Our family vacation this summer was to Victoria, B.C., and while we stayed in Victoria, we also took the opportunity to explore a bit of Vancouver Island as well. There will be a few posts regarding this whole trip, but this first one will just cover getting there as well as one of the highlights of the trip.
There are two ferries from the United States that connect with Canada’s Vancouver Island. I am not talking about the Victoria Clipper which is a passenger service between Seattle and Victoria, but the two different options for vehicles. One goes between Anacortes, Washington and Sidney, British Columbia, about 30 minutes north of Victoria. The other is a route between Victoria and Port Angeles.
On the way to Victoria we took the ferry between Anacortes and Sidney. We chose to get a reservation, which was an additional cost, but it assured our spot in line and a departure time that worked for us – between leaving the house, getting to the ferry, as well as landing at the destination and finally travelling on to the end point . It was still a long line.
The ferry ride itself was quite fun. You can see Ciaran, August, Xavier and Laura in this shot. Well, sort of.
Tevye had a lot of fun on the ferry, despite the lengthy trip.
Snacks helped.
We got to our house in Victoria, got settled in, and figured out where everybody was sleeping, picked up some groceries, and went to bed. The next morning we had blueberry pancakes, which were a major hit.
That first full day we also hit the Royal B.C. Museum. Laura and I had visited before, but it had been a long time, so we were looking forward to returning as well as sharing it with our kids.
The fact that there is so much on the outside of the museum should demonstrate the quality of the exhibits inside.
It is difficult to not be impressed with the native peoples displays, which are numerous.
Another massive portion of the museum is taken over with the development of the region, a sort of industrial history, if you will.
The highlight of this all, however, was the Egypt temporary exhibit. Déla was nearly beside herself with excitement when she found out this would be happening while we would be in Victoria. This was a large and extensive examination of ancient Egypt, and highly interesting as well as enlightening and interesting.
There were so many artifacts, some of which any other museum could use to build an entire collection around, but here it was just another item on the wall.
Yes, there were the requisite sarcophagi.
Actually, this was such a cool exhibit I might do another post focusing on it.
I will post more from our trip to Victoria in the days ahead, but this is a good start.