Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 00:07 <inaudible>.
Speaker 0 00:14 Hey there, welcome to to travel dads podcast. I'm Rob, I'm Chris. And today we are going to be talking about Victoria, BC. Um, this is going to be the first of a couple episodes that we're recording. It's one of our favorite cities, really easy for us to get to since we live in the Seattle area. And yeah, we're gonna tell ya all about some of the best activities. Um, what we like the parts of the city that we enjoy, how it's all laid out, all that stuff. And then, um, and in some other episodes we'll dig into our favorite hotels and restaurants. We've got a web, an episode of, um, the kids talking about what they like, which is going to be interesting. Yeah. Anyways. Um, but yeah, so let's chat about Victoria. Um, where is Victoria located? In the Pacific Northwest, but in Canada? Is it just in Canada or is it on <inaudible>?
Speaker 0 01:11 Oh, yeah, well it's there too. Yeah, Canada is a big place. It's got lots of islands. So Victoria, BC, it's the capital of British Columbia, so it's located on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island. And my fun fact about the city of Victoria is, did you know that it is farther South than the Northern most city in Washington? That is bunker balls. It's true. It's true. Bellingham is farther North than Victoria. I did not know that. Yeah, it's true. But it makes sense. Like I think that's maybe why I got Canadian channels growing up as a kid in port Townson. Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. But you didn't get Bellingham generals. Mm, not that I remember. Yeah. I don't know if they haven't. Um, anyways though, so it is located at the Southern tip of Vancouver Island, which is huge. Um, goes all along the, um, British Columbian coast up to the sunshine coast and then, um, stops just shy of Southeast Alaska.
Speaker 0 02:09 But yeah, it's pretty awesome. Um, and in Victoria, when, when you first get there, most people are gonna be arriving either by boat or seaplane. Yes. Yeah. If you're coming, if you go from the States. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we'll chat about that in different episode too. Um, the inner Harbor is the main area of Victoria that most people think of when they think of about the beautiful pictures of the parliament building and Empress hotel and all that. Um, so that's usually, that's going to be your first impression of the city. And we've gotten, gosh, we've gotten to land in Victoria on a sea plane. We've come in on the clipper, we've come in on the coho ferry. We've even gone sailing out of Victoria back in. So I think we've, I think we've hit almost each of the different ways to get there. Yes. Except for driving all the way up through and around like just in a car the whole entire way. We always take a ferry to get there or a plane. Yeah, I'm confused. Could you imagine driving up through Canada and then trying to find some other way to get around there? Well, no, you can't actually drive onto Vancouver Island, I guess that's why it's called an Island.
Speaker 0 03:23 Yeah. No, you can't drive onto Vancouver Island. I mean, you can drive onto a BC ferry or the coho ferry, but there's no bridge. Good times. Um, so yeah, so in our Harbor it's a pretty cool spot. It's where most you're going to find most of your tourists, you know, hanging out. It's where you've got your nice outdoor patio scene in the summer, all that stuff. But, um, let's just kind of dig right into our favorite activities to do in Victoria. Um, where's your favorite place to visit? Hmm, that's tough. Um, I think it has to be, um, I love going to rechart gardens. Um, it's one of my favorite places. Um, outside of like eating and Victoria. Well, why don't we talk about Bouchard gardens real quick then. Okay. I mean it's gonna take a lot to talk about cause it's huge. Um, yeah, Bouchard gardens is really amazing.
Speaker 0 04:18 So it started being constructed in 1908, I think it was and um, I'll double check that. But 1908 and it was a private garden that then was opened up to the public. It's absolutely gorgeous. Um, when you first go in and start to tour, you go into this sunken garden. That is amazing. It used to be an old quarry that they dug out and renovated and installed fountains and built up a mound. And it's just, it's crazy. It's, I think my favorite part of the whole gardens. Um, and we were just there actually a couple, what was it last week before Christmas and that was the most amazing holiday display I've ever seen in my entire life. Yeah. And we've seen quite a few holiday displays the time. Yeah. We were just down in st Augustine for nights of lights and this was, they go, they go all out, they go all out, lights everywhere.
Speaker 0 05:16 Um, so many great, uh, different displays. They do the 12 days of Christmas, uh, uh, spread out throughout the whole entire gardens. And so it gives the kids, um, you know, something fun to do, to go around, take a Christmas scavenger. Yeah. Christmas scavenger hunt. Um, but the lights are just so amazing. Um, it's just breath. Breathtaking. You have to see it in person. Yeah. But, um, it's not set up like that year round the rest of the year. It's this amazing flower garden. So we've got, um, everything from flowers to forest areas. You've got the Japanese garden, which I think is really, really cool. It's have a beautiful Rose garden. Oh yeah. The Rose garden is insane. So many. And then, um, the Italian garden, that's the one that has the fountains and it has the, what is it like an eight pointed star in and, and, um, and what are those, those flowers that, um, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 0 06:09 It's just, I can't think of them, but they have like lots of different spikes and they're super, super pretty at the end of the summer. Ready? Dahlias? Yes. Those, that doll your garden they have is really amazing. Yeah, that's, that is definitely if you get to visit Victoria at the end of summer, so we're talking September, um, that's when the dahlias are at their peak. And really that's, I think, yeah, good call. That's one of the coolest things at Bouchard gardens. Thank you for having us talk about that first. Yeah, I mean it'd been going there since I was a kid. Yeah. So it's one of my favorites. Um, and actually it's kinda funny, the first time that we went up there in the summer, it was a couple of years ago, it was our first time actually, um, going away from Oliver. That's right. It was our very, very first trip where we left him with grandpa and grandma and Elliot wasn't born yet and we took the boat up to Victoria.
Speaker 0 07:00 No, we didn't take the boat up to Victoria. We flew to Victoria on a sea plane. Um, and those are Kenmore air, right? Yeah, yeah. We flung Kenmore air from Seattle down on Lake union up to the inner Harbor. And then we stayed at the hotel Zed, which we'll talk about that in our hotel episode. Um, really cool place. And we rented bikes and rode from big to yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, that's part of the hotel episode. Um, we rented bikes and we rode on the galloping goose trail all the way up to the Bouchard gardens, which if you look at a map of the Island or the Victoria area, and there's that in the show notes, you can see how far that is. It's actually kind of bonkers driving in a car. It's a half an hour. So on a bike it's a little far, but um, it was absolutely beautiful, actually pretty easy for the most part.
Speaker 0 07:52 And then we've got great riding trails. Yeah. Gosh, Vancouver Island is made for bikers. It's amazing. I wish that it was that, well, I don't know, set up and bike friendly down here, but not complaining. Um, yeah. So then you ride up on the galloping goose up to bouchart gardens and then right next to the gardens is this little sleepy town called Brentwood Bay. And you can actually catch a little tiny, maybe like a 10, 12 car very, that takes you over to mill Bay across the way. Um, it's beautiful. It's the coolest little part of the Island. And then riding back, you get to ride through Saanich and the, um, we rode through sunflower fields and there's wineries there. Um, yeah. Gosh, it's, that I've got to say is one of the best, like Pacific Northwest summer activities is biking around the Victoria area. Yes. Biking and eating.
Speaker 0 08:50 There's a great restaurant there in Brentwood. Right. But we'll talk about that later. Yeah, we'll talk about that when we talk about restaurants in a different episode. Um, is there anything else that you want to talk about with like biking or the gardens? Cause I mean, we could just chat about the gardens all day, but there's no, no, I'm, I'm, I'm good on flowers right now. Okay. So then moving back into the main city of Victoria, um, you know, it's being built in the Victorian area area era. I know it's got some really awesome architecture and I think the two really eye-catching, um, buildings that you'll see are, I mentioned them already, the parliament and the emperor's hotel. So we got to take the kids into the parliament building a couple of months ago and tour it. And it was the coolest rotunda. Yeah. The coolest rotunda. And it was a great tour.
Speaker 0 09:47 Yeah. Was that the one where they were costumes? Yeah. Yup. Yeah, that's right. Um, yeah, no, so costume costumes, tour guides. It's actually a free activity, which is cool. You still have to get a ticket. Um, but just to make sure that they don't bring too many people in, but it's a free activity. There's lots of, um, cool art within the parliament building, including, um, a really amazing canoe. Um, first nations culture is really big and really strong on Vancouver Island, so it's really well embodied all around British Columbia and it's at the center of the parliament building, which I thought was pretty neat to have it be like, yeah. So, um, yeah, so that's definitely something to check out. And also it at Christmas time, during the holidays they've got, well it's always covered in Christmas lights. Yeah. Like year round, but they add red and green to the light for the holiday.
Speaker 0 10:42 Just like, well, at night if you see the parliament building, it's just amazing. It's, it's funny, it's kind of like an afterthought. Like, Hey, we can add a strand of lights and make it liquors busy. But yeah. Um, and then the Empress is the other big eye-catching piece of architecture that's right there off the inner Harbor. And, um, you know, we've never stayed there. We haven't stayed there. It's, if you'd like old world charm, it's a great place. Um, but we've always stayed at places that had a little extra comfort and amenities. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but something, you know what you haven't got to do that I've gotten to do is have tea at the Empress. That's right. But I've had tea at Murphy's. Yeah. Well, and that's, that's like the lower class version is just as delicious. Well, it's not quite as delicious. Tea at the Empress really is amazing.
Speaker 0 11:32 Even if you're not into being fancy schmancy. I've never even had high tea any kind of, so I really don't know what I'm missing. I've had several high T's in several places in the, in the UK and in Canada and um, you know, the emphasis high tea is amazing. Hmm. That's awesome. Awesome finger sandwiches. We will have to try that sometime. The kids would love younger sandwiches, so that's definitely, that's also something you kind of need to budget for. Um, so I was just checking prices on that yesterday. And, um, the current price, do you remember what I told you? It was so $69? No. Um, well American, maybe it's $6,000, but it's 92 Canadian to Canadian, 92 Canadian a person. So, um, and it has a dress code and all that stuff. So on our next trip you'll get to experience it. Um, where do you want to chat about next?
Speaker 0 12:33 Hmm. How about, um, beacon note park. Okay. I love beacon Hill park. What do you like about it? I like everything about it, but particularly, I like the, um, free range, peacocks, free range, urban peacocks. Those are pretty awesome. Um, they literally are just hanging out in the park and eating, eating and stopping traffic. And yeah, the kids also enjoyed them, but they don't understand why some are pretty and some are not. Yeah. So we had to have the whole talk about peacocks versus peahens and there were so many of them that, yeah, but they, um, roam around the property. They're a great attraction. Um, but you know, my favorite thing besides the peacocks is it in granted, beacon Hill park is humongous. It's, it's enormous. It's got, it's got ponds. It has, um, Imperial style gardens. It has a Japanese style garden, Rose garden, all that great playground, really great children's garden, I guess you could say in a petting zoo even.
Speaker 0 13:37 Um, but my favorite feature is the world's tallest totem pole is located in beacon Hill park. So if you don't know how to get to it, that's okay. If you are near the bluff, you can, um, basically look around until you see a ridiculously tall totem pole sticking out of the trees and then you can get there. But it is, it's huge. Um, we were trying to count how many creatures are featured on it last week and 18. I said 21. I dunno. Need to figure it out. We can research that. But um, it's really, it's really, really cool. So put that on your totem pole scavenger hunt, which by the way, there's a link to our totem pole scavenger hunt in the podcast show notes. So make sure that you check that out. It's a great way to explore Victoria on foot and with kids.
Speaker 0 14:27 It's a really, really cool, interesting way to find, um, what we'd probably call public art, but really great first nations installments all around town. So, um, yeah, beacon Hill park. It's awesome. There's also great walking trails that lead you through the woods and along the bluff. Um, you can watch for whales in the summertime if you want it to. There's tons of really great viewpoints and stuff there, but such a huge park. Again, a great place, whether or not you want to walk or you want to take a vacation of jog or vacation jump, vacation jock, you know, those people who will like go on vacation and they still go out and they're active and go running, um, actually run when I'm on vacation or on work trips and I don't do it at home. Yeah. Isn't that weird? Right. Um, I think my favorite bike run trip that ever had, uh, while traveling was, um, through the streets of Paris.
Speaker 0 15:17 That was my favorite five o'clock in the morning smelling bread. That's a different episode. Yeah. I went for a run a couple months ago in billings and I fell and I hurt myself really bad. Um, yeah. Um, that was the last time I went running on a trip. Um, I want to talk about the Royal BC museum next. Okay. So we've gotten to visit the Royal BC a couple times, um, this most recent time and unfortunately the exhibit isn't there anymore. It's over. <inaudible> yeah. Maya arise at the great Jaguar. It was amazing. Um, before that, the special exhibit that they had that we went to was the, um, Egypt, right? Yeah, the Egypt tology exhibit. So every time we go there's a new special exhibit, which makes it a really cool place to continually return to. I mean, their, their permanent collection is really, really cool, especially all of their first nations like the, um, the hall of, Oh, what's it called?
Speaker 0 16:12 The whole language or hall of, I know, I'm trying to think of what the first nations, um, language, uh, area is called. I think what's really cool about it though, I, I don't know what the name of it is, but you can um, go in and listen to all of the different languages that are spoken, uh, around Vancouver Island and our living languages. First peoples voices. It is. Yeah. Um, and uh, and also see like how many people still speak that language and what they're trying to do to uh, you know, help, um, teach the language and, and keep them alive. I both preserve the language and restore it cause I mean as, as Canada continued to spread like the Western government across and um, displace and decimate the um, different first nations tribes, they started killing the languages. So now, um, there's a really active effort to bring them all back.
Speaker 0 17:08 So um, there's a really, in the show notes you'll find a link to the first peoples gallery and that's where it'll talk about everything from the totem hall, which the total hollow is actually my favorite room. The kids get cooped out there. I know the kids totally get creeped out. I think it's absolutely amazing. There's room with all the masks too, which is right around the corner from here. Yeah, it is. But it's also, I think that's actually, that is kind of creepy. It's got masks that transit shadows. Yeah, I know. But, but no, it's, it's an amazing museum. Whether you're there for a special exhibit or you are there to just explore the natural history side or the um, first nations side. It's well worth time spent. And I would say a lot. Two hours for it at least. Yeah. Well I think my parents spent like that much time in there, like two to three hours just walking around the museum.
Speaker 0 17:57 Yeah. They loved it. Yeah. And you know what Outback behind this sounds weird, but behind the museum they actually do a food truck park. Those restaurants, that's for another episode. Okay. We won't talk about that. But there is a food truck park behind the room, big C museum. Um, let's chat about a letter where, Oh, Oh, what I was going to say, miniature world. I was going to save that for the boys. Okay. They could talk about it. They can talk about unless you feel really passionate, you know, it was a great activity to take the kids on. Um, I thought it was actually, it was an adult. I was extremely depressed and we've always avoided it, but we decided to do it this time because it was freezing cold outside. Um, and uh, gave us an opportunity to go try something new. And at this time of year it was great because, uh, they actually had Santa is hidden throughout, um, uh, the different exhibits.
Speaker 0 18:50 Yeah. If you found them all, all six of them, uh, then you won a year membership to furniture world. The kids dead. So the kids now, so now we, when we go to Victoria, next time we get to go right there because they have passes and <inaudible> it's pretty cool to see just how detailed, uh, these little miniature, sorry. Yeah. So what miniature world is, is it is a really enormous collection of diorama's. Like, think of like diagrams, like you made an elementary school to talk about chapter books, so much more impressive. Oh my gosh. It's insane. It's, it's they're, they look like miniature film sets. Yeah. You just have to kind of squat down and get eye level with it and all of a sudden it starts to come to life. Not really, but um, you know, there's just a lot of depth to it and a lot of detail, a great place to use a phone camera with really good portrait photography.
Speaker 0 19:45 I took some really cool pictures. Um, but no, so the place that I wanted to talk about next besides miniature world, cause we were kind of talking about history and stuff was um, Chinatown. Oh yeah. The oldest Chinatown in Canada is located in Victoria, which makes sense because it's the farthest West city. Um, so it's the closest to China. But yeah, it's um, it's beautiful, especially at night. This time we got to be there to see it, um, in the rain at night, which sounds weird. And like you would want to avoid it. It makes everything sparkle a little bit more cause there's tons of needs. So it's, um, between that, like the vintage neon and the Chinatown gate, it has, I would say one of the largest China Gates that I've ever seen. It's, it's as big as the one or bigger than the one in Washington, D C, which is also really impressive.
Speaker 0 20:36 Um, dragons everywhere at the boys slept by. Yeah. Um, but it's, it's really cool when the other highlight to Chinatown is fan tan alley, which is the narrow the, yeah. I can't speak the narrow West, the most narrow street in North America and it really is, we've got pictures of us trying to be, Spiderman is really cool. It's, it's neat. It's hard to walk down it with an umbrella open. Yeah. Which is ironic that there's a umbrella store they want to see you go out and try to open it and watch your umbrella break. Yeah. I bet they actually sell a lot of umbrellas from people doing that. Got it. Good times. Um, so going away from the history side and going towards more of the tourist side, um, in Victoria there's a couple waterfront neighborhood areas. So one of them is of course the main waterfront Marina of the inner Harbor that you see.
Speaker 0 21:34 You know, as you walk from place to place, um, that's where you'll catch a lot of the, um, whale watching tours. And we actually got to go sailing with some friends out of there too. So that's where you'll see most of the sailboats. Um, if you want to do the crazy like Zodiac whale watching tours where you go on, I don't know if you don't know what a Zodiac, how would you describe what a Zodiac is? It's like a word speedboat thing. You right. Yeah, it's like a, like a rubber speedboat that is really rough and tumble and it's not my thing. Um, you would catch it there, but then across the way, um, over by fisherman's Wharf is where you can get, um, some other different sorts of whale watching. So we actually went out with Orca spirit adventures a couple months ago and it was awesome.
Speaker 0 22:23 We got to go up into, um, the straight straight in Georgia. Oh, I got to look on a map. I'm not a, um, I know your maps aren't using maps are not my thing. That's our obligation. That's not mine. I can look real quick. But, um, we went out with orcas, spirited ventures and um, HARO Strait, that's what it was. The HARO Strait. It's what goes in between San Juan Island and Vancouver Island. So that's where we headed, um, to do whale watching. And we actually saw a really awesome pot of orchids that was being really active. Um, and I thought it was super fun. We did our, our boat actually ended up having a malfunction and we got transferred to a different boat while we were out there. But um, it was sitting through seamless though. Yeah, it was seamless and it's still super fun and the kids enjoyed it.
Speaker 0 23:13 So who doesn't like whale watching? I love whale watching. It's the best. Um, so yeah, you can catch that right there in the inner Harbor as well or over at fisherman's Wharf. And um, fisherman's Wharf is kind of funny because, well, that's what we'll talk about next. It's not really active in terms of like, when you think fisherman's Wharf for me, I think like the large fishing boats coming in and like fish processing and um, yeah, no, instead it's like a, a cute little waterfront community of homes and right on the water that are super colorful. Yeah. It's, I would say it's, it's one of the most Instagrammable spots in Victoria. Yes. And I can't wait to get a picture of us eating there cause that is yet to happen. And we've tried twice that, you know, I did get one that makes it look like, where are you there?
Speaker 0 24:02 So we went this last time and it was December and everything closes down for the season. If you listen to our, um, our podcast episodes about the Bay of Fundy or, um, lunanburg and like Peggy's Cove, you'll, you'll hear us talk about everything being closed for the season, seasonal and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Um, it's kinda the same in British Columbia, you know, close that one spot because they're all small, tiny walkup restaurants. So it's just always an outdoor experience or an open air experience. So, even though it was, um, the first time you tried to go there, it was torrential downpour and there was no way we're going to get any shelter to eat. So we took the cool little Willy Wonka ferryboat, um, taxi boat back over to our hotel, the little Harbor ferries. Yeah. But then the second time it was absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, sunny, crisp air and just the most perfect.
Speaker 0 24:59 Victoria was beautiful. And the pictures show it, but everything's close because it's cold. You know, we just strike out a lot. That's all right. We still had some good food. Yeah, no, it's true. Which we'll talk about another time. Yeah. Different episode. Um, but you know what, since you brought up the Harbor ferry, that's something that you, you've got to, you've got to watch for, in the summertime in Victoria, they do it on the weekends. They do the water ballet. It's hilarious. So they broadcast music and then all these cute little, they're like, they're like bumper boats almost, but they're taxis. Um, they do a synchronized water ballet where they, I dunno, they, they go around in the inner Harbor in, it's awesome. Synchronized boating. Yeah. Did you know that was a sport? I don't know if it's actually a sport, but yeah, it's pretty cool. So I mean you can tell that we really, we really love Victoria and that's why we're going to have a couple podcast episodes for you to listen to. Um, if you have any questions, always feel free to send us a message through the blog, um, on social media and we will help you out. Um, do you have anything else you wanted to add before we wrap it up?
Speaker 0 26:11 Victoria's Victoria has Smarties. Oh yeah. And we'll have to talk about Canadian candy when we talk about restaurants and stuff cause yeah. Good times. All right, well that is it for now. Um, be sure to check out our other episodes about Victoria. Be sure to check out everything about Nova Scotia too. We really love Canada and left to talk about it. So lots of info. And if you have anything else that you want us to cover, also leave us a comment or send us a note and we will try to do a podcast about it. So, all right, take care. Awesome. See you guys to travel. That's podcast is written by Rob and Chris Taylor and produced by Rob Taylor in Suquamish, Washington. If you would like to be a guest on the two travel dads podcast, or would like to sponsor it, go ahead and visit us at fit, be it dot L Y slash two T D work.
