ONE LAST SUPRISE TO END OUR VACATION

We spent our last day in Victoria with G's brother and his family, visiting several sights outside of downtown Victoria.

Does this place look familiar?  I'll give you a hint.  I was hoping to run into Hugh Jackman.

It's Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  Actually, it's Hatley Castle in Victoria, B.C.  It just plays Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-men movies.  C could not believe there were no Wolverine action figures in the gift shop.

Here we are hunting for crabs at Witty's Lagoon.....

We also visited Fort Rodd Hill and the Fisgard Lighthouse.  Fort Rodd is an artillery fort build in the late 1890's to defend Victoria and the Esquimalt Navy Base.

Fisgard Lighthouse is the first lighthouse on Canada's west coast.  It is still in operation today, although there hasn't been a keeper here since the light was automated in 1929.

And that, my friends, concludes the great vacation recap of 2012.  I think the re-telling may have taken longer than the actual vacation. 

We did have one last surprise in store when we returned to our car at the airport parking lot.

VICTORIA, CANADA: THOUGHTS ON THE MONARCHY, HIDDENT TALENTS AND TOY BOATS

The city of Victoria is named for Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years and 7 months--longer than any other British monarch, and longer than any female monarch ever.  Although Queen Elizabeth II is definitely giving her a run for her money.  She'll pass Victoria's record in September, 2015.  I'd say she's got a pretty good shot, seeing as her mom lived to be 101.  Unless she continues to insist on parachuting out of helicopters with James Bond.

Perhaps because of it's namesake, Victoria (the city) is about as English as you can get without actually going to England.  To emphasize my point, a red double decker bus conveniently drove through my photograph.

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, and is home to the beautiful British Columbia Parliament.  We don't have time now for a lesson in Canadian politics.  The most important thing you need to know is that Canadians do not have to suffer through years of political advertising before every election.

People think Canadians pay high taxes to cover things like national healthcare.  I suspect the higher taxes are really to cover the costs of lighting up the Parliament buildings every single night.

The Parliament buildings are located in the heart of downtown Victoria, just across the harbor (or should we say harbour?) from the equally beautiful Empress Hotel.  Why the Empress?  Well, besides being the Queen of England, Victoria was also the Empress of India.

Because of it's relatively mild climate, Victoria is a popular tourist destination.  As a result, you will encounter many large animals in Mountie costumes roaming the streets.

You will also encounter a great many street performers.  Including the always popular Darth Fiddler.  Even dark lords have hidden talents you know.

Victoria is also home to North America's second oldest Chinatown (San Francisco's being the oldest).

If you need to get from one side of the harbor harbour to the other, you can take one of these water taxis.  Honestly, they remind me of a child's bath toy, and I would not set foot in one.  Ever.

But I'm sure I've left you wondering what is on the other side of the harbour that would compel someone to hop aboard such a vessel?   How about really good fish and chips?

Or the chance to feed some harbour seals?  Which is not a big draw for me personally, seeing as you have to hold onto raw fish.  But the kids love it!

After you've fed yourself and the seals, you can stroll through the brightly painted houseboats in the area known as Fisherman's Wharf. 

If you still feel like you've got some fish and chips to walk off, you could stroll on over to the break wall.  Actually, it's pretty far, so I would recommend taking a car.  But once you get there, I imagine you could get in quite a workout walking all the way out to the end of the wall and back.

We got about halfway before a certain 7 year-old member of our party became nervous about falling off the wall into the ocean.

I think he was just anxious to get to the next stop on our Victorian tour.....Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  Stay tuned!

I'M A WHALE WATCHER

One of the highlights of our time in Victoria was a whale watching excursion.  We booked through a company called Orca Spirit Adventures, and they were fantastic.  Our group was the first trip of the day, and there were only 13 of us on the boat (which can hold up to 35 passengers), so there was plenty of room for everyone.

It took us about 45 minutes to get out to where the whales were--or where the captain thought they would be--luckily he was right!  It was definitely chilly--and sometimes pretty wet--with the boat going at full speed, but I decided to brave the elements for a few scenic shots on our way to the San Juan Islands.

Once we arrived at our destination, we spotted an Orca right away. (I took the abundance of other whale watching boats in the area as a good sign).  Right off the bat, we saw this!

According to our on-board naturalist, it's quite rare to see a breach!  She was pretty excited about it, so I guess it must have been a big deal.  She also had an abundance of whale related knowledge to share.  Starting with the names of all the whales.   Yes, they have names, and she knew them all.  The whale we'd just seen breach was a male, named Mike. 

Photo courtesy Orca Spirit Adventures

There are two populations of resident orca in the Pacific Northwest. They live in large family groups called pods. Resident orca do not mate or socialize with different ecotypes of orca or even with other resident populations.  Mike is a member of J-Pod.  Each pod consists of multiple related matrilines.  A matriline is made up of a female, her offspring, and subsequent offspring. In other words, the women are in charge!

Resident orca are the only known group of animals in the world where both female and male offspring remain with their mothers for life. 

Here's another shot of Mike taken on our excursion.....he was named after the late Michael Bigg, the first biologist who discovered that orca can be individually identified by their unique dorsal fin and saddlepatch.

Photo courtesy Orca Spirit Adventures

It was really hard to get good shots of the whales.  The ocean is just so big, and you're never quite sure where they're going to surface.  Luckily, Orca Spirit posts photos and information about every excursion.  Their website also has a wealth of information about whales, and sea life in general.

We also saw Slick (Mike's mom) and his sister Alki, along with the newest member of J-Pod, born last year.

They don't know the gender of the baby whale yet because they need to get a good look at it's underside first.  Male and female orca have distintive marks on their bellies.  Did you know that killer whales are actually a type of porpoise?  We got to see this group of three whales doing something called porpoising--swimming at high speed.  In this case, about 12 knots. 

Our naturalist also told us that different whale pods speak different dialects.  J-Pod whales, for example, sound a little bit different than K-Pod whales.  And she can tell the difference!  Yes, she speaks whale!

I think I enjoyed all of the information our naturalist had to shared almost as much as I enjoyed seeing the actual whales.  Honestly, I was kind of nervous about this portion of our trip.  Even though July is supposedly the peak season for whale sightings, I was afraid we'd fork over all that money and not see a thing. 

Our whale watching excursion turned out to be the highlight of our trip.  Not to mention, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about some amazing animals!

VICTORIA, CANADA: LITTLE PIGS AND THE TOTEM POLE OF SHAME

After the family reunion in Qualicum Bay we headed down to Victoria.  G and I spent the first 5 years of our marriage here, and E was born in Victoria, so we couldn't wait to take the kids to all of the places we used to hang out.  In fact, I couldn't resist going into the photo archives for a few "then and now" comparisons.

One of the places we used to take E when he was little was Beacon Hill Children's Farm.  Here he is back in 1998, petting the baby goats.

Does it seem strange that in one vacation, we've had multiple encounters with goats?  But I digress....here is E--and the rest of the gang--at Beacon Hill Children's Farm in 2012.  He was not at all interested in petting goats this time.

Back in the day, the baby goats used to be the cutest thing going.  But now the farm has baby pigs!  And there's just no competing with a baby pig when it comes to cuteness. But if the mother pig is any indication, they don't stay cute for long.

Besides the farm and petting zoo, there are all kinds of other things to see and do in Beacon Hill Park.  Like the tallest totem pole in the world.  127 ft. 7 in. to be exact.  Not only did we marvel at the totem pole's great height, we marveled that the height was recorded in feet and inches.  Seeing as Canada converted to the metric system back in the 1970's.

Everyone looks so tiny down there at the bottom. 

Perhaps now would be a good time to tell you a little a bit about totem poles.  Totem poles are usually carved in Western Red Cedar by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

According to Wikipedia, few examples of poles carved before 1900 exist. Noteworthy examples include those at the Royal British Columbia Museum in.....you guessed it.....Victoria!  The really old totem poles are all locked up inside, but there are also several totem poles on the museum grounds.

Some totem poles recount familiar legends, clan lineages, or notable events. Some celebrate cultural beliefs.  Totem poles may also tell stories commemorating historic persons.  Some totem poles were even used for public ridicule.   Called "shame poles,"  they were often placed in prominent locations and were used to shame individuals or groups for unpaid debts.

Makes me wonder if I should get a shame pole for the front yard.....to ridicule certain individuals for uncleaned rooms and unfinished homework.