Arrived Day 2- Victoria

Our day started today with checking out of the hotel and heading half hour down the road to catch the B.C Ferry to Victoria, (  1 1/2 hour away). Found it expensive for sure- $88 for the car and the two of to go across. And of course we'll have to come back again, so will be another $88!

Once we arrived we decided to start checking out some of the places I had talked about earlier in the blog posts. We paid a visit first to the Victoria Bug Zoo.

Totally cool place you have to see if your in the city. There were so many cool bugs that we had never seen before and even your ordinary bugs like cockroaches and ants.

Our daughter Ria would have loved the ants, below, as she's talked about starting her own ant colony. 

They have also added some new bugs - Giant Stag Beetles, Jungle Nymph stick insects and  Flower Mantis. If you get the chance too when your there be sure to get in on a tour with the tour guide. Today there were little kids there with their parents, and  they seem to have so many questions. The guide as well has interesting answers that really help you improve your knowledge about bugs- more so than touring around the rooms on your own.

Also saw a cool castle, called Craigdarroch Castle. Check out their web site. They're photos on there are amazing. And here are some of my own below.
Huge house that over the years has served as a home, a military hospital,a college and music conservatory. Well worth a visit.

Our last stop of the day was a trip around Victoria Harbour on the harbour taxi, Victoria Harbour Ferry.Loved seeing so much of the harbour that we wouldn't have seen by car. This made it so easy- and all within a 45 minute ride. I might add of course that this isn't just a tour around the harbour but as well is narrated which makes it even more interesting. Don't forget to do this when in Victoria. They are easy to find- across from the beautiful Empress Hotel at the Empress Dock.

We had a great day today. It was Fathers Day- took Gerry out for supper at Swiss Chalet, seen some great sites, weather was nice too. Only complaint was it was busy with traffic everywhere, and parking was a bit hard to locate. Not much for free parking either. Parkades and paid parking lots. We were in a touristy area though and even locals said parking is not an easy thing to come by.

Saw some bigger homes as well high on the hill tops across from our hotel window:

We look forward to tomorrow and hope you enjoyed the pictures. Please DO visit the web sites of the places we had a chance to visit today, where you can learn more about them.

On a final note- Happy Fathers Day all dads who follow us on this special day!