Victoria: A Wet Ride and a Warm Stay

On the last weekend in November, literally hours before selling our car, we headed to Victoria for the weekend. Of course, the car only served us to reach Tsawwassen – from there we were on our bikes, as usual. We had about 7 km to ride to the ferry terminal and our mission was to keep Neil awake so he would fall asleep on the other side. That included leaving his trailer open and it was very cold. He wasn’t the happiest camper, but once we arrived to the Kids Zone on the ferry everything was better again. Those Kids Zones have proved themselves to be very useful. 

After getting off the ferry, we started riding and Neil was asleep in seconds. The first part of the ride was fine, but the second part was very wet. The Lochside Trail, which leads from the ferry to Victoria was still nice, but we didn’t take any breaks and arrived very wet and the trailer got very muddy. 

Our friends live right in downtown Victoria, which is an awesome and very convenient location. We settled in and got to meet their newborn baby, which Neil was very excited about. It took some time to dry off, and after a short rest we went to explore. 

It seemed like many people were gathering in the centre of the city and we realized that lucky us, we happened to be there for the Santa Claus Parade… It was a cold evening and I could not believe that so many people were standing outside just to watch the parade. Neil really enjoyed all the colourful lights everywhere. As for us, we were more interested in getting something to eat. 

In the morning our friends treated us to a pancake breakfast and then we went for a walk in Beacon Hill park, managing to catch up with other friends who moved to the island over a year ago and we haven’t seen since. It was nice to catch up. 

Just as we left, the rain started, so it was another very wet ride to the ferry terminal, again with no breaks. Since we didn’t eat lunch we had to eat the not so attractive ferry food, oh well. When we arrived to Tsawwassen it was already dark, of course, with heavy rain and strong winds, so I came up with a much better plan that Neil and I would wait for Gili while he cycled to bring the car over. It was a good plan, especially for Neil and I. Then we drove back home in our car for the last time after a very enjoyable weekend.