Alaska & Canada Day 6 & 7!

The sixth day of our trip was spent on the open seas. It was a long day of hanging out on the ship. To pass the time we played Mexican Train Dominoes.

We also spent quite a bit of time doing some whale watching. The whales would come up out of the water to blow through their blow hole. They would always be far enough away to where you couldn't get a picture of them. Sometimes there would be a pod of whales going up and down out of the water. Brent was the master of the binoculars and could always spot the whales first.

At 11pm there was a chocolate party in the Centrum. This is a chocolate sculpture of a king in his thrown. There were several other chocolate sculptures to look at and lots of chocolate treats to sample. What a yummy event! Maybe I should host a chocolate party at my house, could be fun!

We arrived in Victoria, Canada on July 1st. This is our last full day of our cruise. We walked from the ship toward town along the waterfront. It was a good half hour walk to the heart of the city.

It was raining all morning long. It wasn't pouring so it wasn't too bad to be out in the weather. Plus, it wasn't cold and windy.

Staying dry on our walk into town.

The first thing we did when we got into the city was tour the Victoria Parliament building. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia (just like Phoenix is the capital of Arizona). The building is made of granite walls and a copper dome roof. It is an impressive site to see.

The interior of the building was stunning. The walls had many paintings and many of the windows were stained glass windows.

This is their coat of arms.

This is where the legislatures make their laws. The majority sits on one side and the minority party sits on the other. This building was built in the 1800's. The distance between the two sides is a standard distance used in all of Canada's parliament buildings. The distance is not measured in feet or meters. The distance was two sword lengths apart. Sometimes debates could get quite heated and being two sword lengths apart was a safe distance. Our tour guide let us know that currently the legislatures leave their swords at home.

We walked a long way to get to our next tourist spot. This the Craigdarroch Castle. It was built in the 1890's. This 20,000 square foot mansion was built in three years. It has the most beautiful oak walls throughout the first floor entry way and stair case. Its amazing to witness the incredible skill the builders of this home had.

Brent is ready to enter the castle.

Many of the rooms had been restored to what they were when the castle was occupied by the original family that had it built. When the parents died, the kids couldn't afford to or weren't interested in maintaining the building. The building was used as a college, music school and even as a military hospital. Now it is a historical site to visit.

Every room of the house had a magnificent fireplace. We have 50 more pictures of the home. If you would like to see them all, just come on over sometime :)

Once we left the castle, had lunch at Subway, we decided to tour the Maritime Museum. This is a museum dedicated to the history of ships and the importance of the sea for the city of Victoria. The museum was quiet. It was filled with model ships, cannons, pirate memorabilia, and many other interesting things.

Brent thought the scuba suit was very cool!

We figured the boys would like to see the torpedo. I think it's longer than me.

Once we left the museum we wondered through the crazy town. The streets were packed with people celebrating Canada Day. Canada Day is to Canada as the 4th of July is to the United States. There were many celebrations going on all over town. With all of our walking through town, we were exhausted when we made it back to our ship.

On Day 8 we woke up as we were pulling in to Seattle, Washington. The cruise vacation was officially over as we arrived in Phoenix and were blasted with temperatures 60 degrees hotter than what it was every day on our trip. Although it was an amazing adventure, we were glad to be home.