Victoria, Final

I lost some of the 'Victoria continued' photos because my fascination with Craigdarroch became too lengthy.




Many of the older areas of Victoria have transitioned into
beautiful villages like Oak Bay and China Town.



There are so many scenic walkways. Dallas Road takes you from downtown to Beacon Hill Park, one of downtown Victoria's crown jewels, beautifully landscaped and manicured with bridges, lakes and ponds and an alpine rock garden. The park has wondrous displays of exotic native trees, including Oak, Arbutus, Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar, Birch, Willow and Maple. Peacocks roam freely in the park. This delightful, sunny spot has walking trails that link with neighborhood streets and leads to the beach. 

Part of the Royal BC Museum
Thunderbird Park in downtown
Victoria offers an ex ordinary
display of houses and totem
poles.  It is an impressive park
with trees, notice the blossoming
plum trees.

The Dallas Road walkway leads to Clover Point and offers miles
of scenic walkway with open fields and along the beach with
views of Juan de Fuca Straight with the ferry route to Washington.



We walked as much as we could
during our three days in Victoria and
enjoyed the incredible scenery.



The Natural History Gallery with exhibits from prehistoric
 Dinosaur footprint from the original impressions left
in BC's Peace River Canyon by a carnosaur (100 million
years) - no photographs, to this very realistic exhibit.

 


Royal BC Museum.  Since 1886 the museum has collected,
protected and shared the human and natural histories of BC.
It is easy to spend the complete day here, we divided the
time into two days.  After a few hours we were suffering
from a bit of museum burn out and wanted back in the sun.

The second floor is dedicated to the western settlers of this
region. Brought from it's original site, a homestead from 1910.

   

 

 


I really liked the replica of Hudson's Bay Old Town. 

The Cannery, early days.

The displays were so realistic.  I enjoyed
this part of BC history.

A place of discovery with everything you might imagine.

 


The history gallery had a
variety of everything, even
clothes of the 1940's.

The western settlers area had a section of the old Victoria, built Hudson's Bay Company style
 around 1843.  Hudson's Bay Company was an
important part of BC's history. In 1670 a cousin to
King Charles11, Prince Rupert and a group of
noblemen were granted a charter to exploit trade 
& commerce in BC.  They called themselves 'The
Company of Adventurers'.

 



A hand plough, important to the
early settlers of BC.

First Nation display, cape woven from Bark. 



The exhibits are almost a little too real.

If you want to learn more about the First Nation,
the 3rd floor is dedicated to the First Nation and
first people of British Columbia.

Emily Carr, a Canadian Icon.
We were fortunate to see this temporary exhibit, which
 I enjoyed the most.  Emily was an artist and
writer inspired by the indigenous people of the Pacific
Northwest Coast.  As she matured her interest shifted
to landscapes and mostly forest scenes.  She used a post-
impressionist painting style and her work is stunning.
The earliest chronicles of life in British Columbia were
written by Emily Carr. 

The Royal BC Museum is to experience British Columbia, truly moving with it's rich history and wild land shaped by earth, ice, water and people.  The Natural History Gallery is a journey through beautiful British
Columbia.  The First Peoples Gallery takes you back in time for thousands of years, wild landscapes and the different people that have called this place their home.  You can totally immerse yourself for the day and combine it with  the National Geographic IMAX theater in the same building.  We went to an evening show after we were tanked up on afternoon tea with a caffeine high and sat spellbound with the wraparound sound and screen that was six storeys high to see Pirates of the Caribbean.
This was one of the most beautiful, people friendly museums that I have been in.

Parliament at night.

and Good Bye Victoria