British Columbia and Washington trip, Day 2

On our second day of the trip, my dad and I drove up from Quinault to Port Angeles to catch the Ferry to Vancouver Island/ Victoria, B.C. Though the weather was cool and damp, we weren't prepared for what we saw along Highway 101 along the Washington coast to Port Angeles - rain, hail, and lots of snow!









(We also drove through the little town of Aberdeen, Kurt Cobain's hometown, and past the Sleater-Kinney exits of Olympia; I tried to get my dad excited about these Pacific NW 1990's indie rock landmarks, but he didn't get it.)

Upon arriving in Port Angeles, the sky cleared and became a beautiful bright blue reflected in the sea. We then drove onto the ferry for a freezing, rocky crossing of the Straight of Juan de Fuca.







I got a little nervous on the boat (ship?), as it was much more rolly than I had expected. Mostly it was funny (trying to walk and the bathroom doors slamming open and shut), but I thought, "what if I get seasick and start puking in front of everyone?". Luckily, it was all good, and over before I knew it. I did love the ferry's old fashioned (and Canadian-sounding) signage:



I had never been on a drive-on ferry before (having only gone on the Larkspur-San Francisco ferry which goes really, really slowly), so it was odd down in the hold (or whatever) with all the vehicles!



After all that traveling, we were finally in Victoria itself, yay!



The very first thing we did was go to Miniature World, in the Empress Hotel building - which is just beyond words and discription. So so SO cool and weird and odd - my very favorite being Space World, where I couldn't stop laughing long enough to take a good long exposure photo:



There were a lot of funky dioramas and arrangements to see. Honestly, you should just look at their website, because it's seriously amazing and weird. My dad enjoyed the world's smallest working sawmill (for serious nerds only), but I really liked the combination of history and tiny-ness as well. As well as its... oddness.







Victoria is a beautiful seaside city which has a feeling of old-world Europe, Native American culture, and new world modernity. Even in the cold weather (lots more rain and hail!), there were a ton of beautiful spring flowers all through the downtown area, and delicious restaurants, tea houses, museums, classic architecture... it's a city I'd love to visit again. Preferably in the summertime!