Our visit to Vancouver Island was laid out in such a way that we would stay a couple nights in one place and be able to reach areas of interest before moving on. One of those times was when we reached Cowichan Bay which will featured in future post. Once we settled in for the night, we went over the plan for the next day which was to visit Victoria. Nelson, Crystal, and I, wanted to just sit back and relax in our unique Airbnb with a dockside view. The younger ones wanted to visit Victoria about an hour south of us. We stayed. They went.
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| JJ, Nick, Jessie, Legislature Building, 2025, Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC |
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia and the kids made sure they stopped at the historic Legislature Building. I am so glad they took a selfie with the flag flying and the totem pole on the side.
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| Legislature Building, 2025, Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC |
Nelson, Crystal and I had visited Victoria back on our 1981 trip when our destination that day was the Fable Cottage Estate.
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| Fable Cottage Estate, 1981, Victoria, BC |
The Fable Cottage was a delightful, magical estate and although it's gone now, even Crystal remembers it. While preparing for our 2025 trip, I searched for info on the Fable Cottage and couldn't find anything that marks its historic presence. From what I remember, a father built the estate for his children. Stone walls and hand-hewed woodwork for the doors and frames right down to the carved built-in seats for his children to sit in. It was truly remarkable workmanship.
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| Fable Cottage Estate, 1981, Victoria, BC |
The Fable Cottage grounds were manicured in a park-like setting. One building was a smaller version of the cottage itself and had a flurry of dwarfs working on it, such as fixing the roof, replacing a window, carrying a ladder, etc. They were the same height as Crystal and she was in awe of them.
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| Surfacing, Seasonal Garden Display, Victoria, BC |
Apparently the kids were in the neighbourhood of the Fairmont Empress Hotel, which is on my bucket list, because Jessie took the above photo of Surfacing. Unlike topiary which is just the clipping of trees and shrubs into shapes, this seasonal garden display of a 6 meter/20 foot mother and calf orca is made up of 10,000 living plants on a frame which is replanted each year at the Beacon Hill Park Nursery.
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| Wild Peacock, 2025, Victoria, BC |
While the youngsters were in Victoria, Jessie took a photo of this peacock crossing the street. What was a peacock doing in the city? Had it escaped a zoo or aviary? A bit of research showed that yes, it did seem to be an escapee from Beacon Hill Park. In fact, there are about 40 members of the peacock family residing in the park and they regularly roam the city, especially in the spring during mating season. They stay around the south side of Victoria and seem to like the Hatley Castle area.
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Apparently, peacock vocalizing was a problem during the filming of the X-Men franchise as well as the Deadpool movies, and probably the dozen or so other films and shows that have been filmed in the area. Peacocks are beautiful, but their voices don't sing nicely by any stretch of the imagination. Peacock cries would probably fit right in for a horror movie though.
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| Victoria's Chinatown National Historic Site, 2025, Victoria, BC |
Nick took the above photo when they explored Victoria's Chinatown. There are hundreds of Chinese communities across our country, and Victoria's Chinatown is the oldest in Canada, thus the distinction of being a National Historic Site of Canada.
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| Victoria's Chinatown National Historic Site, 2025, Victoria, BC |
Victoria's Chinatown also holds the record for the narrowest street in Canada. Fan Tan Alley, as pictured above, was notorious for gambling which was illegal, and opium which was legal until 1908. In my years of research, I was confounded to find how different "vices" become legal/illegal depending on the culture and government of the day. No wonder time travelers get confused.
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| Bubble Tea, Victoria's Chinatown National Historic Site, 2025, Victoria, BC |
Bubble Tea anyone? Although we can get Bubble Tea at home in Regina, there's nothing better to quench your thirst on a hot day when you're playing tourist, than Bubble Tea. And the cup is a nice souvenir of Victoria's Chinatown as well.
Midafternoon found the kids at Fisherman's Wharf near Victoria's Inner Harbour. It looks like a wonderful place to visit. The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority's website says, "This unique marine destination offers food kiosks, unique shops and eco-tour adventures amongst fishing vessels, pleasure boats with live-aboard residents, float homes and commercial businesses."
Jessie's photo above shows float homes, businesses, and tourists. My eye was particularly drawn to the small group of youngsters under the neon green sign. They're all engrossed in something in the water and I'd like to know what caught their attention.
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| Fisherman's Wharf Houseboats, 2025, Victoria, BC |
Jessie also took this photo of float homes while at Fisherman's Wharf. I remember calling them houseboats back in the day. Definitely a different kind of living.
Actually, our Cowichan Bay Airbnb was over the water and while the kids were in Victoria, Nelson, Crystal and I spent hours looking over the deck railing at crabs and things and seeing how they handled the incoming and outgoing tide. We loved it!
Our Cowichan Bay visit will be posted here on June 1st.
This post on Victoria corresponds to the May calendar page. We thought it would be a fitting tribute to Victoria Day when it rolls around on May 18th this year.
