Victoria, BC
You ever have those trips that you do not quite know how they are going to be or go? Where while you are there it feels like a breath of fresh air? This was one of those trips, or at least part of it. This was part of the summer of 2024, Myself and a couple of coworkers were invited by another to spend the long 4th of July weekend up near the city of Port Angeles, WA. Now that long weekend will be another post entirely because it was a great trip. This post I am going to hone in on the day trip we took to the City across the straight, Victoria, in British Columbia. Read below for the story of that day trip and hopefully choose for yourself to visit one day (I would recommend).
This was one of my first out of the country trips (I once went to Niagara Falls with my grandparents and siblings when I was just a wee lad, another story for another time). The morning of the trip was hectic as we had spent the previous night having fun and staying up decently late. I will not lie when I say I was sleep deprived and had somewhat of a headache that morning. To get over to Victoria and cross the border into Canada, we needed to hitch a ride onto a ferry that would cross the Straight. This Ferry had only certain times it would make the trek across or course and that previous night we had made some tentative plans to hit a early ferry ride over to maximize the time we could spend there. Well, I would love to say that the morning went smooth and that we were able to leave on time, but I would be lying to y’all. The morning was hectic and slow, we were all sluggish and scatter brained as we made sure we had everything we might need for the day ahead. When we finally got on the road to get to the ferry, the original ferry time was in the past and we were only concerned with getting there and getting on the next one. We got to Port Angeles where the ferry left from with a little time to kill. We got coffee and breakfast at a local coffee shop (The coffee shop in question is named The Great Northern Coffee Bar, and it was an nice place even though their mocha did not rank very high on my list of rankings. It stands at a nice 53 out of 62, so kinda bad actually lol). That morning was very relaxed as we were just enjoying a good summer morning in the PNW. When it came time to finally get to the sea port to take the ferry, I remember being nervous for I had never gone through any sort of customs before and this was like one of a handful of times I can say I have been on a ferry or larger boat. Everything went smoothly even though I messed up one of the border crossing forms and had to start again. On the ferry the ride was smooth and great and I remember enjoying the views of the mountains and the coastline. Arriving into Victoria I was taken away by the architecture of some of the buildings and how cute the small Canadian city was. That day on Victoria was very fun as we got to eat and drink in a Canadian bar, walk around some downtown stores, see the capitol building, go into Canada’s version of an REI (Soooo cool!) and just explored the city. Even though the trip was in all only several hours, I felt as though we got to see and experience and good bit. The Ferry ride home was also a blast and with the setting sun over the ocean I couldn’t think of many views that were more breathtaking. If you are ever looking for a nice getaway, or city, I would check out to see in Victoria, BC is for you. I could see myself going back there someday and other small cities in Canada to explore and experience.