One Day in Victoria, British Columbia

After a few food-filled days in Southern California, my boyfriend and I woke up at 5:00am on Tuesday morning to hit the ground running to our next destination. We hopped on a painfully early flight to Seattle and spent the next few hours commuting by plane, by car, by Washington State Ferry, and by car again to rush to Canada to try to take full advantage of the two days we had there.

Despite the back-to-back transfers we didn’t get to Victoria, British Columbia’s capital and our first destination, until the early evening. Luckily, this is my favorite time of day because everything is lit with an incredible golden glow before sunset, so it made this “City of Gardens” all the more beautiful.

Canada is a country that’s often overlooked and under-appreciated by Americans as an international destination because it seems so close to home (literally and figuratively). An oft-repeated conversation: “Have you been outside of the country?” “No. Well, I’ve been to Canada but that doesn’t really count.”

Aside from Montreal, people often forget the strong European influences that persist throughout the country. Lonely Planet lovingly describes Victoria as being “built upon crusty olde English traditions,” and they aren’t wrong.. to an extent (you’re welcome, Lonely Planet, for the validation).

Victoria feels like an English town fraught with tradition but with a cosmopolitan face lift. It also feels somehow miniaturized. The city is big, but not that big. The buildings are tall but not that tall. They even have mini parking spots around town just for the abundance of small cars:

Smart Car to the left, mini parking spot in the middle (not sure why the little car didn’t park in the little spot)

After we arrived in Victoria, we decided to take a short drive through Beacon Hill Park, a gorgeous little fantasy-land of a place with beautiful flowers and fountains. But I was somewhat (maybe more than somewhat) cranky from the day’s long commute and from the unexpectedly cold evening temperatures so we were rushing through until we spotted a group of people playing cricket (check out the scoreboard on top of the cute little house!):

And then at the edge of the park, a couple of men paragliding in the glow of the sunset:

The serenity of this scene actually gave me pause and I momentarily forgot the cold. After a few minutes of watching, enamored, we hopped back into the car and drove to Spinnakers, Canada’s first brewpub, for a flight of beers, a warm meal, and a view of the Inner Harbour.

After an early night, we woke up refreshed the next morning and decided to take a leisurely stroll around town. There were, again, those British influences:

But there were also surprises. Totem poles by the aboriginal peoples of British Columbia in Thunderbird Park:

Apparently the world’s tallest totem pole is in this park (not shown)

And some humor:

This is for real:

And what would a trip to Britain Canada be without afternoon tea? The White Heather Tea Room is considered by many to have the best afternoon tea in Victoria, and each morsel was amazing:

Since we had so little time in Victoria, and the city was so beautiful, we decided to splurge on a seaplane tour. We’d never been in a seaplane before so we couldn’t wait for our timeslot. It was supposed to be the highlight of our day.

But as we circled repeatedly above Victoria, I looked out the window and just felt kind of.. underwhelmed? Without any commentary to describe what we were seeing, it wasn’t much different from just being in a commercial plane that’s coming in for a landing. And surprisingly, a landing on water feels not that different from a landing on a runway. Definitely not worth the money. At least I got some nice photos:

Johnson Street Bridge from above

After the plane ride, and not wanting to end on such a disappointing note, we decided to stop by Miniature World for one last hurrah. While the museum is highly touted, we almost skipped it because the marketing materials were about 40 years old and we were afraid the museum would seem just as outdated. It ended up being the surprise of the day- rooms and rooms full of historical, fairy tale, and modern-day scenes set up in painstaking detail:

Huge London set-up

On our way back to our car, we stopped by Red Fish, Blue Fish a popular seafood eatery set up inside of a shipping container (I guess they’re the big thing nowadays??) for a quick bite. Pretty hip for a town “built upon crusty olde English traditions.” And not a bad way to end a wonderful 24 hours in Victoria.