Victoria and Home

We spent most of Friday cruising towards home -

we just had one more stop

at Victoria, British Columbia.

This stop was to satisfy some law about docking

at a foreign port since we had been in foreign waters.

There were quite a few other ships headed our way -

it reminded me of a child's story about

boats or trains racing to the finish line.

Around 7PM we were docked.

Neither Steve nor I had ever been to Canada before.

This was our shortest stop yet since we only had

about 4 hours to tour the town.

Victoria is known for its Burchart Gardens,

touring its pubs and docks,

tea at the Empress

But we chose a tour of the Craigdarroch Castle.

It was completed in 1890 by coal baron Robert Dunmuir

who I don't think ever even got to actually live there.

His wife and children lived there until 1908.

Then it was used for a Military Hospital,

Victoria College, Victoria Conservatory of Music, and finally

Craigdarroch Castle Historic House Museum.

It is four floors of beautiful stained glass and intricate woodwork.

This was their view from the top tower of the house.

As you can see - our time was running out.

They only gave us an hour to tour the house but we

could have spent a great deal more time there.

The rest of our tour around town,

although interesting, was mostly in the dark.

Thus, pictures were not so great. (See Empress above)

This is one place Steve and I would both like to visit again

when we have more than a few hours.

We got back on board and cruised through the night.

I woke up around 6Am to this view of Seattle

Time to go home.