Vancouver Island and Around

There is just something about Victoria, BC that really makes me smile. Perhaps it is the fresh halibut, dungeness crab, lingcod and oysters that is so appealing. Maybe it is the people... I was stopped at a stop light in the middle of the city and someone asked, "How many 'klicks' (kilometers) do you have on the bike?". The typical question is, "Nice bike", which usually gets a nod without conversation. Instead it turned into one of the few times that I would have liked the light to stay red a bit longer, since it was an attractive blonde asking...  

Yeah, the people here seem warmer than anywhere since Nova Scotia. 

It could be the skyline too...

Or the sunsets...

The history and architecture...

Some of the typical transportation offers a viable quick way to get to Seattle, Vancouver or the Olympic Penninsula...

Or perhaps it is simply watching nature do its thing... (sorry about the clarity of some of these pics - it is hard to focus when you can't determine when the whales are going to breach, but sometimes you get lucky). 

Too bad this one isn't clear - what a great action photo if it were.

These next few aren't the quality of what I usually post, but I still dig the spy hopping!

Several pods of transient orcas were just as inquisitive as we were. According to the naturalists on board, this was a great day for them too. Apparently the whales were putting on quite the show - at least the guides that do this daily were as excited as the people on the boat.

Okay, for some reason the shots of the flukes (whale tails) turned out best and I put most of them in. Yeah, a bit redundant and repetitive... but what isn't?