Bicycle-related Adventures

Hey all
Today it was really quite nice weather.... no clouds and a balmy 13 degrees. So after more Canadian bacon we decided to head out for a ride. We are rather unimpressed with ourselves that we are yet to have Maple Syrup for breakfast, but hopefully a serve of pancakes will rectify that tomorrow. Interesting tidbit, apparently maple syrup on bacon is not actually a Canadian idea or pastime or anything.... hmmm.

So we started our ride by Michell's farm, passing some chooks and a giant fat pig, as well as some "horsies" (quote Alex). The trail wound its way through some thin forest (it might not look that thin from the photos, but over here that is thin.) We also rode through some classic Canadian neighbourhoods and some classic Canadian roads. The trail crossed a few intersections, which was a tad hairy, some have buttons you need to press, some don't, even when the man is flashing cars can still turn so you have to watch and to top it off they are all on the wrong side of the road and have backwards steering wheels (except for a Japanese export we saw on our way home from Victoria today).

Anyway so we rode all the way into Victoria without getting lost, which was a pretty big effort by us considering we managed to get lost between Amelia's car and the departure terminal at the ferry from Vancouver... Long story short, a guy had to yell at us before we got going in the right direction. We managed to go the wrong way to get to downtown Victoria but quickly realised there is only one bridge that crosses the harbour and for some reason we had decided to completely ignore it. We arrived in town after having to fight our way past a vicious band of skate rats... I think they were probably about 11...

First stop was the Royal Museum of British Columbia. Apart from us having to pay for entry it was pretty cool, exhibits about how the state came to be and global warming and the First Nations (the native people). There plenty of mini dioramas, including one that took over 5 years for a guy to painstakingly recreate every minute detail. Alex quickly ripped it apart saying there were no footprints or drag marks behind the tiny canoe that had been pulled up onto the shore. I'm pretty sure the guy was somewhat preoccupied carving minature totem poles with First Nation styling and creating seaweed and tiny shells to line the shoreline to worry about that but still Alex remained highly unimpressed.

Roberta had sent us off with a packed lunch that we enjoyed in the museum courtyard. The cookies were to die for... This is somewhat of digression, but did we mention Nanaimo Bars? They are this super delicious Canadian thing (Nanaimo is a town a few hours up-island) with chocolate on top, custard in the middle and a chocolate biscuit base. They are amazing. Back to the day...

After that we didn't do much of note, cruised a few shops until Fred came and picked us up from the wharf. We came home to a delicious meal of Dungeoness Crab, which was Alex's first crab experience. It showed, it took her about fifteen minutes longer than anyone else to finish it. We had company for dinner, Fred and Roberta's daughter (Alex's cousin) Gillian, her husband Nick and their three kids, Celeste, Logan and Hannah. A desert of Nanaimo bars finished up another great day on the island.

Haven't really got much planned for tomorrow - we are still making our way through the list of free things the lady at the Tourist Centre printed off for us (apparently we really look the poor-backpacker part...). We will hopefully be meeting up with George when she flies in on the 20th. The future plan seems to be to head back to Vancouver next Tuesday and hopefully stay with Alex's sister Amelia in Vancouver until Alex heads over Calgary and I set off to Squamish.

Here are the days photos:

Beginning of our biking adventure - about 15km from Victoria

More biking

Alex near the end of our ride beside the Victoria Harbour

Inside the Royal British Columbian Museum

Alex with the wicked old Ford Fred is restoring