Day 358 Off to Victoria, BC

After getting ourselves presentable--showers--we took off by bus for Victoria to tour and meet up with some of our friends from back home that happened to be in town for a stitching "camp".  More on that later.

Here are some pictures of the Port Of Sidney Marina.  A nice place to stay with some incredible boats.  Lots and I mean lots of money in these toys.  Really BIG boy toys float in this marina.  We were on one of the smaller boats and probably one of the oldest yet we had several people stop by to inquire about Zephyr and say how much they liked her looks.

Once we got to Victoria, we walked around getting our bearings by stopping by the local tourist bureau.  They got us set up with maps and recommendations for a restaurant for lunch.  Off to the "China Town" section.  Tasty, but I'll still take the Shanghai Restaurant in Point Hudson.  We wandered about watching the small sea planes coming in and out ferrying tourist over the harbor.

Heck you can see one of the planes in this photograph(click on it to make it larger).  Another beautiful day.  A good bit of wind of course since we weren't out sailing but hey, what the heck.

We passed by trees in bloom.  With beautiful white blossoms all over the place.

We wandered around not even bothering to go in any of the shops we passed as we have so little room left on Zephyr, it has become the rule that if some thing comes on board, something has to come off.

We passed by Government House.  Apparently, the steps up to the front door can only be used by the Queen so the biggest gates to get inside are blocked closed to the public.

You can see the steps off to the left.  There is another much smaller door there for the general public to enter.  There are guards and a blockade beside the steps to make sure everyone stays off them.  Now there is a lady with clout!!!

We passed by the Empress Hotel.  Another huge building right on the waterfront.  We could 

have docked our boat right below it as there is dock space available for several boats.  There was a mega yacht tied up the the pier just off to the side.  One of the biggest we have ever seen.

We met up with Claudia and Brenda about 1700 and went off for a nice dinner.  It's the first time we have seen them since we left almost a year ago.

We caught up on everything happening back home.  It was great to see them again.  The "camp" they are attending is given by a local cross stitch designer with people flying in from all over the place to get together and stitch and learn new things.  When we had our store back in Littleton, we had "camps" similar to this one just not in quite so fancy a place.  We were up in the mountains in a large home we rented with a private chef taking care of the food needs and a masseuse to get rid of any kinks that might have developed.  Add in a hot tub and a good time was always had by all.  Our friends will be here till Sunday but we will be setting out tomorrow.

The weather forecast is for good winds out of the Southwest or West so it's perfect for us to start heading up North into the Gulf Islands.  Out big journey is about to begin!!  Now that we have internet service in Canada, I can continue keeping all of you up to date as to what we are doing and where we are doing it.  We'll see how good the Canadian wifi is up here in the islands.

Wish us luck tomorrow.  It would be nice to finally have some decent wind to help push us along.  It's cheaper than diesel!