On the fourth day of our trip, we set out bright and early from the pier just down the road from our hotel! See the big boat up above, right at the end of the road? That's the ferry that goes between Port Angeles and Victoria, BC. It's only 1hr 20m or so - we didn't realize that you'd be able to see Vancouver Island from Washington (the land on the horizon). It's much closer than it seemed! There was hardly anyone else on board the ferry on the trip over - I guess Sunday morning isn't the busiest time for travel?
We went to Victoria without much of a plan at all - we just wanted to wander around and see the city. Luckily, it seems to be the perfect sized city for wandering - we walked all over and got to see a good portion of it in the few hours that we were there. First, we went to Chinatown - we learned it's the second oldest Chinatown in North America, after San Francisco!
We were there too early for most of the restaurants to be open, so we just strolled under the cherry trees for a while (ours finished blooming weeks ago, but up north they're just hitting peak!). Then, we walked along the harbor area (or rather harbour area, since it's Canadian!).
In the harbour (!), there are all kinds of whale watching tour boats, sea plane excursions, etc. It seemed to be a pretty busy place, even for an early Sunday morning. When our ferry docked, a 10k was just wrapping up along the main street in town, so we thought we'd avoid the rest of it by checking out the Royal British Columbia Museum - a huge natural history museum.
First, we stopped in the natural history galleries - the exhibits were so much more modern than any I've ever seen! It's like most natural history museums had dioramas designed in the 1950s and have never updated them. They're all dark and really fake looking, which is kind of fun in a nostalgic mid-century way, but maybe not the best way to connect with people. These were totally different, they made you feel like you were actually in the environment they portrayed. Very cool! After learning about the plants and animals of British Columbia, we went to the human history galleries to learn about the First Nations.
We loved this part of the museum - art from all kinds of people who lived in the area before Europeans (the First Nations). It was a really well put-together exhibit, and we felt like we learned a lot. The artistry and craftsmanship of everything really resonated with us. I'd love to go back again, since this section was so big that we definitely didn't get to see everything!
We walked through a few city parks (Beacon Hill park is huge!), saw a bunch of nesting herons, walked past lots of Victorian houses, had tea in a cute teahouse, and then realized it was time to leave!
Unlike the trip to BC, the ferry on the way back was completely full - I guess Sunday afternoon is a good time to travel. There were a million high school kids returning from a rowing competition...so we decided to sit up in the sunshine above deck and it was really nice! We arrived back at our hotel and I took this photo to show you what the view from our window looked like - -
...and that's what $80/night gets you in Port Angeles!
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