Road Warrior Tale #2 - Victoria, BC

Welcome to Vancoucer Island - this is British Columbia's capital - Victoria!

Umm, wait a minute - call me the crazy American, but I know Vancouver [the city] is on the mainland and yet, you put your capital out here [on the island] - how did this make sense in the 1800s when you first colonized and populated this part of the world?!

Anyways, its a very pretty city, amazingly clean - make sure to have your "eh" ready if you go out drinking or to a sporting event [which I did both]. I went to see the Victoria Shamrocks lacrosse game vs the New Westminster Salmonbellies! Man, this was fun! Gritty, old school minor league hockey-esque fun! In like a 8000 or so seat arena, the team in the goofy green unis beat the rugby shirted Bellies! YEA!

Sadly, sorry, no pictures of the actual game - my camera's flash, not so great in vast indoor spaces, but the adventure to GET there - oh boy!

You can ferry from Seattle to Victoria - passenger only, but I knew I'd need a car on the island to get to the lacrosse game. So the only car ferry to Victoria leaves from Port Angeles, WA at the far tip of Puget Sound, a two hour drive away from SEA airport. So I landed at 10:30AM, ferry was at 12:30 and 5PM. Did I make the 12:30 ferry? Hell no!

The speeding ticket I got like 3 miles from the ferry just outside Port Angeles sank that plan! :(

So how do you kill four hours in Port Angeles, WA?

Well first, you eat lunch, cause I thought I was going to eat lunch on the FERRY! [Grr, stupid WA Highway patrol]

Then I got the bright idea - shit, I now have a speeding ticket to pay in the next ten days - I'm going to be on a damn cruise ship the next seven and in Puerto Rico the following three - how the heck am I gonna pay this! - but wait - I'm still in the US of A! - they've got Post Offices here right!?! - I don't have my checkbook - but Ive got credit cards! I can get a Postal Money Order and have the Post Office mail my ticket and the Money Order in to PAY my damn ticket!

WHAT GENIUS! WHAT A PLAN!

So thanks to a very helpful guy at the Wendy's I was eating lunch in [he directed me to the Post Office], I killed half an hour in Port Angeles, WA paying the speeding ticket I got trying to REACH Port Angeles, WA! WAHOO! In fact, I bet I set a RECORD paying a ticket I got on a Wednesday afternoon probably reached the District Courthouse [duh, in Port Angeles go figure] the very next damn morning! In fact, I bet I beat the COP to filing the paperwork! HA! I'd love to prove that! Bastards! [Rant over!]

And what else did I do in Port Angeles, WA you ask? Haha, I went shopping - It was so un-guy of me, the Payless Shoes down the street from the Post Office had a sale, I thought hey, I could use some new dress shoes for the cruise, gee, buy one pair, get one pair half off - those new FlipFlop sandals will be PERFECT for the cruise ship pool! So I just had to have them too! And at half off no less! :)

Hmm, what else, I needed a hair cut too, so I found a barber shop, and got a cut, oh and they had an old school Dairy Queen across from the ferry terminal - so I had an ice cream!

So to recap...
$153 speeding ticket [+ $2.50 envelope & postage]
$28 one pair of shoes, one pair of Nike Shaq flip flops for the pool!
$10 haircut
$5 ice cream
$42 ferry ride
$13 [Canadian!] Lacrosse Game!

Value of experience.... PRICELESS!

Plus, capper, this view of Mt. Olympus in WA from the ferry!




Til next story... :P
~F