enough you will see that true terror lurks within.
As castles go, this is a young’n, completed by 1890. I get the distinct impression that it was not a castle built for defensive purposes, though with crazy girls running around crying and screaming and prattling on about polka dotted tea kettles (see Part 1), I could be mistaken. I might bar myself in and send my best knights out to collect fish and chips from Red Fish Blue Fish.
Within the walls is a mass of opulent opulence.
The best views of the city, but of course…
This sign is so unerringly polite. So Victoria.
A visitor did plop themselves down and play beautifully for a minute or two. No, it was not me with a rendition of the Turkish March (famous among my friends as the only song Keegan taught himself [poorly] how to play on a piano). I do know her name was Haley, because her companion shouted at her once he realized she was sitting down and playing. She nodded toward the sign, he realized he was enjoying the music after all and backed down.
I promised terror, didn’t I?
It is a common conceit in horror films that what you don’t see is much scarier than what you do see. Some of the best films will keep the monsters locked up in your imagination, where they will morph into something much more dreadful than what could ever be seen on the screen.
After seeing the mannequins in Craigdarroch Castle, I submit that this is, in fact, not true.
“Shall we play some billiards, love?”
“Why, yes – we could use my head as the cue ball.”
“I wouldn’t hear of it - let’s use mine, as it’s rounder…”
Just. Wrong.
Craigdarroch is already almost halfway across the peninsula, so once we exited (thankfully without our souls being stolen by headless mannequins), we pushed further east.
We happened upon a cute little street fair in the Oak Bay n’hood.
And eventually made it to the eastern shore, which looks out toward Washington state’s San Juan Islands and Mount Baker on the mainland. This side of the peninsula was where we found the beach mentioned in Part 1.
We headed back toward the center of town – we had a date with an old man named John Adams who walked around with a skull-capped cane. Adams leads folks through his ‘Ghostly Walks’ tour which ended up being about three parts history to one part chills. Adams’ knowledge and enthusiasm made this ratio acceptable, though someone with a skull-cap cane should, by default, be a little bit more of a character.
Neatly representing the battle of skeptic v. non-skeptic was an incident in front of an old office building. As we stood outside the glass doorway, Adams described some grizzly deaths via the old elevators, which reputedly have a life of their own (if I’m getting any of this wrong, Mike will be here to correct me). Anyway, as we stood there, the glass doors, which were locked, would occasionally move as if being pushed, with a thud as it encountered the lock.
Mike observed this excitedly, while I conjectured that it was air pressure, or wind, or even some kind of programming Adams was able to control. I actually am not a complete skeptic, but I’m still pretty positive one of my explanations fits this incident. Oh, as an aside, Mike and I haven’t spoken since.
Dinner was had at a pub called Swans. While nothing groundbreaking, it was a fine place to get some on-site brewed beer and good grub. The glass enclosed patio was wonderful, too. Once more, you may read my yelp review here.
This closed the night – part three, to come, will close out the trip. Thanks for reading!
You forgot about the little coffee shop you stopped at on the way back from the east. That was a fun place. I have to say that the ghost tour was really the only part of this trip that I personally planned. Man were my feets tired after this day. On day 3 they fell off. You will all soon see why. It can not be over emphasized how yummy the fish was from that lovely cart. I even took my own picture of it!
ReplyDeleteOk, I can tell you why Mike was so terrified at the museum. He saw the size of the walrus' penis. Don't they have the largest penis of any land mammal? Of course, I heard that fact on 51st dates, so it may not be true. For some reason, your entry on the Giant Beetle made me laugh hysterically. So much so that I began choking on a piece of moist and delectable chocolate cake and almost died. Thanks. :)
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