Our last day on the cruise was in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
During our cruise, Wyatt fell in love with the Made to Order Omelet station. Then being a No Parents Allowed trip, we headed to the ice cream shop, Coco, and bought their Deluxe Sundae!!
We did not arrive in Victoria until 8 pm, so after our late breakfast and snack, we attended the afternoon production of The Beatles Invasion. The musician who played John Lennon was very good and actually looked like him.
At the end of the show, members of the crew came onstage for a final goodbye. Our crew had been amazing.
A moon-lit sail into Victoria
The view from our balcony
This was Whitney and Wyatt’s first time in Canada. Victoria was settled in 1843 and was named for Queen Victoria. It is the capitol of British Columbia.
We did not have a tour booked, but we found Sean at the pier and gave us a private tour of Victoria. He was very knowledgeable and patiently answered all of our questions. He even stopped at a convenience store so we could buy soda…lol. As a treat he bought us Old Dutch Ketchup chips.
Our first stop was at Mile 0 of the Trans-Canadian Highway. The highway ends in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, which we visited in 2000 with Whitney and Wyatt’s mom. So we have now been at the start and the finish.
We stopped at the Craigdarroch Castle. It was built by Robert Dunsmuir, a wealthy coal baron. Construction was completed in 1890 shortly after Robert’s death. It was vacant for many years, before being restored and becoming a museum in 1979. It had a very cool wrap around porch. We peeked through the windows…it is decorated with period furniture from the early 1900s.
Sean drove us to the top of Mount Tolmie for a view of Victoria. It is 394 feet tall and has a 360 degree view.
Our next stop was Chinatown. The Chinese were brought into British Columbia during the 1850s to work in the gold rush and in the 1880s to work in building the railroads. They were treated very poorly and were only allowed to live in a designated area. The Millennium Arch was constructed in 2002 as an apology for the early treatment of Chinese citizens.
The arch is very beautiful and the lions on each side are considered lucky.
In the middle of Chinatown is the narrowest street in Canada, Fan Tan Alley. Since the Chinese workers were only allowed to live in this neighborhood of 4 square blocks, the shopping area had to be small and efficient. It had just closed before we got there, but a nice man let us inside to take pictures.
Sean stopped in the downtown district to allow us to buy some souvenirs and get a picture with a moose, LOL. We also bought a Beaver Tail, which is a very thin scone covered in cinnamon and sugar.
Our last stop was at the province of British Columbia Parliament Building. It was completed in 1897. Francis Rattenbury was the architect and at the age of 25, he won the design contest.
Back at the port, we got one last picture of our ship, then went to our room and put out our luggage. We had signed up for Port Valet, which is a free service. In Seattle, our bags would be checked in and taken directly to the airport and put on the plane. How cool is that.
We enjoyed our last midnight snack at the Local, before heading to bed.
Early the next morning, we arrived back in Seattle, having travelled 3176 nautical miles.
One last breakfast, with a view of Puget Sound. They called our group, Port Valet, to exit the ship. Our bags were already on their way to the airport, so we just had to walk through customs.
On our way to the train station, we stopped to enjoy the view of Mount Rainier.
From the port, we walked the 6 blocks to the Link train for the 40 minute ride to the airport. It is a great feature, with kids free and adults are just $3.
We had an hour, before we could check in so we took a minute to relax. Once we could check in, we made sure all of the bags had arrived from the ship.
The Seattle airport has an underground train. We passed the time before our flight riding the loop several times. Then it was time to board and fly to Iowa.
After take-off we had a great view of Mt Rainer.
We also flew over Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Lake on our way to Denver.
We landed in Denver and celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary at the McDonalds. Last sunset of the trip and wow what a trip We had great food, amazing scenery, lots of laughs, and incredible memories made. No Parents Allowed are always epic adventures.
Our Welcoming Party in Des Moines. What a great way to celebrate 40 years!!
