A Weekend in Victoria

Got out to Victoria to visit Chesley this past weekend, as I had to go out on business. Despite living there for 2 years, this was the first time I had been on the UVic campus, which is infested with rabbits.





...many of whom are quite friendly.




At one point, we counted over 50 rabbits visible at once.

The campus is very green (of course), with something growing nearly everywhere...




I think the coolest building was the aboriginal studies building, both inside & out.




We got to wander through the garden, too, which was full of blooming rhododendrons and other flours including cherry blossoms -- and bamboo.











I never knew Victoria was home to year round hummingbirds, either. We found one at the Oak Bay Marina on Saturday...



...and one while visiting Witty's Lagoon on Sunday.



We found seals. There were "tame" one that you could feed at Oak Bay Marina.



They were too friendly, and had learned to perform for their handouts. One barked and splashed his flipper when food was near.




One swam around upside down.



One had a wonky eye, making it look like he was winking, which the crowd seemed to like.



We also saw seals as they're supposed to be seen, out in the wild at Witty's, too. There's 4 in this photo alone. No, those are not logs, they're seals that were sunning themselves. Look for the whiskers.



We saw Great Blue Herons at both Oak Bay Marina and Witty's, too.




Witty's Lagoon always was my favourite park in Victoria. The greenery is nice and lush, there's a cool stream and big waterfall, and neat beach scenery.












Okay, I cheated. The last photo was at Oak Bay Marina.

We had nice views from out hotel room window of the inner harbour, Empress Hotel and the Harbour Air Seaplane Base






As you can tell, the weather was typical Victoria winter-spring weather. Saturday was a drizzly 10° (that felt like 2°). Sunday was a mostly sunny 13° (that felt like 15°). Monday was a damp and cloudy 12° (that felt like 8°).

Oh, and Sunday was the last day of the Olympics. We ran into the aftermath of the hockey game at 4 PM as we tried to drive through downtown to go back to the hotel. I say "tried to". Government St was blocked with people. Douglas wasn't much better. Bastion Square was a zoo. People were driving around dangling out of windows & sunroofs waving Canadian flags. At our hotel, some drunk guy was running through the cars on Bellville waving a huge flag, high fiving men and kissing women. Chesley found it hilarious.