Last Victoria Pics
Here's the last few Victoria pictures before some more wilderness oriented vacation pics.
This huge western redcedar is on the lawn in front of the Parliament Building.
(Huge by park tree standards--not compared to other western redcedars.)
Behind the fence is AMERICA, more or less. The M.V. Coho is the ferry that takes you back to the U.S. While we were standing there, someone flew in and landed on the rope.
A belted kingfisher!
Down in the harbor, a little bird bobbed and dove into the water, over and over again.
It's a rhinocerous auklet! (a puffin relative) And it's got a mouthful of little fish.
We more or less randomly blundered into the BC day festivities. Cadets of the military forces were involved in elaborate ceremonies, celebrating, I suppose, the military of British Columbia. This stern-faced cadet is young woman of maybe 16 years, possibly of Native ancestry, bearing a shiny sword and commanding this cannon regiment.
She barked the order for the other cadets to assume cannon firing positions. Then she barked the order for the cadets to insert their earplugs (really). Then nothing happened for a really long time. Then...
boom
Then my dad and I wandered around some more, and found lots of young people in colorful uniforms. A bagpipe and drum unit (the Canadian Scottish) had just finished playing, and they were having pictures taken with their families and with tourists. Suddenly I saw a guy wearing a uniform and kilt decorated with a mountain lion pelt, complete with the lion's head on the back of the uniform. I asked what it meant, and he explained that it alludes to Britain's adventures in Africa, when lion pelts were sometimes added to uniforms (for obvious symbolic reasons--who's the biggest predator now?).
This huge western redcedar is on the lawn in front of the Parliament Building.
(Huge by park tree standards--not compared to other western redcedars.)
Behind the fence is AMERICA, more or less. The M.V. Coho is the ferry that takes you back to the U.S. While we were standing there, someone flew in and landed on the rope.
A belted kingfisher!
Down in the harbor, a little bird bobbed and dove into the water, over and over again.
It's a rhinocerous auklet! (a puffin relative) And it's got a mouthful of little fish.
We more or less randomly blundered into the BC day festivities. Cadets of the military forces were involved in elaborate ceremonies, celebrating, I suppose, the military of British Columbia. This stern-faced cadet is young woman of maybe 16 years, possibly of Native ancestry, bearing a shiny sword and commanding this cannon regiment.
She barked the order for the other cadets to assume cannon firing positions. Then she barked the order for the cadets to insert their earplugs (really). Then nothing happened for a really long time. Then...
boom
Then my dad and I wandered around some more, and found lots of young people in colorful uniforms. A bagpipe and drum unit (the Canadian Scottish) had just finished playing, and they were having pictures taken with their families and with tourists. Suddenly I saw a guy wearing a uniform and kilt decorated with a mountain lion pelt, complete with the lion's head on the back of the uniform. I asked what it meant, and he explained that it alludes to Britain's adventures in Africa, when lion pelts were sometimes added to uniforms (for obvious symbolic reasons--who's the biggest predator now?).