Continued from Victoria Day 2 Part 1.

We drove by a vineyard, and decided to turn in for some wine tasting.

Wait a minute, this is not a joke…

One of the dogs in question.

I know red, white, and rose. OC knows everything else. My job is to drink what’s put in front of me and what’s left of her glass so she doesn’t get too drunk. Sounds fair.

Second dog in question. This one would keep coming by whenever one of us reached into the bowl of goldfish crackers sitting on the counter. I wonder how my big dumb mutt is doing at home?

The proprietress of the winery had actually lived in Austin before. She was super nice, so we ended up with two bottles of wine. The rationale was that by buying two $20 bottles, we would bypass the $6/each tasting cost. I guess that makes sense, if sense is to walk out with a bottle of wine in each hand.

Came out of tasting to blue skies and sunshine! Why couldn’t we have nice nonrainy weather inside Butchard Gardens?

After the winery, we turn back South towards Victoria. We plan on driving a scenic route that follows the coastline back to Victoria.

You see that thing in the top right? Yup, that’s the burning fireball that we call the sun. It is glorious and it puts light on everything.

Pumpkins!

After turning off the main highway, we headed towards the coast. The beach lies ahead.

Stunning.

The water is crystal clear at this time of the year.

This may look like paradise, but all is not well. OC and I got in a fight in the car. It’s bound to happen with two friends who spend so much time together. We both like to practice one upmanship. Strong personalities clash, and there’s no where to hide and run away to in the car. I don’t remember what we fought about. In fact, I am not sure I ever knew what we fought about even when we were fighting. It was an emotionally draining war.

Must have stick.

Seals hunting with seagulls circling above.

A different scenic outlook.

The rocky coast reminds me a little of Maine.

The cold war between OC and I couldn’t have lasted forever. It’s hard to stay pissed off with such a beautiful backdrop. We finally called for a truce, and I am happy to report that all is still well. I am sure we’ll fight again, but I am also confident that we’ll know how to call a truce for that fight as well. I did wonder whether we’d still be fighting if it wasn’t so damn beautiful all around us. I bet if the scenery sucked, we might still be brooding like two childish idiots.

Golf course. Another place where people regularly get pissed off in the middle of a beautiful backdrop.

Why are there so many holes in this driftwood?

Hmmm…

Hmmm….

HHHHmmmmm……..

Like a King.

Looks like a Menorah.

Who took my sunshine away? Oh I know, the fog.

Back in Victoria.

It took us probably 15 extra minutes to find a gas station to top off our tank in the rental. Apparently, Canadian cars don’t use gasoline, but run on eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh.

We dropped off the car, and went by the bus station to buy our tickets to Vancouver. Came back to the hotel, OC went to workout, and I started working on the blog. I am starving. I only had a medium sized breakfast, and I was only able to snack on a few cookies while OC was busting ass at the gym.

Dinner time! OC finally got back from the gym, took a shower, and we were off to eat curry! This is the Bengal Lounge in our hotel and it serves a curry buffet. Yum.

This is the standard that I had expected for the rest of The Empress. They had a motherfucking tiger skin rug as the mantel piece!! Baller!

OHHHH YES!

Ah, Indian food! This is the bond that ties OC and I together. We met eating Indian food in a hotel while traveling in India. Now we are eating Indian food in a hotel while traveling in Canada. But wait, there’s also a tiger skin rug on the wall!

The signature drink of this place, Empress 1908. It’s got the Empress blend tea with vodka and egg white. Egg white cocktails are the best.

OC, again, laughing uncontrollably. You would be correct in guessing that she is again laughing at one of her own jokes.

We couldn’t figure out what these things were at first, then they were turned on. They are fans that move back and forth.

A live music duo sets up shop around the corner. They were fucking awesome. They sang really awesome R&B stuff. We requested Morcheeba, and they complied. We were the two youngest people in here by probably 15 years. We loved the band, but the band did not fit the venue at all. They were too young and too hip.

Oh yeah, dinner. It was amazing. We stuffed our faces and more. Very happy with our choice. Love me some good curry.

OC wanted to go hit the bars after dinner. She really wants to get Guinness on draft. Sure.

There are tons of Irish pubs all over Victoria. I am guessing a lot of Irish moved here when this was part of the British colony. Either way, this place had Guinness on draft, but OC didn’t like the vibe.

The city goes dead at night. It’s not even 9 yet.

We walked into another Irish pub that had Guinness on draft, but again walked out because the crowd wasn’t quite right.

This one we didn’t even go in.

We finally ended up at a dive bar that we saw the other day. It had bras hanging on all the rafters on the ceiling. We figured the locals would congregate here, and we were correct in that assessment.

Filled with bras.

This was definitely the happening scene. This is the only bar in the area that was actually full. No Guinness on draft though, but the vibe was good.

They gave out free peanuts, which meant shells all over the floor.

We sat next to this couple who lived in Victoria. The woman had actually lived in Austin for 8 months! What’s up with me meeting random people who have lived in Austin. Anyhow, this bar is kind of an establishment, having been here 30 or 40 years. I wonder who started the tradition of hanging the bras. They also had a buzzer inside that would go off every time a prank was played. There are fish lines that connect to little scary things that would drop onto you. The bartender would just scare people randomly for fun.

It’s strange because this dive bar shares bathrooms with normal businesses. You’d walk out of a place with drunks and bras into a very clean bathroom on the other side of the hallway. I also noticed no visible tattoos during the time I’ve been in Victoria. This is no Austin.

We left the first bar in search of another bar, one that serves Guinness on draft. We’ve been told by several people that Swan’s is the place to be.

Found Swan’s, which was about 5 blocks out of the way. They had Guinness on tap, but the crowd was a bit old and sparse. Perhaps it’s time to call it a night. Victoria is just not a great party city.

Nothing happening.

I came up with this awesome insightful and deep interpretation.

Then OC pointed down and said that I was probably reading too much into it since it’s named Hide & Seek.

Parliament still lit up.

The Empress was lit up tonight in kind of creepy colors. Extra creepy with the moon shining through the clouds.

We went back to the room and we both got on our computers. Went to bed at 2ish but ended up talking about nothing and everything until 3:30 because neither of us felt very sleepy due to sleeping in this morning. I feel like an idiot for fighting earlier. I wonder if she feels the same…

To be continued at Vancouver Day 1.