At the entrance to Victoria's Inner Harbour stands a wee inukshuk. I like to imagine that he controls the float planes that buzz in and out of the harbour.
It's not a real inukshuk though. Real inukshuks are made of stones balanced upon one another. When you zoom right in on this fella, you can see that he's made of driftwood that's been fastened together somehow. But that's ok by me; I like him. But what I like most of all is that he's wearing a snazzy wee backpack!
I use to live very close to Ogden Point and the one thing that I loved about the area was the thundering noise from the heliport. Loved it, love it.
The Helijet heliport is not the most glamourous in the world...
... but they do have nifty Helijet Only piccies in their parking area.
Oh, I hear that familiar noise... ah-huh! there you are!
It's so loud! Woo! Love it!
And there it lands... Vancouver Harbour to Victoria Harbour in 35 minutes; passengers and baggage off-loaded, out of there and off on their ways within five. The perks of the price tag.
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I went down to Ogden Point today, a local port at the entrance to the harbour here in Victoria, BC, Canadaland.
Victoria has become a stop for many cruise ships on the west coast of North America. Good for the local economy and easily amused Skywatch Friday blogger chicks...
... but I can not understand the appeal of being held captive in a floating hotel with a dress code. What kind of hell is that?
My dear Mom is going on cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii next month with some friends. She'll be getting up bright and early to get her ass from home here in Victoria over to Vancouver to board her boat.
First port of call after Vancouver? Victoria, lol! I'll be going down to harbour to wave. :-)
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This was taken a few years ago when I accidentally sat on my camera. The other camera was my friend's and I was making sure not to squish the caterrrpillarrr. Not a bad result for a half-assed photographer. ;-)
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To some, this sky may seem dull but for me, it's wonderful. We've had near constant blue skies for a couple of months now and as much as I like a nice sunny day, it gets rather samey-samey if that's all you get. It's great to see some clouds, some variety.
Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours down at Ross Bay (in Victoria, BC), a favourite place of mine. Ross Bay is lined with a stoney beach, a wide sidewalk and a highly stimulating bumpy road. ;-) Ross Bay Cemetery is just beyond all the greenery.
I stuck to one end of Ross Bay, I sat my ass down on these rocks and chilled out.
I love sitting right here. It's a large rock in the middle of a channel and, even with my hearing loss, the sounds of the waves flowing in, out and around is hypnotic.
Just some different textures on this beach; driftwood, stones, kelp and a jellyfish that missed the tide going out.
All very relaxing...
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Victoria BC, being a coastal city, has a harbour. It's a fantastic harbour; very lively. You can just sit on a bench and watch various kinds of pleasure boats, fishing boats, a huge ferry to the US, the 'clipper' to Seattle, kayakers, row boats, dragon boats, cruise ships, little water taxies, the Coast Guard, various boat building companies, whale watching boats and various seals and water fowl all somehow share the space. It's can look quite chaotic at times!
Add to the mix the harbour is also an airport, or more precisely it's an water aerodrome (sounds cool, eh?), with a few seaplane companies offering flights to various other harbours, mostly to Vancouver or to the smaller Gulf Islands, as well as sight-seeing tours. It's a very busy and very loud airport. I can hear the seaplanes from my flat. It's a great sound and I love it.
Here's a clip I found on Youtube (it's not mine) taken from a seaplane about to land in the harbour.
At about the 30 seconds mark the plane flies right over a section of town quite close to the ground and a weird angle. It freaks the crap out of unsuspecting tourists. :-) And here are a couple of photos from that perspective:
And some more photos as I get down right near the harbour:
In all my years living in this city, I've never taken a flight in a seaplane. I will be soon though. Maybe they'll let me fly the sucker... ahhhh, that would be cool... I can see it now....
Thank you for flying with Ms Toast Burner Air... please remain seated until we come to a complete stop... ;-)
This is Trial Island. Trial Island... hmmm, it sounds cool, don't it? Like maybe at one time there was some good old fashioned prosecution of uppity women; angry mobs throwing them down into the icy waves to be dismembered and devoured by slithering wolf eels.
Appealing as that may be, this is Canada, and so, it's required that the explanation of the name be dull. ;-)
And it is.
The island is just off shore and a couple of miles east of various ship building docks (Navy and industrial). It use to be that when the ships were sea worthy enough, they would do a trial run out from the docks to the island and back. That's what I've heard anyways.
What's this mysterious, saucer-shaped, silhouetted orb? Has the mothership finally come to collect me? Are Greys about to beam down? Or is Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise on the loose? Either way, I need to run and hide! And where's my tinfoil hat?!
Oh, whew! Tis all ok. It's just a 20 foot tall watering can; situation normal then.
A couple of pictures from Calgary, Alberta. I lived there, briefly.
I thought that this wonderful cloud looked like a huge skymonster about to gobble-up the downtown core or was that wishful thinking?
I'm not a fan of living in big cities but I do try to appreciate them for what they can offer; neat-o buildings is one of these things. This is the Nexen Building and while looking up at it one day I wondered, 'if that building fell right towards me, would I be crushed or sliced in two?' What do you think?
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Here are some photos of a flight from Victoria, BC to Ottawa, Ontario that I took last summer.
Leaving Victoria International Airport (International meaning that there are some flights to Seattle).
Apologies to the environment but the flight between Victoria and Vancouver is a great flight. Small plane, flies low, over gorgeous scenery and it's all over in 16 minutes. I love it!
EDIT! Adding... I get off the wee plane in Vancouver and jump aboard a bigger plane from Vancouver to Ottawa... and that takes five hours.
Leaving Vancouver is beautiful too: the ocean, the Cascade mountain range and then the Rockies... hypnotic. Sorry about the squiggle!
The Canadian Prairies ... where the buffalo once roamed is now a checker board of wheat and soybeans. Oh, and down there somewhere is the 'Land of Rape and Honey' (I haven't forgotten).
And here is the political capital of Canada... Ottawa is on the top half of the river and Gatineau in Quebec is on the bottom right corner. It's opposite to a normal map. And my expression is more to do with someone pointing a camera at me than about my feelings about Ottawa cos I really do like it there.
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