My friend and former colleague Kate has been visiting for the last few days, and on Sunday we decided to visit Victoria, BC, to see an old mutual friend. It takes a couple of hours on a fast catamaran ferry, and we got there at 11:15. Werner Bahlke met us at the terminal, and we headed into town for lunch.
The three of us used to work together at Sun Microsystems in Chelmsford and Burlington, MA. Werner moved to Victoria about four years ago, and after some interesting “virtual company” experiences he’s really settled in there. (His office is in a wonderful location overlooking the outer harbour.)
After lunch, Kate and I explored Victoria, cameras in hand. You can see a selection of the pictures we took here. I’ve merged the two sets of pictures, then sorted them by the time they were taken, so occasionally you’ll see different shots of the same object. Two sequences of pictures are worth noting. First, we visited the rose garden next to the Empress Hotel, and I tried a series of macro shots. Then we took a path along the west side of the inner harbour, from where we could see the constant arrival and departure of ferries, kayaks, harbour taxis, sailing boats – and seaplanes! This stretch of water may look like a harbour, but it’s really an airport – and a very busy one.
Our northbound ferry had been almost empty, but when we lined up to board the return, we could see that the boat was going to be pretty much full. Presumably a number of people had been in Victoria for the weekend, perhaps as an “add-on” to an Alaska cruise package. In the depressingly prefab terminal building we saw new security equipment – airport-style metal detectors and X-ray machines – installed but not yet operational. There were also signs everywhere about the plans to require US citizens to carry a passport when visiting Canada; there are fears that this will hit the tourist business very hard. For now, Kate was able to simply show her driver’s license; I had my passport and green card.
Despite the crowds, we found good seats and had a smooth journey back. At one point everybody crowded out on the stern deck to see the bioluminescent diatoms that turned our wake into a shimmering silver trail. Very cool. What a great day.