BC's best kept Secret: Victoria.

On Monday we awoke quite literally at the crack of dawn to drive to the ferry terminal for the first departing cruise onto the island. We prefer to call our 1.5 hour ferry ride a cruise, because honestly, it was pretty easy going. Cubicles for laptop users offering free wifi are pretty enticing to the internet depraved traveler much like ourselves. Still, it is hard for us to stay put in these cubicles when the strong sent of the coffee shop or full breakfast buffet reaches our nostrils. I could really go on and on about our cruise, but really it served it's purpose when it brought us to Victoria- perks or no perks. Arriving at Schwartz Bay, we caught a bus that took us right into the city centre. We made our lunch stop at Subway, but not only did we enjoy a delicious meal. Along with chatting and story telling with the lovely staff, we armed ourselves with some gift cards to be used on the unsuspecting strangers we were sure to meet during our day in the beautiful city. Lately we have loved the invention of a gift card. Now that we are finally at the coast, and without any contacts to pave our way, it is purely up to us to do something of purpose (opposed to our previous stops that usually involved work projects made ready for us). Lately we have been making a push at this random acts of kindness scheme. Gift cards are perfect for several reasons. It avoids the awkward exchange of trying to hand someone cash, but still holds the same value. It sends the nice message that: we went out to buy this, with you, a perfect stranger in mind. We also enjoy the cards because we can bless a new homeless friend with a meal at a restaurant and avoid the offer of cash that could be alternatively used for who knows what.

Jer here for a sec. For part of the afternoon in Victoria, we rented scooters to cruise along the coast (a passion ignited back home, see our E-Scoot post which some of you hardcore readers may remember from our blog before it became The Open Road Project). It was a beautiful ride and these gas powered Honda's really did the trick. Much to our surprise, when we got down to the pier, we had some serious dejavu when we saw what appeared to be our RV parked by the water. Turns out, someone didn't steal our RV and ferry it to the island. Rather, a really sweet woman (also a lead singer of a local band) had the same make and model as us only just about three times more pristine. We got to see what our baby would look like if she wasn't all modified with new cupboards, new seats and a gutted bathroom. Anyway, we snapped a nice pic and then continued on our way.

Jamie again. After the scootering was said and done- we saw some more sights, met some rad fellow travellers, and then were spoiled with a fancy dinner. We were enticed by this illustrious place downtown called the Bard & Banker. With its recent 3 million dollar reno’s this Scottish pub is potentially the nicest of its kind in Victoria. It’s so nice we were surprised they didn’t have a dress code. This explains why when we walked in with our backward baseball caps, value village attire, wiry facial hair and massive hikers pack, we basically gave them no choice to walk us past the nice business meetings, men really trying to impress their new girlfriends, and other well dressed customers to sit us hidden away in the back corner. All in all it was a great meal and the 2 for 1 fish and chips deal that our server gave us really saved the bank. Our Day in Victoria was a good one, next it was off to Seattle to meet some friends and catch a Blue Jays game.

Cheers,The Boys