Victoria, Canada ehhh?

6/23 - Port Angeles (75 miles)
6/24 - Sidney, British Columbia (20 miles)

We took a ferry from Port Angeles and arrived in Victoria, Canada on Vancouver Island. This was the fast and pedal free way to arrive in the Great White North. Upon arrival, we stowed our bikes and joined the mobs of tourists in the streets. Apart from our greeter, Mr. Redcoat, our favorite events were touring the Royal B.C. museum and taking a tour of the capital building (I'm sure the Canadians call something else). These both brought a sense of location to us; a sense that we really were in a different country, ehhh? It felt really surreal to view a presentation of B.C. and realize this is the big region in between Alaska and WA that all our maps excise. Another odd tid-bit was the revelation that Canadians still recognize the Queen of England. The capital tour was filled w/ Queen stories and I was the one who foolish asked about "the Queen of Canada?".
















Our evening concluded w/ the all too recurrent event of free campsite scouting. We found an abandoned lot outside of Sydney but the neighbor insisted we stay in his yard instead. We instantly made a new Canadian friend w/ Bill ... , Harley-Davidson Rider & Donkey Engineer. The latter was initially puzzling to me. Bill looked pretty old but bossing around donkeys seemed a little too old. Bill quickly educated us on the history of the logging industry and that a donkey was one of the engines which dragged out fallen timber. It was exciting to be talking to a man who not only knew his history but had lived it. We stayed up late talking politics and getting a genuine Canadian perspective on life (and the US - but that's a whole other entry :).