“I don’t know where the ice is?!?”—Thursday 3

90mm Anti-Aircraft Gun with a verticle range of 30,000 feet--in the woods!

Uh, that's a tree.  The ship is over there!

This morning, we walked to National and picked up our car to drive to Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse. It was technically two different sites, but they were at the same place. Both of them were actually very well done. The signage had good information, was well placed, and was of course in both English and French. It was interesting to me (Bill) having been to many forts built from 1700 and on, and having been modified numerous times to update to bigger and bigger coastal defense guns to defend against sailing ships up to WWII era ships. But this one was started in the 1870’s and decommissioned in 1954. It was built at a time that guns were already large, so the layout really only had three locations to hit most of the harbor.

We stopped at A&W for lunch. Theresa had asked for her drink with no ice, but neither drink had ice. So, after we ate, and I went back to get refills before hitting the road, I asked for “just a little bit of ice”. Observing the confused look in his eyes, followed by a frantic looking in many directions, even under the counter, I considered his name tag which stated he was “In Training”. But, I was still not quite prepared for the defeated exclamation, “I—I—I don’t, don’t know where to find the ice!?!” I know Victoria is a little “European-like”, but I didn’t realize it was THAT European!

From there, we headed to the airport to see the BC Aviation Museum. This was fun!! (Well, 50%). It wasn’t very large, but they had a few really good planes, including a Vickers Viscount mostly restored. It entered service in 1957, and was out of service I think he said by 1964. It was fascinating looking at all the differences and similarities it shares with the planes I see at work.

On Thursdays, they open up the restoration shops. A variety of people (mostly retired) work on restoring different planes that might be future displays. They had the front of a DC3, and one of the guys was repairing the nose section. There was a mechanic training fixture so a mechanic could see how the landing gear is supposed to work, and how to fix the mechanics of it, and also the flaps mechanism. They were very friendly, and enjoyed talking to visitors. I think I saw another group of two people once, but otherwise had the place to ourselves.

(Lots more pictures, but I'll share them with anyone who asks!)

RCAF North American "Harvard" (newly painted).

We made a quick stop at Douglas (Hwy 1) and Dallas, which is Mile 0 for the TransCanada Highway. Maybe a future trip we’ll find the terminus? We took a quick run down to the beach, too.

We made it back here in time for Tea again. Scones again. Theresa REALLY liked them, and, well, they weren’t as bad as most scones. I really don’t get scones. But, we sat with a couple from the Boston (Danvers) area, and he told us of the LOT 767 that landed wheels up. I’m very curious what that was all about, but will have to wait to see.

We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, and came back to watch a movie from their free DVD library.