As soon as D was finished work, we set out on foot to discover a bit of our downtown neighbourhood. We were delighted by the many bookstores and cafes. In fact we thought the two bookstores that we dropped in at were a couple of the best we have visited across Canada. Bookstores are kinda our thing. When we had a young family and were always broke, we would go on bookstore dates, where we would spend the evening browsing the shelves, making notes and then ordering reserving them at the library. Likely the oldest and most popular cafe was the Dutch Bakery where we didn’t linger but shared a Nanaimo Bar. Because? We were on Vancouver Island and just a drive south from Nanaimo, BC where the bar was invented. But in truth, I find every reason I can think of for a Nanaimo treat.

Victoria very much reminded us of our European travels. The locals do their daily shop from specialty to specialty store. They were wrapped in cashmere, Irish linen and smart looking hats. It made me want to buy a hat, which I did the next day (from one of their many wonderful thrift shops).

We headed home for a late lunch and then were picked up by a dear friend, formerly of our home town Winnipeg. He escorted us on a hop in, hop out tour that was magnificent. He had all kinds of stories and anecdotes to share with us.

The photos above were from his historic Parish Church in Saanich-St. Stevens. If he hadn’t escorted us, we would have missed it because it was at the end of a lane in the rural area of Saanich adjacent to a beautiful Indigenous property.

One of his stories was that when Harry and Meagan first made their escape from Britain, they stayed in a home just further up the road.

Every place I caught a glimpse of water and mountains (I am a prairie girl after all), I took a picture. Later when sorting through, I couldn’t really tell where I was, except for the four pictures above, which were the 360 degree view from Mount Tolmie.

As we toured the beautiful homes of Oak Bay and the Uplands, we often ran into deer that seemed quite content in this “urban” setting. I say urban in quotes because there were permanent residence communities but they were surrounded by pieces of forest and the ocean, so it didn’t feel urban all the time.

We walked a little at Cattle Point where the clever sculpture (above) was located. The sun was setting and we had dinner plans with more former Winnipeggers, so we ended the tour not because we had seen everywhere that Brett had on the itinerary but because we were all getting hungry!

We dined at a very old and popular Italian restaurant. D and I had baked spaghetti. But our friends who dine there often, chose nachos and burgers.

It truly was a perfect day-being in the company of old friends and seeing a city in our own country that we have long admired. We had both been to Victoria before, but felt like this was the first visit where we really got to know this amazing city.

Kath’s quote: The key to a wonderful life is never stop wandering into wonder.”-Suzy Kaseem

Captured this while when we slipped into a little shop on this day.

Love never fails

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