Friday, July 31st, Cowichan to Victoria

Greetings!

A guidebook we have said that it could take from a couple of hours to a whole day to drive from Parksville to Victoria - depending on how much you wanted to see. Well, we took the day.

The murals in the small town of Duncan are well worth seeing. Produced in part by Canadian lottery funds, the town's artists were inspired to create scenes which capture the characters and events in the town's history. Very few of the town's buildings escaped the brush, and they can be seen easily on a walking tour. Follow the yellow feet through the town.

Cowichan Cultural Center has a couple of added program components since we visited it last. Their totems and longhouse were terrific, as usual. But one of the finest native dance troupes we've encountered is now performing three times each day, and kudos to the young dancers for bringing much more than tourist-level dancing. The other new addition is the River Cafe, which has a lunch menu that will knock your socks off. We have rarely seen such a variety of native food, done at such a professional quality, for so cheap. We settled on a shared combination of salmon, crab cakes, breaded clam, and several breads and fruit. And I passed up venison, buffalo, salmon, and halibut, prepared each in about three different ways.

After finding and settling into the West Bay Marina Village, we drove up to Sydney on the tip of the Saanich Peninsula for dinner. We found a great greek place called Maria's, and let the cooling breezes refresh us in the late evening sunset.


To see the remaining photos taken today, click on:

July 31st