Victoria, BC has quickly become one of my favorite places.
All it took was a weekend for me to fall in love with it’s beautiful landscapes, friendly inhabitants, and antique charm. I had been once before in 8th grade, and again on our Alaskan cruise. The more recent visit was one of mere hours, and I knew that I wanted to come back again and spend more time there. My wish was granted this last weekend, and now I think our Victoria visits will have to become a regular occurrence.
I absolutely loved that we were able to walk everywhere. No matter where we wanted to go, it was never farther than a mile from where we were. We covered a lot of ground and didn’t have to worry about transportation the whole time we were there.
Let me tell you all about it! Or better yet, let me show you. I was basically taking pictures every step we took because there was always something quaint or beautiful to capture.
Our trip started on Friday with an 8 a.m. ferry out of Seattle, WA. The ferry ride was only 2 hours and 45 minutes, so we were docked in Victoria, through customs, and hitting the Canadian streets by 11 a.m.
We were starved, but walked the short block to our hotel (Harbor Towers) to drop of our bags. To our surprise, our room was ready to go so we checked in and gawked at the view from our room for a bit. Anxious to start exploring, we headed downtown to exchange some money. It was only a short walk to our lunch spot, Red Fish Blue Fish – a tiny shack that serves delicious fish and chips right on the water. We ordered up and sat outside, enjoying the blue skies and our tasty meal.
After lunch, we walked around some more. We saw the giant and royal-looking Empress Hotel, as well as the beautiful BC parliament building. I loved how almost everywhere was completely decked for Halloween – how fun! I really want to go back for Christmas to see it then…
Next we walked over to the tiny fisherman’s wharf. We got to see lots of people feeding the adorable seals that swim up by the docks. They made me miss my puppies:) We wandered through looking at all of the floating houses – they are seriously so cool! I couldn’t believe people actually live in them. They looked like something from a storybook. I saw a sign for mini doughnuts at a place called Grilligan’s, and I just couldn’t resist. They were delish.
We wandered down back to our a hotel, a different way than we’d come, enjoying the fall scenery. Back at the hotel we relaxed for a little bit before freshening up for dinner. We ended up walking to a place called Pizzeria Prima Strada for some Neopolitan pizza. It was small, cozy, and beautifully decorated. We ordered a Canadian cider to go with our pizza. It was crisp and refreshing – a great find.
After dinner we walked back to our hotel, calling it a night.
Come back soon to read about day 2!
[…] Did you catch part 1 of my weekend in […]