“Harold has a girlfriend?!?!”—Tuesday 1

This morning we went to the Parliament building. Of the numerous State Legislatures we have visited in so many States, only one did we find anyone working. This makes two (albeit a Province, not a State). At 10AM, they began the session with a formal procession by the Speaker into the chamber, with the Sergeant at Arms carrying the ceremonial mace, a large staff with a bowl and crown on the end. The Sergeant set the mace into a special holder, signifying that they were in session. Canada is under the dominion of Queen Elizabeth II, and the mace symbolizes her authority for them to meet. This morning they were in committee, and the “debate” was about an option to allow private owners of woodlots to convert the use of their land to something else. It was scintillating. It largely went nowhere as the “Democrat” kept asking the same basic questions, and the “Liberal” kept not really answering them. After 20 minutes, we had achieved a good understanding of politics and left the chamber. We toured the rest of the building, and then took the guided tour too. We learned a little more about Canadian politics and history. It was pretty interesting.

After lunch, we went to our Whale Watching tour. Yesterday, they cancelled our tour because there were only two of us. We called first, and found they were a go with four. Then when we got there, it was only three. But, the tour was still going, so we were happy. But, we were also 20 minutes before it left, and had nothing to do. The owner and usual Captain, Harold, suggested we get a coffee or something while his boat was being fueled up and came back. We overheard him saying something about having to take his girlfriend to the airport, so he had another captain, Russ, pilot the boat. As we headed into a nice nearby place, I figured a local brew sounded better than a cup of coffee. The man behind the counter assured me I had plenty of time, and the boat would not leave without me, and if it did, he’d never sell Harold another beer. I mentioned Harold wasn’t taking us out, as he was apparently taking his girlfriend to the airport. We then heard a woman exclaim, “Harold has a girlfriend?!?!” Not sure what social drama we just found ourselves in, but it was kind of nice that the people knew each other and shared their business with each other too. Regardless, we had a boat to catch in 10-15 minutes.

We headed straight out, and went right to a location where another boat was watching a pair of humpback whales. They surfaced a few times, dove deep, then about 6-10 minutes later, surfaced again. This repeated a few times, and then they disappeared for a while. We looked, and looked, and looked. Nothing. Then we heard a blast behind us and maybe 50 feet behind the boat both whales surfaced blowing! It was pretty cool, although, some were startled by it. Theresa’s quote of the day was the captain saying at that point, “You were scared? I know what they could do to the boat!” We also found a “bait ball” which is a very large group of fish, which is evident by a huge group of birds. It was something of a cross between a Hitchcock film and a comedy as the birds scattered keeping a panicked radius around us. 

"Bait ball" with birds

Getting out of the way as fast as possible!!

Mt. Olympus and the Cascades

Sea Lions in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Legislature Building from the Harbor



Gate to China Town



Fan Tan Alley

After our tour, we walked through China Town. It is supposedly the oldest one in all of Canada. We saw the "Narrowest road in the World", Fan Tan Alley, which is only 1.2 meters wide.  We headed to an Indian restaurant that Theresa found on Trip Advisor. It was good, but I’m not sure it was THAT good.  But, it was the end of a pretty good day.