Favourite 2015 travel photos. Victoria, BC. May 2015
Victoria: Two days in pictures
I really enjoyed my first visit to Victoria back in April. It was a very picturesque city, especially under two days of blue skies and warm temperatures. I didn’t do any formal tours or visit any museums or galleries, instead, I chose to do some urban exploring. I gave my wandering a bit of structure by visiting some public art installations within walking distance of my downtown hotel, but outside of that, took it pretty easy for two days. Here are some of the sights and activities from around Victoria that caught my eye over two days.
Although not in Victoria, the journey there on the ferry from Vancouver gave me gorgeous views throughout the ninety minute trip:
The water plays a key part in the ambiance of Victoria. This is the inner harbour with the city’s downtown on the other side:
Touring Victoria’s public art
Victoria has a very compact and walkable downtown. Using the incredibly helpful Public Art Inventory website, I created a walking tour of Victoria that would take me past many of the public art installations around the centre of the city. The travel gods were also nice enough to give me two perfectly sunny days for my urban exploring. Map in hand, I started off close to my hotel near Victoria’s Chinatown. The first piece that caught my eye was the striking “Red Dragon” by Ping Tsing at the corner of Pandora and Government.
About a block and a half north on Government just outside the Chinatown gates was “Dragon Dance” by Robert Amos. This mural was painted by children from the Chinese Public School and commemorated the 150th anniversary of Victoria’s Chinatown – the oldest Chinatown in Canada.
Favourite 2015 travel photos. Port Renfrew, BC. April 2015.
Rainy Day in Port Renfrew
A meal with a view
When I pulled into Sooke, BC, toward the end of my day long road trip around Vancouver Island, I knew I was in for something special. Down the hill from the main road through the town and perched just above the Strait of Juan de Fuca is the Sooke Harbour House. This award winning restaurant and hotel has long been on my bucket list, and when I knew I was going to be in British Columbia this past April, I arranged my plans around dining here, going so far as to make a reservation four months in advance.
I arrived a bit early for my reservation so I could wander around their picturesque property. After living through a winter unlike any before, it took some head shaking to realize I was standing in a fully in bloom garden in April.
A road trip to recharge
On my trip out west back in April, one of the things I was most looking forward to was a day long road trip around the southern part of Vancouver Island. All added up, I put about 350km on my rental car on a journey from downtown Victoria to Duncan and Chemanius along the east side of the island, then across the interior to Port Renfrew, before heading down the west coast to Sooke, before heading back to Victoria. My main concern leading up to the road trip day was the weather – the forecast had been calling for very heavy rain. But as I pulled out of Victoria early in the morning and made my way toward Duncan, the skies were almost perfectly blue. My first stop was at Malahat Lookout, about 30km outside Victoria to take in this outstanding view. Not a bad place to enjoy an early morning coffee.
A Vancouver craft beer crawl
One of the significant advantages of visiting a city for the second time is that it affords you plenty of time to dig into it much deeper. For my most recent visit to Vancouver, one of the things I wanted to explore was the thriving craft beer community on the west coast. On my previous trip there a few years back, I had a quick taste of west coast craft beer on a night at the Alibi Room. On this visit, although I had more in depth explorations planned, I found myself back at the Alibi for a couple of sampler trays and a delicious bison cheese steak. My favourite beers? In the first sampler tray (photo on the left), the Brassneck Staircase wit (beer on the far right) and the Four Winds pale ale (beer on the far left) were outstanding. In the second sampler (photo on the right), the Red Truck lager (left most beer) was a wonderful easy drinking sessional. Another Brassneck beer, the white IPA (second from right), was truly exceptional – a piney, citrusy mashup of a west coast IPA and wit. My multi-day Vancouver beer crawl was off to a great start.
Favourite 2015 travel photos. Vancouver, BC. April 2015.
Coal Harbour
Beaches, tacos and giraffe feeding
I am just back and shaking off jet lag from a second trip to the Pacific Coast in about a month. This past week in San Diego reaffirmed my affection for the west coast. From a personal perspective on this mixed work/vacation trip, the leisure portion of the week provided me and my wife a much needed breather and change of scenery. In only seven days, San Diego gave us what felt like two weeks of vacation. The west coast has always done that for me and this trip was no different.
Each day brought something unique and memorable. On one day it was a walk along Pacific Beach north of the city and a feed of fresh crab overlooking the ocean. Another day was spent at the San Diego Zoo where we got an opportunity to feed a giraffe, watch a polar bear swim up close, and wander among koalas. We ventured over to Tijuana, Mexico, and got a guided tour of the city including visiting a local market, walking along a beach just south of the Mexico-USA border, and sitting down for a lunch of tacos the likes of which I have never experienced before. Speaking of tacos, I had a feed of them every day and every which way – baja tacos, grilled fish, carnitas, al pastor, pollo verde, carne asade, conchita pibil. There was a fun night at a Padres game, some touring of the city of San Diego, a quiet morning in a rooftop pool, some more beach time over in Coronado, more than a bit of craft beer sampling, and a whole lot of R&R.
It was a splendid first visit to San Diego and to Tijuana, even if it is now causing me severe taco withdrawal.
Exploring more Vancouver public art
On a trip to Vancouver a couple of years back, I spent some time exploring public art around the city. I only scratched the surface of Vancouver’s large and diverse public art collection, so back in April with a few art maps in my hand, I set off for a few walks around the city. For me, this has become a “must do” when visiting a city for the first (or second, in this case) time. A walk around a city exploring public art has largely replaced gallery or museum visits for me. I like the combination of interesting modern art, hunting for it (even with a good map, sometimes it takes advanced detective skills to actually pinpoint its location) and doing that against the backdrop of neighbourhoods and sights that I might not have explored otherwise.
On an evening walk along the waterfront, I visited one of my favourite pieces of public art in Vancouver – the Olympic Cauldron outside the Vancouver Convention Centre. Even without the torches lit, it’s an impressive reminder of the 2010 Olympics which will always hold a special place in the hearts of all Canadians.
Bluenose Traveler 