Saturday, August 23, 2014

Alaskan Cruise Day 7: Victoria, British Columbia CANADA

This day was definitely different in that we didn’t dock in Victoria until 2:30!  We slept in a bit, but I didn’t want to sleep away more time on the ship!  We ate breakfast at O’Sheehans and then ended up meeting everyone else in the lobby.  I was trying to get some various questions answered at the front desk, and there happened to be a really good band playing in the front lobby, so Mom, Dad and Josh got a table there to relax and listen.  I headed back to our room to get as much packing done as possible before joining them to read/listen to music.  We met Mom and Dad at Topsiders for lunch and ate near the pool.  We were anxious to get off the boat right away, and as we were deboarding, Michelle and Larry called out to us.  They were hoping to find us and hang out with us as we explored the city.  Josh explained his plan to geocache around Victoria and some of the things we would see, and they were game, so off we went!  
We started off right by the pier by walking along The Unity Wall out to the lighthouse for a pretty view.  

On the way back, we ducked down to walk right along the water on the rocks.  
From there we walked up to a park area for a couple of geocaches and to walk over to the Terry Fox Memorial.  This is a really cool story, so you should click the link and read about it.  

Josh had a geocache at St. Ann's Schoolhouse, which was a cute old schoolhouse with pretty good history.  
We wandered through parts of Beacon Hill Park which included seeing a cool sundial, beautiful rose gardens, the Victoria Lawn Bowling Club and a really cute pond with different obstacles for radio-control boats!  

We really got into the downtown area next, and we walked through some neat art fair stalls and street performers on our way to see Empress Hotel and the British Columbia Parliament building.  Both of these were beautiful buildings!  

Victoria is famous for its gardens and hanging baskets around the city—everything was gorgeous!  


We stopped at a really cute coffee shop because the owner had a cache hidden INSIDE the shop!  It was a perfect stop for a smoothie snack and a little free wi-fi J 
 We took a break for a bit of souvenir shopping...
 ...and posing with some fun Canadian friends :)
   We began walking around the Inner Harbor, which was really pretty.   
 Jackson's Ice Cream Shop!
 It ended at Victoria's Fisherman's Wharf which was a cute area to walk around, but it included Float Home Village.  This is a village of houseboats!   
 Some of them were SO adorable!  It was really fun wandering up and down the docks checking out the cute decorations. 
 Check out the adorable mini-double-decker bus!
 We headed back to the ship around 8pm, and we really felt like we got a nice tour of the city.  It was beautiful, and we would love to go back to visit!  Mom and Dad were already on board, so we regrouped and met for dinner at Azura.  It was a late dinner, so we hurried back to our rooms to get our luggage out (the suitcases were picked up before midnight so they were ready for pick-up in the morning).  Then we met back up for one last night of relaxing and game-playing in O’Sheehans.  

Our last towel friend: Mouse!

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