Victoria, BC

First of all, thanks to all of you for your backup hints. I promise to do better in the future. Like the technician said, "You only lose your data once." Since the computer is under warranty and is being sent back to HP, I don't have the option to keep the old hard drive. They'll probably refurbish it for some other sucker to use. Like I said, I'm not really upset about it and am happy to still have the ones in the blog.

On to other things. Since we're here in Sequim at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula, several of us decided to ride the ferry over to pretty Victoria on Vancouver Island. From nearby Port Angeles, WA, to Victoria, the ferry costs $33 for a foot passenger and a whole bucket of money for a car, so we left the cars in Port Angeles. The day began with fog as so many of them do, so we had this lovely view off the bow of the ship.


But nothing dims the enthusiasm of the WINs. Look how happy Diane, Carolyn, Margaret, Trish, and Marian are.


Arriving in Victoria, I noticed these houseboats in the harbor. Even the houseboats are adorable.


Right at the head of the harbor is the historic Empress Hotel. I understand you can get a room there for just a couple hundred to two thousand dollars a night.


We decided to pretend that we belong there and check out the lobby. Here Marvin, Peggy, and Ron get comfortable. Peggy says you can tell the tourists by their shoes. What do you think?


Victoria is known for beautiful flowers. I heard there are 1500 hanging baskets all over town.


I thought this rendering of Mona Lisa was interesting. It must be hard to emulate the masters on a brick sidewalk. Her mouth looks a bit off kilter. (I couldn't get this one to post right side up.)


I don't think I've ever seen so many boats in one place. Of course if you live on an island, it would be helpful to have one.


Vancouver Island is famous for totem poles. This was my favorite one in Thunderbird Park. Duncan, about 50 km to the north, is known as the City of Totems.


Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and the lovely Legislative Buildings are also right on the harbor.


We were allowed to walk around the public areas freely.


But when Ron asked where he could get a donut, we had to hand over our IDs for security passes. Hum.