Cruise in Review: Victoria, British Columbia

As I mentioned in the last blog, we left Skagway, Alaska around 5 pm and cruised for about 40 hours before we reached Victoria, British Columbia.  We were ALL ready to get off the ship for awhile!  The cruising was pretty smooth, but it's nice to get off the boat...While we were sailing we got to see this amazing rainbow as we ate dinner that was over the whole boat (the picture doesn't do it justice)...reminded me of God's promises to us...

 

We started walking through the town and saw some interesting street musicians...the mime had a sign that said, "Coin Operated" as soon as you put money in his box he started playing....

 

Victoria is too big a city to just walk around so we hopped aboard this open aired tour bus to drive around a bit.  We were only in the city for a few hours, so we felt we made the most of the time this way.

Victoria is named for England's Queen Victoria and is a beautiful city.  One of the trademarks of the town is it's hanging flower pots and flower beds.  Our guide said that many people come to Victoria to get married and it also has the largest retirement population of Canada.  So he said, "Victoria is the home of flower beds, newly weds and nearly deads!"

Victoria is home of one of the tallest totem poles in the world, 128 feet...

And is home of the second largest China town in North America, second only to San Francisco...

 

The picture below is the Canada's  narrowest street called Fan Tan Alley, only about 3 feet wide, it was an alley that lead to opium dens, brothels and other areas of disrepute, now it's just a tourist attraction in China Town...

We returned to the ship for our last night at sea, we went to the show on board, "Le Cirque Bijou" which means circus of the Jewel, the name of our ship...after the show, they had all of the crew and  stewards and service people come out so we could let the know who much we appreciated them...our captain, Kenneth Harstrom, a Swede of all things, gave a short talk and then we gave them all a standing ovation!  Particularly the "washy washy" people, who were the people standing at the entrance of every eating place to squirt some rubbing alcohol on our hands so that we wouldn't transfer germs to each other...one guy in particular would stand with a guitar and sing familiar songs, but include the words, "washy washy" in them to remind us to wash our hands...it was really funny!

and came into Seattle the next morning...this was our last towel animal...a mouse...Paula liked it so much she kept it...shhhh, don't tell anyone!

 

When we got off the boat, our good friend, Leslie Urie was there to pick us up, we spent the day with Leslie and Richard and two of their children, Joshua and Sarah, again we played cards and Settlers together, it was a great time...we got to visit our old friend Gus again AND we also got to get our laundry done which was paramount as we were to set off for Turkey the next day!  Thank You  Urie's!!!!

That night we spend a very short night at a hotel close to the airport and set off early for Turkey...a little bleary eyed, but excited! Turkey, here we come!  More later, thanks for tuning in!!!