Crawling From the USA: Victoria Videos (thanks You Tube!)

We did not take any of these. I periodically scour YouTube for videos of the area and usually find little minute long views of the Inner Harbour or Empress or Legislative Buildings (Parliament Buildings) or really long family vacation clips of someone else's family, or some with horrid music. The music in all these is tasteful and show off the area outside the Inner Harbour. The Inner Harbour *is* quite lovely but not all there is to our fair city. I'd posted these to my own personal blog but thought I would bring them over here too.

The first 2 are time-lapse drives, so if moving at high speeds around twists and turns or over hills makes you ill, you might want to skip these, but otherwise I think they are great. Chas and I took a similar trip to that of the first one, only it was longer, and we were driving the opposite way (going to Cadboro Bay, rather than from it). Ogden Point is where the freighters dock, and in the season (like now) the cruise ships dock too. We saw 3 cruise ships docked there yesterday. From Beacon Hill Park and on in the clip, you are in James Bay, our little neighborhood.

The second video goes to Sooke, where we we'd like to go at some point, but haven't made it that far yet. The furthest west we have gone is Langford and Sooke is further, however we do see much of this landscape along the way to Langford (where the Costco and other "box" stores are). Note the amount of GREEN in the second one...it was shot in February this year. And yes, there is liquid sunshine (rain) there too. It was February, and this is the Pacific Northwest...come on people! Liquid sunshine moves in for the winter here like your Aunt Mildred does after eating turkey at Thanksgiving. It is here whether you want it to be or not. Both of these time-lapse videos have maps below them to show the general path taken.

The bottom video was taken recently, a week after we had some ~~strange~~ freakish weather. April 18th brought us hail mixed with snow in the afternoon with larger snow flakes at night, and the following morning there was snow for a few hours. Of course none of it stayed long...the higher elevations had snow til the 20th. Anyhow, the weekend after was gorgeous and generally has been good since then. There are lots of nice things in this video, including a brief glimpse of our building (we live next to the north end of the park), the Beacon Drive In (an old diner with cheap greasy food, yee haw!), and the waterfront at Dallas Road and Douglas Road (Mile 0 for Highway 1 - Trans Canada) with brief glimpses of the Olympic Mountains (in Washington State) in the distance. Oh, and I love hearing the seagulls in the background. Not like I never hear them or anything. :P

I hope you enjoy...

Cadboro Bay to Ogden Point