Victoria: Capital of British Columbia

It didn't take us long to to recover from the ferry fiasco. Next morning we were up and ready to take in the sights, sounds and tastes of Victoria.

We began our "British Expedition" back at Victoria Harbour where we came in yesterday. It was  cool and a bit overcast -- my favorite conditions for touring and photography.

While Wayne watched the seaplanes, ferries and yachts on the harbor side, I went across the street to explore Bastion Square. I immediately noticed all the blooms.  Flowers everywhere!

Bastion Square
The odd "tulip" artwork is a rather new piece - 2008 -- called the Commerce Canoe. 

The Maritime Museum.  We didn't tour it but probably should have.  I think there was a lot of good stuff in there.

Two of the many popular and much photographed buildings in Victoria are the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Building.



The Parliament Building.  From afar to show some of the colorful blooms....

And closer to show more of the building and grounds. 

Empress Hotel

 "A perfect Eden" is how the founder of the city described Victoria.  It's the oldest city in Western Canada and was settled in 1843 as Fort Victoria. The city was named for the British monarch Queen Victoria who reigned from 1837 to 1901.

Victoria was originally an outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company and it's harbor was home to one of the world's largest whaling and sealing fleets. Victoria was a major port of entry to British North America and is the second largest metro area.

Moderate climate here keeps the flowers in bloom almost year round.

Our route took us  along the edge of the island. One of our stops is at Beacon Hill Park where dogs rule and great views could be enjoyed for miles around.



Nearly all the dogs in this park were off leash. Lexie and Ozzie were not, of course.
While Ozzie loved seeing all the dogs and tried to play with all of them, Lexie was not interested. 

The road we traveled followed the jagged edge of the island, winding and curving with beautiful views of open water, harbors and inlets.



Yes, that's Wayne sitting in the chair.

One of the marinas.  Not sure which...

There are several city touring companies who use the old double-deck British style buses to tour their customers. I snapped these pictures of them.

This is one of the most advertised bus tour companies.
Hop On, Hop Off!

Most of the homes around Victoria are small-ish and quaint -- neat and well landscaped with still more flowers. Some of the typical ones ....

Okay, so this house isn't really typical.  But plenty of flowers make it an eye-catcher.

At lunchtime we stopped at Fishermans Wharf for fish and chips at a frequently advertised place called Barbs. Two orders of fish and chips and a bowl of chowder with garlic bread totaled almost $30. The food was just mediocre -- tiny strips of halibut wrapped in an inch of greasy batter.

Other sights to see around the wharf area were interesting as an entire floating neighborhood is built along the dock. 

This dock house is for sale.



No, he's not drunk (or even drinking). That's my root beer in his hand.
Just the luck of the camera...

The colorful Fishermans Wharf floating neighborhood from a distance.
Notice all the residential buildings in the background.

Leaving Fishermans Wharf, I took Lexie and Ozzie for a stroll along the wooden boardwalk along the shoreline back toward the harbor.  Wayne went back for the car and picked us up a few blocks later. 

Have I mentioned that there are lots of wild blackberry bushes here?  Well there are and I'm developing a real "hankerin'" for a blackberry cobbler..

I snapped this picture while on the boardwalk.
Somebody said these are "salmon berries"???
They look like blackberries to me.

Hope you enjoyed our tour of Victoria.  We had a good time.



The Ferry Fiasco

The ferry ramp

We saved $67.50 on a ferry crossing. The saving was ours by merely (1) traveling standby, thereby saving a $17.50 reservation fee and (2) separating Big Blackie from Endie, saving $50, for the 90 minute ferry trip from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, B.C.

Our ferry approaches. First it will unload then reload.

Driving into the ferry.

In exchange for the windfall savings, we simply (1) got up at 4 a.m. to line up in the dark at the port for our 8 a.m. sailing, (2) squeezed two vehicles into the belly of a giant ferry -- separately instead of together. As a bonus, this whole episode scared two little psychotic dogs to the point of near frenzy, an action that resulted in our having to hold them for half the ferry trip to get them to stop shaking.

About the Ferry:  This ferry trip is taken aboard the Black Ball Company's MVCoho, built in 1959. The ship is 341 feet long, weighs 5,135 tons and carries 1,000 passengers and 115 vehicles. It boards passengers and vehicles in Port Angeles at a port ramp and exits them in Victoria through the bow. MV Coho has a forward observation lounge, tour desk, and duty free shop. 

Wayne took a few pictures as we approached Victoria while I held Lexie and Ozzie.

Exiting the ferry we experienced the agony of (1) leaving my passport and drivers license in one vehicle while I was in the other, (always makes a good impression on the customs agent), (2) lost sight of one another while getting off a bustling ferry and into the chaos of downtown Victoria, (3) negotiated downtown Victoria‘s street construction with a walkie-talkie in one hand, steering wheel in the other, all while listening to Lady GaGa spewing incorrect directions, (4) having two vehicles driving lost in Victoria traffic instead of one while three loose bottles of wine rolled around the rear compartment of the car.

Once we reached the campground, I was so shaken, I put the car in “N” instead of “P” and it did, of course, roll into the rear of the truck parked ahead of me. Fortunately, no harm was done. The campground was not too bad and the "red sky at night was a sailors delight" I must say.

 

Did I mention that our US dollar is worth 97 cents this week in Canada? Now, what to do with the $67.50 savings…. At Canada’s prices it might buy lunch -- but not a t-shirt.  Incidently for those who may be interested in ferrying prices, this one way trip was right about $300.

Puget Sound and Port Townsend's 2012 Heat Wave

It’s not often we cover the same territory twice, but we‘re doing it now as we travel along the western side of Puget Sound north up to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. Our destination is the National Landmark Seaport of Point Hudson Marina. 



Our Point Hudson campsite is on the point. It's a nice spot but available to us for just one night.

This location is unique and offers boat slips, marine lifts, work pier, shipyard, moorage in addition to RV sites. There are restaurants, stores and shops within easy walking distance. We like it here despite the dust from the many cars that drive through the marina and park.

It was uncommonly hot the day we arrived but the heat lasted just one day -- cooling quickly by 20-30 degrees at sunset and the heat didn’t return the next day.



Wayne continues to mention buying a sailboat but he can't be serious..
But seriously, this place claims to be the wooden boat capital of the West Coast
even thought my picture is of fiberglass hulls.

Calm water in the harbor make great reflections in the photos.

Point Hudson Marina is situated, naturally, at lands end, just beyond the city of Port Townsend. Port Townsend Bay and Admiralty Inlet surround the marina and RV Park. The Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Point Wilson Lighthouse at Fort Worden State Park are within walking distance.

Our site is on the point and we have an excellent view of cruise ships finding their way to and from their ocean voyages.

More of Point Hudson Marina at Port Townsend, Washington

My morning walk through Port Townsend was especially nice. It was much too early for the tourists to be on the streets and I appreciated their absence. I walked almost the full length of the town and then out to the ferry dock.

For this photograph, I was standing on a pier looking back onto the docks of Port Townsend.

Port Townsend was founded in 1851 and is located about 40 miles from Seattle. The town's population is 8,925.  Port Townsend prides itself on its historic charm and stunning natural setting. In addition to its natural scenery, Port Townsend is known for many Victorian buildings remaining from its late 19th-century heyday. It is a maritime center for independent boat-builders. Port Townsend's Historic District is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District.

Port Townsend stands at the gateway to Puget Sound.

This old building has a very faded "Bull Durham" ad painted on the side.

Pulling into Port Townsend yesterday, we saw huge crowds in the streets. Apparently the crowds included some of the “Occupy Wall Street” group.  Their handiwork was evident in chalk all over the sidewalk and on the exterior of the Bank of America building. I later learned that "MoveOn" and "Occupy" rally here regularly.   



All was washed away with a hose just after I took this picture.

This morning's walk included a history lesson, as many walks do.  Near the end of my walk I came upon this memorial.  I learned about the USS Marvin Shields and the ship's namesake, Marvin Glenn Shields, of Port Townsend, the first and only Seabee Medal of Honor Recipient.

Of the half-dozen or so tourist and history publications we gathered about Port Townsend, amazingly, not a single mention is made of this memorial, the USS Marvin Shields or the young man for whom the ship was named.  I am outraged.

Marvin Shields was a product of Port Townsend and graduated from high school here. He enlisted in the Navy in 1962 and was part of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion II. Shields was chosen as a member of Seabee Team 1104, an elite group of 12 Seabees and a Navy Corpsman who served in remote areas.  At an Army Special Forces Camp in Dong Xoai, the camp came under heavy attack by a greatly superior force of Viet Cong Regulars. In spite of mortal wounds and envelopment by the enemy, Shields rescued a comrade and continued to fight to save his friends.

Marvin Shields

Coming Up...

We have a reason to return to the Olympic Peninsula… When we visited British Columbia last summer we thought about, but didn’t visit the capitol city of Victoria. Wayne had some regret that we didn’t make that trip, so we’ll do it now.

The ferry we’ll take is from nearby Port Angeles. It will take us directly into Victoria where we'll stay a few days.  Then we'll move up into Vancouver Island to see as much of the island as we feel compelled to see.  We'll take a return ferry back to the B.C. mainland.

Yellams: Seattle In A Day.



Blue Angels practice

By sheer accident, our visit to Seattle happened during Navy Fleet Week. The good news is that we will get to see Blue Angel practice flights in a clear blue sky over Puget Sound. It doesn’t get much better than that.

The bad news is that we’re doing it with a great many other tourists and Washingtonians -- coming from all over the state. 

The crowds are huge at the waterfront.





Safeco Field
Tough to photograph well.

So what’s at Seattle? Well… besides the thrill of the waterfront area, how ’bout seeing Bill Gates’ home, the Space Needle, Jimi Hendrix’s grave and the original Starbucks.

A most famous Seattle attraction isn’t even in Seattle -- it’s Mount Rainier, some 50 miles away. It makes a beautiful backdrop in so many scenes.







I’m not a big fan of large cities and the Olympia,-Seattle-Tacoma area is no exception. Traffic is heavy and much like southeast Florida as I remember it from our years there -- long lines of automobiles stretch from one city to the next most of the day.

Nevertheless, the weather is nice, albeit a might on the warm side (high 80‘s today), but pleasant in the shade.


Lexie and Ozzie were loaded into their pink stroller and we toured Seattle’s waterside piers. We watched the Blue Angel flight practice, ate seafood, shopped and took in all the sights, sounds, including a wedding in progress on one of the docks.

We did not ride the huge Ferris wheel in the pictures and I will not elaborate as to my reasons but you can probably guess....

Lunch at Ivar’s Fish Bar here in Seattle was a delicious basket of fried clams, crab salad and seafood chowder.


We ate at a table in the outdoor pavilion that’s  nearly always full of people.  I think we were luck to get a table.


Really good food and pleasant conversation with some locals.








Once we were fully exhausted, we returned to the car to retrieve our bonus for visiting Seattle -- a $44 parking ticket.





A new take on "Please don't drink and drive"

A regular challenge for our day outings is finding a place to walk the dogs. Our choice is to find a park that has concrete sidewalks and a mix of sun and shade and not too many children.

Our dogs are psychotic. Probably because of their puppymill history, they don't like walking on grass and can't walk on gravel. Lexie doesn't like being in bright sunlight (maybe some pending vision problems) and both dogs are afraid of children.

In today's search for a good dog walking spot, we happened upon this interesting sign.


Next stop is the Seattle Space Needle -- completed in 1962 for the 1963 World’s Fair.  This year there are many 50th Anniversary events taking place with memorabilia displayed on the observation deck.  A view from this vantage point is exciting even though I don't like heights.

  

The Space Needle looks like a space ship hovering over this residential mix neighborhood.

Finding Seattle's Space Needle took some doing, even with Lady GaGa (the gps) as there are so many narrow one-way streets in the area.



Parking at the Space Needle was impossible as long lines formed down the street.

In the end, we found a space at the bottom of the hill, several blocks away from the Space Needle. It was a nice shady spot, suitable for leaving Lexie and Ozzie alone in the car for awhile.

After walking about half-way back up that hill, we decided we didn’t want to fight the crowd to go inside the needle. We took a picture from this intersection and returned to the car, hot and tired.

The ride out of Seattle and back to the campground took nearly an hour. We were welcomed home by another glorious near-dusk view of Mount Rainier from our living room.

Mount Rainier dressed in her evening wear.

Memories of Galloping Gertie, Turner Joy and A Surprise Kitty

Our campsite backed up to the tall Red Cedars.
From our front and curb side windows we had
breathtaking views of Mount Rainier

The areas of Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle were experiencing a heat wave when we were there --mid-80's each day.

We selected a campground outside the metro area where it seems a bit cooler.

To our surprise, we would get an excellent view of beautiful snow-capped Mount Rainier, some 50 miles away!

At dusk, we were thrilled again to enjoy this full moon over the mountain.
Our good fortune!

I had forgotten that Galloping Gertie was in this area.  You know Galloping Gertie, don't you?  If you've ever seen a documentary film from November 7, 1940 showing the violent twist and subsequent collapse of a really long suspension bridge over Puget Sound, you know Gertie.

It was an early fact that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge swayed in the breeze even before it opened to the public. Several attempts had been made to correct the motion of the bridge but none were successful.  Shortly after construction began in 1938, the deck began to move vertically in heavy winds and construction workers gave the name Galloping Gertie to the undulating bridge.

The 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a very long suspension bridge spanning the Tacoma Narrows at Puget Sound near the Kitsap Peninsula. It opened to automobile traffic on the first day of July, 1940 only to collapse four months later in 40 mph wind conditions. No human died in the catastrophe but a black cocker spaniel, named Tubby, was left behind in the only car that fell into the water below. Neither the dog's body or the car were ever recovered. The car's driver crawled off the bridge on his hands and knees.

It took almost 10 years for a replacement bridge to be erected across the Tacoma Narrows.  The new bridge uses Galloping Gertie's tower pedestals and cable anchorages.  The collapsed parts to the Gertie were never recovered and now serve the underwater world as an artificial reef.  Later a second bridge would be built alongside the replacement to Galloping Gertie.


Tacoma Narrows Bridge(s).  Remains / Replacement of Galloping Gertie on the right.
Still scary today.

The collapse of Galloping Gertie was recorded and in 1998 was placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

The day we drove into Tacoma and then back again, we crossed these bridges and I remembered watching the film. I remembered seeing the black car rocking on the twisting bridge.  I don't like being in high places and I particularly dislike high bridges.  I thought about the little dog that died and the man that didn't.  I'm sure he had many sleepless nights. I'm sure the engineers who designed the original bridge had some sleepless nights too.

The ride across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was part of the day trip we were making to Puget Sound Naval (PSN) Shipyard at Bremerton. PSN Shipyard is the largest and most diverse shipyard on the West Coast and boasts the northwest's largest naval shore activity. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was established in 1891 as a naval station. During World War I, the shipyard built new ships including 25 submarine chasers, six submarines, two minesweepers, seven seagoing tugs, and two ammunition ships, as well as 1,700 small boats.  That's some shipyard!





Along the way, we were thrilled to see this Kitsap Animal Rescue van pass along side us. 

Animal rescue is dear to my heart.


At Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, we expect to see Turner Joy.  You DO remember Turner Joy, don't you?  The USS Turner Joy was the last ship in the FORREST SHERMAN - class of destroyers. Her keel was laid down on September 30, 1957 in Seattle and she was launched on May 5, 1958

But our interest in the USS Turner Joy was her involvement in the Tonkin Gulf Incident in 1964 that  lead the US government to step-up involvement in the conflict in Vietnam -- our generation's war.

We came to see her today and enjoyed several hours here. Like most veterans, Wayne is growing more nostalgic about his military comrades and the Vietnam conflict as he ages. He is actively working toward getting more of his lost CMA colleagues the recognition they deserve. I'm proud of his effort.
  Decommissioned on November 22, 1982, and stricken from the Navy list on February 13, 1990, the Turner Joy was donated to the Bremerton Historic Ships Association on April 10, 1991.    Then we got a bonus:  We were fortunate to get a glimpse of another war hero as we passed the docks:  The USS Kitty Hawk.  While a really good photo was not possible to get, as she could only be seen briefly as we drove by, I caught this fair shot of the ship's stern.

It takes a real close look to see "Kitty Hawk" across the stern.

Upon return to the campground just before nightfall, I got another picture of beautiful Mount Rainier, this time dressed formally for the evening.  I read somewhere the mountain peak can be seen from as far away as Victoria on a very clear day.