Victoria Day 1

Continued from Seattle Day 3.

This morning started really early. Way too early. We got up at 6ish. Since this is the off tourist season, almost everything runs on a reduced schedule. There is only one ferry that leaves from Seattle to Victoria today, and it sails at 8 in the morning. Ugh.

We were told that we need to be at the ferry terminal an hour before sailing, so we called our cab way early at 7:40am. It’s 7:45 when we leave the room to go to the lobby.

Rain, check. Dark morning, check. Cab, fuck no. We called for a cab the other night, and the cab never showed. Same thing this morning. 30 minutes after we had called, there was nothing but the falling rain. zero for two for calling cabs in Seattle.

We decided to walk towards Westin, where they have a taxi stand. On the way there, we saw a cab parked outside another hotel just idling. Perfect!

Arrived at the terminal in no time. It’s still dark out.

It was a breeze to check in our bags. No lines to wait in either. They did ask and make sure that neither of us had a DUI as Canada does not allow people with DUI to enter.

Some breakfast before we board.

This is a much smaller ferry than the one we took to Bainbridge Island. This ferry reminds me of the ferries that I took from Hong Kong to Macau.

Goodbye Seattle. Why don’t you go rain on yourself now.

I was looking around, and I saw that otters and whales were for sale. Hahaha…

Now it all makes sense. I was so amused at my initial entertaining thought that they sold live otters and whales that I bought one just for fun.

It may have been grey and rainy, but the water was super smooth. Very comfortable ride.

In a little under 3 hours, we’ve arrived in Victoria!

Of course, it’s wet and grey here too.

There she is, the Empress hotel, where we’ll be staying. It was built in 1908, so there’s plenty of history behind it. The best part is that it’s a short walk from where the ferry drops off.

Oops, someone left their lens cap.

Parliament building.

The lobby was not very impressive.

Nor is the view from our window, facing the back.

Then, they dinged us to use internet. It is, however, fast.

And the rooms were not impressive either. The rooms were pretty pricy as well at $225. Sigh. It’s one of those things that I just had to do it once. I know if I came here to Victoria and didn’t stay at the Empress, I would have wondered what if. Now I know.

The front view from the elevator area looking out onto the harbor.

The Empress is famous for their Afternoon Tea. We had originally made reservations to have tea at 2, but since we arrived so early, we rescheduled to 12:15.

The area where Afternoon Tea will be served. It was not very crowded as this is the off tourist season. I believe this used to be the original lobby before they added the side entrance lobby.

All you can eat food! The scones were out of this world. I’ve never in my life liked scones, but these were something else. Soooo good!

My tea with some sort of pineapple flavor.

OC tells a joke(it was a joke insulting me), and then proceeds to laugh at her own joke uncontrollably.

Oh my god, oh my god, I can’t breath, I am so funny. This went on for 30 seconds straight. I know, I checked the camera time stamp.

Afternoon Tea was a good experience, but it was not cheap. It was $75 each including tip. I would actually call it super expensive for what you get out of it. Again, one of those things that I had to do or else I’d regret coming all this way and not experiencing it.

The rain stopped and for a split second it even became sunny after our tea, so we decided to take advantage and take a stroll around Victoria.

There were these crazy looking willow like trees in the front of our hotel.

Victoria caters big time to tourists. This place is pretty dead without all the tourists.

I laughed. Looked again, then laughed again. It’s Halloween today and Darth Vader is playing classical violin.

I know it says shift is open, but is it trying to get people to somehow read it as shit is open?

Saw this guy, Larry, in one of the stores. He was hilarious.

I first noticed the strip club on the first floor. Then I noticed the hotel on the top floors. Then I put two and two together and made out that this combination makes it a whore house.

Chinatown. Big gate, little presence. It’s basically one block.

OC wanted to take a look at a Canadian grocery store, so here we are. I am a fan, they’ve got a 911 with whale tail painted on their wall no other reasons than that it’s bad ass.

I bet this is so fresh and so good. Jealous.

I seem to remember seeing Ketchup flavored chips else where. Was it in England or in India?

Some of the cross walk signs have the little walk man symbol in a much more enthusiastic walking pose than usual. Here’s OC doing what she does best, imitating something that has never been imitated before.

Check it out, alcohol.

Holy shit! $47 for something that would be less than half price in Austin! The exchange rate between USD and CAD is essentially 1 for 1.

The back of our hotel looks pretty impressive too. Unfortunately, I think the exterior is more stately and impressive than the interior.

We walked by this place earlier, made note of how cheap their oyster were, and now we are back for an early dinner.

Let’s give half a dozen a try first. Yum! Let’s open the floodgates.

From our seat at dinner, we could see that they light up the Parliament building at night. I am guessing this is in preparation for the holiday season.

The bottle of wine we got at the liquor store really comes in handy with their $2 cork fee that gets donated to charity.

Another dozen shows up.

Then another dozen.

Then surf and turf! This was on special for $24. There are some perks to traveling in the off season. I am sure our server did not expect us to eat so much food with our initial test the waters half dozen of oysters.