Category: Victoria

You might be forgiven if you thought Oak Bay were in Victoria BC. On a bad day it’s 10 minutes from downtown Victoria, but despite its modest size, it has its own police department. Given that Oak Bay is 10.5 sq km and Victoria is 19.5 to sq km, it seems odd. I suspect that this jurisdictional isolation has allowed Oak Bay to retain its character and not be subsumed into the larger municipalities. Oak Bay is also home to The Uplands, a very swishy neighbourhood to the north-east. If you walk high street (i.e Oak Bay Ave) there are […]

Read more

In Victoria, in the Oak Bay neighbhourhood, there is a sushi restaurant called “Bon Sushi” on 1467 Hampshire Rd. I went for dinner with a few people and I have to say I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was one of those really hot summer days where nobody wants to cook so the restaurant was very full. However, we managed to get a table outside in a small amount of time which was very nice. The service was friendly and relatively quick. Since it was so hot outside, I was most definitely not in the mood for any hot […]

Read more

Oak Bay in Victoria is a beautiful place with lots of lovely water views. There are many small parks along the vista, one of them being Queens Park. It is a small viewpoint with a piece of public artwork, a series of wolves and a deer made out of metal. And, although that was fun to look at, my favorite part of the park is it’s old swing. Now, I am not referring to some ordinary swing, this swing is built for four people and you push its floor with your feet for momentum. It’s quite calming and a lovely […]

Read more

Recently, I have been experimenting with a Gluten-Free diet, mainly out of curiosity, just to see how I feel. However, the does mean that I can’t visit all my favorite bakeries as much as I’d love to. As I am currently staying in Victoria I was pointed in the direction of Origin’s Bakery, 1525 Pandora Ave. “Specializing in Gluten Free.” Apparently it is rather popular on the island. I went in around 4:00 in the afternoon and right away I could tell they’d had a good day of sales. There were obvious gaps on shelves where baked goods had been […]

Read more

Victoria has plenty to see for all members of the family, museums, art galleries, gardens, churches… Miniature World is a category all on its own. Located at 649 Humboldt St., Miniature World is just around the corner from Victoria’s most famous Fairmont Empress Hotel. A Victoria attraction for over 40 years, it has over 80 displays depicting various events in history, doll houses, scenes from old story books and even a peek into Space 2201. Some displays have buttons that highlight a section, or make characters or objects move. The attention to detail in facial expressions, costumes, ground cover, cobble […]

Read more

A couple of months back I was sitting with some friends and we were discussing good food places to eat at because let’s face it, I am a food junkie. One of my friends said that they had just gotten a job at this place called Noodle Box. All that was going on in my head was Noodles…. Sounds amazing…. Where is this place and where can I get some? The following day I told my friend about it and we decided to go because it was five minutes away from my school. When we got there the place had […]

Read more

Sidney BC is the last outpost of civilization before getting on the ferry to Vancouver where we all know there is too much Lululemon and not enough serious British-ness. The proof of this is The Haunted Bookshop at 9808 Third Street in Sidney. My wife wanted to visit the shop because it’s the only place where she could find Noddy books by Enid Blyton. I have a policy that I can’t go into bookstores because I have a pile of unread tomes beside the bed which are gathering dust. However in this case it was either that or stay in […]

Read more

So … you don’t want to eat breakfast at your Victoria hotel, and you want an authentic experience but, you’ve slept in a bit to enjoy the 11 AM checkout, and you realize (now that you have checked out of the hotel) that you are hungry. After a few internet searches, you decide to narrow our choices to these only because they are within driving distance of downtown and are not brand name places and had a website. Jam Cafe www.jamcafevictoria.com 542 Herald Street Shine Cafe www.shinecafe.ca 1548 Fort Street Blue Fox Cafe www.thebluefoxcafe.com 919 Fort Street John’s Place www.johnsplace.ca […]

Read more

Hotel choices in Victoria can be a dilemma because to be downtown can lead you to tired hotels or the wildly overpriced. I’m a fan of the more boutique hotel option. As a result of a pleasant intersection of personal connection and chance my family had the opportunity to stay at the Oswego, which is a 1.5 block walk from Bellville Street, which leads you easily to the Inner Harbour and the BC Parliament buildings. We stayed on the top floor with stunning views, even on a grey day (see the photos) it’s a lovely view. You could really just […]

Read more

It’s a near tradition for our family to buy our discounted new calendars at Russell Books on Victoria‘s Fort Street shortly after New Year’s Day. Russell Books is unusual – it has every type of self-help book (Mindfulness for Dummies got me laughing) plus fiction and so forth. There are three floors, which are all only accessible from the outside. But there’s always a decent set of well-priced books. Fort St., running from Government to Cook streets, has an usual collection of shops. Antique Row is the 700 block where you can find treasures. However ‎right beside Russell’s is a […]

Read more