Category: Day Trip

Ghosts of the past

The patterns on the side of a building in Victoria B.C. caught my eye while we were there last week. It took a couple of beats for me to identify just what I was looking at.

Another building apparently had been constructed onto the exterior of the building still standing. Interior walls of the former building remained attached when the newer building was torn down, revealing not only the building interior but ghost signs on the brick walls.

Murchie’s, Victoria

On Monday I showed you our morning scones at Murchie’s in Victoria. In addition to offering edibles on site, Murchie’s sells tea, coffee, and accessories. The tea choices are extensive and I’ve found enduring favorites. Boxes of teas are shown here along the wall to the right, and most of them share space with small, open jars that allow shoppers to sniff the various teas. Murchie’s has standard black and green teas along with blends.

For tea lovers who like to brew an entire pot, Murchie’s sells a selection of tea cosies, warmers to cover a pot. This is one of the cutest I’ve seen.

Of course, there’s also a nice selection of tea pots, cups, and mugs. One of these pots is going to come home with me if I’m not careful.

Happy birthday, COHO!

Our local MV COHO ferry celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday. The COHO is the Black Ball Ferry Line vessel that travels a 90 minute passage between Port Angeles, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia, my favorite means of international travel.

In her 60 years Black Ball notes that the COHO has carried over 26 million passengers and 7 million vehicles. She has a reliability record of 99.99%.

A chief reason COHO does so well is that she is taken out of service for maintenance for a month each year. She’ll be in drydock in 2020 from January 6th to February 6th.

People watching

It’s fun to go to an event where people like to dress up. People in Port Townsend like to dress for an occasion and they do it with style. The 37th Annual Port Townsend Kinetic Skulpture Race was such an event.

You can’t fully see it in this shot but this woman is wearing a crown made of welded table cutlery. I didn’t catch the lineage but she’s royalty of some sort.

If you’re going to march in a parade don’t forget to bring your dragon along. And a chicken. Bring a chicken. Fashion note: Colored duct tape can double as jewelry.

Here is a small school of jellyfish getting ready for the parade. They were chanting something like “We are jellyfish, squish, squish, squish.”

There’s a bumper sticker that you can find on cars locally. “Port Townsend: We’re here because we’re not all there.” What fun is life if you can’t laugh at yourself?

Kinetic Skulpture Parade

After the parade of Kinetic Skulptures at the Kinetic Skulpture Race last Saturday in Port Townsend along came the “Art Parade.” It included the float, above, and a few other art pieces along with an assortment of costumed participants.

The Unexpected Brass Band provided live music.

Compass Rose sported a dress made from paper navigational maps.

Some of the costumes were pretty amazing.

Some costumes and people, like Bad Crab, were just fun.