Canada Day

Today's photo is where our local Canada Day celebrations will center, Victoria's Inner Harbour. If you can imagine this scene with about 40,000 additional people you will have a pretty good idea of what it will be like later today. Happy Canada Day!

Here Comes the Sun

Saturday was a beautiful warm and sunny spring day and just as the forest floor is being carpeted with wildflowers, Victoria's Inner Harbour Causeway is blossoming with the performers and artists that make it such an interesting and entertaining place to visit. Victorians and visitors alike were strolling there on Saturday enjoying the music of Victoria's own famed one man band, Dave Harris (above), as well as other performers and displays by craftspeople and artists. It's the best place in the city for sitting back and watching the world pass by.

The Causeway

The day before yesterday I posted a photo of the Inner Harbour but only the watery portion of it. Just a slight turn to the right yields another iconic view, the Inner Harbour Causeway and the Empress Hotel. It's looking pretty quiet now but in another month or so it will be busy. It's an interesting area, shunned by some locals because it attracts so many tourists. In the summer the craftspeople and buskers give it somewhat the air of a midway but without the trashy glitter. I like tourists - they just want to have a good time and enjoy themselves - and without them this city would be struggling to survive. As it is, many of the excellent restaurants, sights and events we all enjoy depend for their existence on tourists and the jobs they create.

The Real Victoria?

Regular visitor JoJo yesterday asked an interesting question about whether those of us who live here consider the Inner Harbour to be the "real Victoria" because of its summer tourist focus. I think it's as real as any other aspect of the city. To be really literal, the Empress and the Legislative Assembly Buildings are not imitations of some other famous buildings. They are the original buildings that were erected here (i.e. not fakes). Likewise the Causeway - it's not an imitation of something else. And while the rest of Victoria may not be as striking or attractive as the Inner Harbour, Victoria doesn't have any huge simmering slums or ethnic ghettos hidden away in remote parts of the city. Like any city, Victoria has its share of social problems such as homeless people and drug addiction. That such problems are not very extreme here seems to me to be mostly a matter of luck rather than an enlightened citizenry or government. But for whatever reasons, for most of its residents this city is a pretty good place to live.

In any case, as my tip of the hat to reality-mongers I offer this photo from my archives (July 2010). Unlike most of the photos I publish here, it is completely unedited. Aside from re-sizing it for the web there has been no re-touching or photoshopping. This is the way it came out of the camera. It's a pretty nice place, real or not.

Victoria Classic Boat Festival

For the last few days there's been more teak in the Inner Harbour than you'd find in a log jam on a Borneo river. And lots of maple, oak, mahogany and other expensive exotic hardwoods too. Labour Day Weekend here is marked with one of my favorite shows, the Victoria Classic Boat Festival. It's a treat to walk around the docks and look at these beautiful heritage boats and yachts but it's even nicer that so many of them welcome the public aboard to look around and see what it's like to live on one of these floating palaces.

From the photo below it's easy to see that I'm not the only one who came out yesterday to walk around and enjoy the boats. The Inner Harbour Causeway was a bustling scene of activity. If you look carefully you can see one of my favorite local bloggers, in her usual spot under the red umbrella on the left. Tomorrow we'll take a closer look at some of the wonderful old boats that came for the festival.

Summer Night II

This is a little closer and lower down from yesterday's photo. I mentioned music in the air yesterday and you can see to the left in the above photo a trio of musicians. This is Satori Strings, a chamber music group comprised of a violinist, a viola player and a cellist. Their music seems admirably suited to Victoria and the genteel ambience suggested by the nearby Fairmont Empress Hotel and the Legislative Assembly Buildings. I'm sure the city's namesake Queen Victoria would approve.

Summer Night

Victoria's Inner Harbour Causeway on a summer evening is a delight. There's music in the air (that's one man band Dave Harris in the lower left), jugglers, mimes, artists, beautiful boats and lovely reflections, all lit by the dazzling Legislative Assembly Buildings in the background.

Dancers

The Causeway

I took advantage of another warm sunny day yesterday to visit one of my favorite summertime haunts, Victoria's Inner Harbour Causeway. There were lots of strollers enjoying the view and many of the artists and performers that make this area such a vibrant and memorable experience. Summer has begun!

Hup!

...2 3 4

Causeway Artist #3 - Copper Cowgirl Jane

There's a gold covered statue of Captain Vancouver on top of the Legislative Assembly Building but down below on the Inner Harbor Causeway we have Copper Cowgirl Jane whose frozen stances and mechanistic mime enthrall and captivate passersby. Just watch out, she may be made of copper but she'll pump you full of lead!

Giant Seaplane

Quite aside from the artist's refreshing disregard for scale and perspective, there is something appealingly sinister about this giant seaplane mural. The black windows remind me of that cult movie classic about the crazed trailer truck that pursues a poor motorist (Dennis Weaver?)across a nightmare superhighway landscape.

Thanks to our Willits correspondent for the title of the above film, "Duel"