Day Sixteen Sep 14, 2000 Thursday Victoria, Ferry to Vancouver Victoria, British Columbia, the "City of Gardens" has spectacular beauty and incredible charm. We had driven once around the city upon arrival at on the ferry, and had followed the residential streets that parallel the sweeping coastline. We had visited the university, and driven around downtown a bit before settling in for dinner and then bed. Lyn had read up, helping us decide what to see for our one day in Victoria, and we agreed upon the harborfront area, the Crystal Gardens, and one more general drive about. We decided to skip the wax museum and tourist attractions and to give up the drive up Victoria island to the more northern ferry from Naniamo to Horseshoe Bay. We would take the more southern ferry, that leaves Victoria from Swartz Bay and weaves through the channel islands arriving on the south side of Vancouver in Tsawwassen. We drove back downtown, near the wharf and overlooking the inner harbor. We parked the car and took these pictures of the spectacular flower beds and harbor front by the Empress Hotel After buying more souvenirs, we headed off to Crystal Gardens. The day was sunny and Victoria is beautiful, but for some reason our pictures turned out just awful. Either a camera setting was off or our developer did something wrong. We could not adjust them enough during scanning, ever after much effort. You will just have to go to Victoria to see experience its beauty. Lyn and Jesse headed into the Crystal Gardens with the camera and plenty of film. Dave headed across the street to park the car and find a coffee shop. We used our walkie-talkies to keep in touch. Jesse really enjoyed himself at the Gardens, and he shot two full rolls of film. Lyn tired halfway through and joined Dave outside for coffee. Eventually Jesse finished up and it was time to get going. Dave finished his coffee and wandered  among the various tourist shops across the street from the Crystal Gardens. He spent some time in a Canadiana store, with t-shirts and post cards, mostly killing time and just browsing. Foot traffic came in waves with the store first packed, then deserted. During the slow periods, he struck up conversation with the woman behind the counter, who it turned out actually owned the place and was covering for an ill employee. He ended up chatting, on and off, for an hour or so and learned about how she was born back east (in Winnipeg) and came out to live with her aunt and about her brother that had to move to Dallas to progress in his company. The kind of insight into Canadian life that sort of comes through the Stompin Tom Conners songs, but with a real face on the story. Of course, Dave spilled the beans and she could now practically author our life story, too. Anyway, he remembered to pose for a picture (unfortunately only one, and she blinked), and wrote down her name to tell her about this page. However, as you know, our backpacks were lost in Vancouver, including the little book with all of those detail notes. Thankfully, Lyn had removed the exposed film (including this very roll) before the theft, so we still have our pictures, (even if we can't remember the names). If you see this page, please drop us an e-mail so we can thank you for your fine hospitality and wonderful stories about life in Victoria and Canada in general. After Crystal Gardens, it was one last time around Victoria and onto the ferry to Vancouver. We had dawdled too long, and had missed the early ferry so we stopped for lunch. Of course, we stopped at A&W (we had been to Harvey's yesterday). We relaxed over cool rootbeers and finished our lunch, then headed off for the ferry docks with plenty of time to catch the next scheduled launch. It was around 4 o'clock and the traffic seemed extraordinarily heavy on the way to the ferry station. It was a bizarre co-incidence! Dave turned on the radio and the from traffic reporter and we learned that a small-craft boat had actually crashed into the previous scheduled ferry (the one we might have been on), had sunk, and the owner / pilot had drowned. There were coast guard and flight for life helicopters and RCMP boats and television crews and everything was in a total confusion. The ferries had been delayed, and would simply sail slightly late. Click on the icon to read the official report on the incident We eventually boarded and enjoyed the twisty-curvy path between the channel islands, and shot a roll of file (which was eventually lost with the backpacks). We headed to our hotel, and then cruised around the area near the Vancouver airport, looking at the stores and houses and deciding upon a restaurant. We had sent Lyn in twice, and she had come back unsatisfied for us to go on. At the third restaurant, Dave pulled up in front and ordered her out, then quickly parked the car and joined her. We had a delightful dinner and really started the detail planning our last few days of vacation. All the confusion, first the ferry accident, then the heavy traffic, then the three restaurant attempts caused us to not follow our methodical pattern. We always tucked out backpacks out of sight into the trunk through the pull down rear seat in our rental Taurus. When we returned to the car, we were surprised to find the doors unlocked. Nobody can remember if we forgot to lock them of if they were simply jimmied (that takes about 10 seconds). However, the backpacks were definitely gone! We returned to the restaurant, and placed a call to the RCMP, eventually returning to our hotel after stopping the credit cards and the cell phone. We were pretty shaken up, and this caused us dozens of hours of work (and lots of fret and worry) to recover from. But we persevered and still enjoyed the rest of the trip. Click on the smiley face icon to read about all the difficulties we had on this trip, but remember, we overcame them all and still enjoyed ourselves. And, most importantly, we have refused to let these problems become the main story of the trip. Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: July 22, 2001