Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Victoria for the Non-sailors

While Eric was out battling the seas aboard Different Drummer, Chris, Megan and I moseyed around Victoria. The great thing is that the city is compact and completely accessible via walking. Just wear comfy shoes and you'll be fine. 

a bike race (free):
The museum ($13/person, cheaper with student ID. And I'm going to incur the wrath of a lot o' folks here when I say...I didn't think it was worth it. And I LOVE natural history museums. I just didn't find the exhibits to be very engaging or informative. And, again, at the risk of sounding like a total snob: skip it, BUT make up for it by spending an entire day at the Smithsonian natural history museum the next time you're in DC. I know, you probably don't head to DC every other weekend [I've only been once in my life]...but it's completely worth it. Trust me on this one.)
The State Assembly tour (free, 30 minutes and very informative. Plus they include all the town gossip about the original architects)
 But, if we're being honest with ourselves, we spent most of our time eating. We're good at that. Our list of meals is as follows: Dinner at a pub (fish and chips), breakfast, ice cream, no lunch, dinner at a Thai place, ice cream, breakfast, lunch at a pub (hamburgers).

We also spent time tracking Eric's race via the Swiftsure race tracker. Which was great, until the wind died. And then we spent a lot of time saying: "They're STILL at 68% complete?! They were 68% complete two hours ago!

Anyway, we would recommend skipping the Harbor Taxis Ballet performance. It was a definite dud.
The two things we didn't do were Buschart Gardens and tea at the Empress Hotel. Both because they were dreadfully expensive (approx. $50/person, each). We peeked into the lobby of the Empress. And promptly turned around. Which was good, since they probably would have thrown us out a few moments later..


Overall, it was a very nice trip, despite the chilly weather.