Victoria Trip

We recently took a trip by automobile to Victoria, at the southern tip of Canada's Vancouver Island, meeting Eli's son Nik. I had not been there before and found the city quite delightful with its shops, eateries, and tourist-friendly oceanfront. We stayed in Nik's mostly unfurnished condo in downtown Victoria, getting about on foot. He took very good care of us.

Brit and Cleve (Brit is Eli's sister) sent their Victoria trip journal with us, which proved most useful in essential activities such as finding a good restaurant (e.g. Zambri's) or a place with quality gelato (e.g. Ottavio's in Oak Harbor).

Victoria is booming in real estate - buying, selling, and building. Prices have moved beyond a reasonable level. Home, apartment, and condo views are being destroyed by new high rises etc.

Victoria reminds one of a European city, but also of a bustling US city. I can see tourists from the USA falling in love with the ambience, particularly if they have not travelled to other countries. There is a small (by USA city standards) homeless contingent, but their panhandling is less aggressive than one finds in Seattle.

We did not get into Victoria's surroundings. Being from Sandpoint, we focused on the 'big city' experience, unavailable to us at home. We plan to return to the island to sample hiking and biking in the Nanaimo region come September.

On the day we left, we took the ferry back to Tsawwassen, but then drove north to shop for furniture at IKEA in Richmond. Nik and Eli used their significant artistic insight to choose appropriate furniture for Nik's condo - to be delivered in September. IKEA offers some great bargains and reasonable quality, but they also have lesser quality offerings to be avoided. The two main shoppers appeared to do a good job in their selections. I provided moral support, with occasional whimpering as the clock marched inexorably through 4+ hours.

We drove back toward Sandpoint, but stayed overnight in Spokane (arriving at 2:32 AM). The drive back featured rain on the west side of the Cascades, which was replaced by clear starry skies once east of the mountains. The occasional shooting stars kept our long distance night driver (Nik) alert.

Richard
2005.08.15