Victoria

We caught the 8:20 am ferry to Victoria, BC and unbeknownst to me, today is one of their biggest holidays. They celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday. This was the longest parade I have ever seen. They invite schools from the US to participate and had schools from WA and OR there. What an honor that must be and exciting for the kids. There is a large Chinese community here and had several entries in this parade. There were local businesses advertising there services.

There were clowns,

characters from children’s stories, bikes, and even Elvis.

Of course the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were present and accounted for.

We watched the parade for several hours and it started two hours prior to us arriving and continued for quite some time after we left to explore the city.

Chinatown was beautiful

. The Empress Hotel is the hotel of hotels. It is so regal looking with the ivy. So many beautiful details, gardens, even the mail box is shiny and beautiful. The Parliament Building is exquisite. Unfortunately we could not tour it because of the holiday and most stores and official places were closed.

What a nice day in Victoria. Hope we are able to return someday.