Seattle/Vancouver Part 3

The second day we were in Vancouver we took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for the day.  We decided to drive our rental car so we could go where and when we wanted to (although that is a decision that came back to bite us at the end of the day).  Riding the ferry was fun just because neither of us had ever done anything like it before.  Matt stayed out on the deck a lot of the time just watching as the little islands passed by…but I was content inside—where it was nice and warm.  Have I mentioned it was COLD there?  Obviously we went in November, which is in the rainy season, but it was also often foggy and misty—not great for seeing the scenic views.  The ferry: Once we got to the island (it takes about 90 minutes by ferry) we drove down to the city of Victoria and did some sight seeing.  This is the Empress Hotel:Although I’m sure it’s absolutely beautiful in the summer, it was pretty neat seeing all the colors of the changing leaves. We ate lunch at a quaint little Italian restaurant that had awesome breakfast items and pasta.  Then Matt saw a sign for a “castle” that was only 8 blocks away, and we thought it would be cool to go see it.  Another mistake, because the blocks got really long and it ended up being about 2 miles away.  We got there and decided we didn’t have time to tour it because of the other things we wanted to do, so we just took a picture of it.  “Castle” really isn’t the right word; I’d say more of a mansion, but that’s my opinion.We saw a really neat church on the way back:  And on the side of the center entrance was this sign that Matt thought was so cool:It says:  “The marked stone above was laid by the right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill Prime Minister of  Great Britain in the year 1929”

Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and this is it’s parliament building: A continuation of our day on Vancouver Island and our visit to Butchart Gardens next!