Our first night in Victoria, BC was great. We awoke to sunny skies and immediately started planning our day. Our original plans were to stay one night in Victoria but since we hadn’t gotten there until late in the afternoon the day before we decide to extend our trip one extra day. Our first five nighter would, technically, become a six nighter.

This particular post doesn’t have much to do about boating. If you’ve been captivated by our engine and course plotting adventures you might want to skip. This day was reserved for enjoying Victoria. We planned for our first event to be related to a museum or park. We heard about a petting zoo in Beacon Hill Park and all agreed this would be a good starting activity. The weather was simply stunning and forecasts predicted it would remain so throughout the day.

On our way to the park we passed by the Emily Carr House. Emily Carr (1871 – 1945) was a well known artist and author that lived most of her life in this Victoria, BC neighborhood.

The Emily Carr House

We made it to the park and discovered a giant watering can art piece. After playing there a bit we continued walking into the park and finally reached the petting zoo. We got to enjoy a horde of baby, miniature goats. Some had been born just the day before. There were also some adorable pot-belly pigs.

After the park, we walked toward the water and landed at Barb’s for Fish & Chips. We met a well-fed Seal and decided to make it even happier with a snack, which Lila delivered by hand.

Since we had walked quite a bit from downtown to the park and then back toward the water we elected to take a water taxi back to our marina, which was a mile or so into the inner harbor. We then visited and spent more than an hour in the Miniature Museum located in The Empress Hotel. It’s filled with remarkably detailed dioramas of historical and literary events.

Water taxi serving the Victoria marina

The Miniature Museum at The Empress

We did more walking and shopping and finally landed at a restaurant in Chinatown for dinner. Afterward we strolled casually back toward the marina to get a good night’s sleep before heading out toward Friday Harbor which would be our last destination before heading home.

The Laika flying the Canadian flag