Day 3 – To Victoria
N48° 25.261’ W123° 22.121’
This morning was another crack-of-dawn start, as I got up early to get some work done, in order to be able to relax and be on vacation. There is probably something both ironic and disturbing about that statement, but I’m not going to take the time to analyze it now.
TravelsWithLeopold.com gets a new reader!
We had a great dinner last night. We went to the Sequoia Grill at The Teahouse in Stanley Park, which is now in the running for ‘restaurant with the longest and most convoluted name’. Dinner itself was fabulous. Mom had black cod, and I had an amazing lamb dish. I also got to try a couple of different wines, including Arrowleaf’s Pinot Noir. Now that is an awesome wine. Gonna have to get us some more of that! (And note to Breton: I call dibs on it for Kitchen Trash.)
The mission for this morning was to get Mom kitted out with riding gear. Deciding that we’d be fine for rain, I just threw a jacket on over a pair of jeans for running about town. This would prove to be a mistake.
We first hit John Valk BMW, the local BMW motorcycle dealership. Now that they’re also a Ducati dealership (definitely a workable combination in my view) I was hoping that they’d also have some generic clothing as well as the brand-specific ones. Sadly, that was not to be. And while I love Mom dearly, BMW riding gear for a 10 day tour is probably a little out of line financially.
They recommended that we try out what I had already identified as option number 2 – Carter Motorsports – so I took that as a good sign. Hopping back on the bike, we headed out along 2nd avenue just in time for the rain to start.
The good news in this story is that Carter Motorsports is right underneath the Granville St. Bridge. Taking advantage of a convenient overpass for protection, we scope out their riding gear and find a very workable combination of jacket and pants. Now Mom is looking the very image of a modern major biker chick.
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow shall slow us down… Well, maybe snow.
Given that the rain hasn’t let up outside, Mom very wisely opts to wear her gear to the hotel. So one of us is going to stay dry, at least.
What we very quickly determined yesterday is that while everything we were travelling with fit on the bike, it was a very tight fit. A very, very tight fit. Necessity being the mother of invention, we had made it all work at the airport. The only thing that hadn’t fit then was my weekend paper, and that just got stuffed down the front of my jacket. On a sustained basis, though it was going to be awkward. We therefore arrived at two conclusions:
Firstly, shopping is definitely not happening on this trip.
Secondly, we could use a little more space, or we run the risk that my laptop will come home even thinner than it was at the start of the trip.
Throwing ourselves on the mercy of the Business Centre at the hotel, we managed to snag a box and a courier packing slip. With this, we would ship home everything that isn’t immediately required. This, of course, is largely my dirty laundry. Hopefully it’s Dianne that receives the box in the office, and not the staff.
And so, properly attired and more comfortably packed, we head out to the ferry. As we near the ferry terminal, the skies opened up once more. According to the only other biker on the ferry with us, there is snow today on the Coquihalla and the Malahat. Given that we’re heading over the Malahat tomorrow, it could be an interesting ride.
This would be Mom, with her new secret service agent. Don’t mess with him.
The rain, in the meantime, is unrelenting. It rains for the entire ferry passage over, and then picks up intensity when we disembark. While this provides a wonderful opportunity for Mom to test her riding gear (which is toasty warm and very dry, thank you) it’s also more than usually awkward for visibility. The humidity is so high that my visor almost immediately mists, but rather than clearing when I crack the visor open it just accumulates more mist until it actually turns to water. It eventually gets so bad that I just throw the visor up completely, and damn the consequences. Which may sound macho, but I have to say that rain in the face at 90 km/h stings!
For whatever reason, this is the second time in a row that I’ve pulled up to the Empress hotel on a motorbike in the pouring rain. I’m not sure what that says about me, the Empress or Victoria, because usually this much rain is more Vancouver’s schtick than it is in Victoria. I do seem to find the inclement weather. Once we’ve arrived and settle in, though, the sun comes out and bathes the harbour in glorious warmth. As an added bonus, the Empress has pulled out all the stops and upgraded both my mother and I to suites. With harbour views. Ample space to dry our clothes, and ample environs to soak up the scenery. It’s been said before, but it warrants saying again… life genuinely doesn’t suck.
The Empress has a view? Who knew?!?!
A dinner with my good friend Dave goes by all too quickly. He and Mom haven’t met before, but get on quite well and we have an enjoyable and relaxed evening. No Princess JWo this time around, and my wine stays firmly locked in the bond room, but still a great evening of food, drink and friendship. Tomorrow, the trip begins in earnest with our first extended run up the island to Ucluelet. Tonight is a chance to just relax, soak in the ambience and catch up with old friends. You can’t argue much with that.