Frederiksen Family Vacation 2011, Part 2

Our first full day in Victoria we decided we would visit a place called Undersea Gardens; we noticed it the day before. It looked like an interesting place to see fish from the bay. Unfortunately, it was not quite as interesting as we expected, but there were a few things that we found pretty hilarious. This place was a small aquarium like building which was half submerged into the water in the harbor in Victoria. Guests walk down a flight of stairs where you could look into a hand full of tanks with different species of fish. They did have a place where you could touch the sea stars, which was fun.

Our favorite thing about this place was the "live show" that they put on a few times a day that we were lucky enough to catch. They have a special seating area that faces a large tank full of different marine creatures where they send in a diver to feed them. Our diver's name was Ben. During the show they would ask Ben questions about what he was doing and when he responded all we could hear was indistinguishable gibberish. It was a good idea in theory, just poorly executed. The whole rest of the trip we would pretend to be Ben and answer each other in loud obnoxious mumbles.

Ben in the flesh....

The traditional funny hat photo in the Undersea Garden gift shop

Following our adventure at the Undersea Garden we walked around the pier right in Victoria's main street. Here we got some good shots of the Empress hotel.

Across the street from where Scott and I stayed there was a hotel named the Royal Scot which was appropriately named for the mascots of our High Schools as well as for the finely dressed polar bear out front which the girls had to have their picture with.


For lunch we wandered over to Fisherman's Wharf and had fish and chips and ice cream. We also purchased some fish to feed the seals that hang out around the wharf. Actually, there was really only one seal that looked like he frequented the wharf because he was not perishing for the want of food, but it was so fun to hold the fish out over the water and have a wild seal come out and eat it right out of your fingers. Rachelle had a moment where she wasn't paying attention and a seagull came and snatched the fish right out of her fingers. Thank goodness she didn't fall into the harbor.
Feeding the seal was one of my favorite things to do. I'm ashamed to admit that Scott and I wandered over almost every day we were there to feed that fat seal.