Victoria BC by way of the Clipper

Five years. That is the anniversary we celebrated, my wife and I. We hopped aboard the Victoria Clipper, headed for Vancouver Island and the capitol city of British Columbia. The trip lasted about 3 hours from shore to shore. We rented a very nice suite with a full kitchen, living room and separate bedroom.

We decided to pamper ourselves the first evening, so we purchased mud masks and bath bombs, shopped for some snack food and chocolate, bought a bottle of scotch and retired to the room for the rest of the night. We watched "Rio Bravo" while our mud faces dried to a crackle and paced Dean Martin drink for drink. Thank heavens he gave up drinking towards the end!

The plan was to visit the Butchart Gardens one of the days and go kayaking on another. Victory was achieved on both fronts, even though there were times when it seemed fate was against us. One of the greatest attractions in Victoria is Miniature World, a museum filled with tiny dioramas of various scenes ranging from historical sites to storybooks. It has to be seen to be believed. Another thing to be mentioned is that aside from the fact that Victoria has more pubs and chocolatiers than anywhere I've been, they also have an inordinate swarm of young homeless people. Spare changers rivaled those in San Francisco. Other than that, we had a fine time.