Victoria, continued...

Victoria is a beautiful town. It is the capital of the province of British Columbia in Canada it is small enough to get around easily, and it isn't called the city of gardens for nothing! Because we spent Sunday at the Dragon Boat Festival (see prior post), we decided to just stay downtown and walk around, even though it meant missing some of the nearby "must see" things on Vancouver Island.

We visited the magnificent old Canadian Pacific Hotel for breakfast:




My dungeness crab benedict, and Fred's Belgian Waffles...we splurged on orange juice at $5 a glass!






A view of the Parliament building and the harbor:


Flowers were everywhere!

A statue of native daughter and artist Emily Carr, with the Empress Hotel in the background. Her pet monkey is depicted on her shoulder. Her art is scenes in British Columbia, particularly aboriginal and forest scenes.



Some of the other art we found as we walked around Victoria...



Sidewalk art...






Totems outside the BC Museum..






Performance art...



Well, maybe not art...but I couldn't resist....


Victoria's Chinatown is a popular destination that we didn't get to, but we did see the gate, which was being repaired that day:



We ended the afternoon with a walk and drive through Victoria's Beacon Hill Park, which encompasses everything from lovely formal gardens near the BC Museum to a hilly, slightly wild cliffside path:









On the hight point of the park, near the cliffs, is the western mile 0 of the TransCanada Highway, and also a monument to Canadian Terry Fox, the amputee who ran across most of Canada to raise money and awareness for Canada







Evening in Victoria--the Parliament Building and the harbor:






--From our blog. If you're viewing this on the blog, you can click on any picture to see a larger version.