Victoria, BC

Another delightful day in Canada.  Victoria was a much bigger city then we had expected, but really a lovely City all in all.  Lots of historic buildings and beautiful homes and gardens.  It's incredible how beautiful the gardens are here and the roses...OMG....they certainly do well here!    In the morning, as we came in to the City and the shore line there was a cloud layer that made such a beautiful picture.  The snow capped Cascade Mountains rose above the cloud bank and then the Straight of Juan de Fuca was right in front of us.  Truly BEAUTIFUL!   I don't think my pictures do it justice, but it was truly breathtaking.  We took the Hop on Hop off to see as much of the city as possible.  
We checked out how to get from here to Seattle.
Lesson's learned # 15.  If we had planned/known we could have spent the night right in the Ferry terminal in Victoria for free (and explored the city at night) and we'd be there for the early departure.  It goes to Port Angeles which would have been fine because there's lots to see in the Olympic National Park, but you'd want to figure a couple of days there.
We are wanting to get to Seattle on Monday so we can spend some time with David and Quinn before graduation.   So, we'll be driving back up to Sidney and going from there  by the San Juan's (which we were told was a  GREAT thing to do) and come in to Anacortes.  We'll head south from there and hopefully make it to Issaquah by early evening.

Neighbor who came calling this morning at the campground

The Cascade mountains rising above a cloud bank laying over the Straight of  Juan de Fuca

A tanker headed out to sea

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Lunch here on Fisherman's Wharf

really YUMMY!  Especially the chowdah!

Houseboat at Fisherman's Village

Explanation of "how it works".  Really cute and creative little homes with little to know privacy thanks to us tourists!

Creative wall art from driftwood

Copper roof and cute as a bug.

Star fish being shown to kids on the wharf

Provincial Legislature building

World famous Empress Hotel

Charming restaurant and hotel.  By summer the pots will be cascading with flowers

The beginning of the longest road in North America