It’s 10:30 in the evening and our bags are packed and sitting in the hall outside our suite ready to be taken off the ship. We hope we have everything we need for the morning. Wouldn’t it be funny if someone forgot to leave themselves pants to wear off the ship. I just checked, we’re good!!
We spent the day in Victoria, BC. It is a beautiful little city. We walked from the cruise ship pier to the downtown, past the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. We explored the downtown, then walked to Craigdarroch Castle. The castle was build in 1889 by a coal baron. Unfortunately for him, he died before it was finished so he never lived there. His wife and children did though. After WWI it was used as a hospital for war veterans, and after that it was converted to a school - Victoria College. We toured the castle, some parts have been restored to how it looked in 1889, and there were signs outlining plans to restore the other areas.
One display caught my eye, it was a picture of John F Kennedy giving a medal to a women. The women was Francis Kelsey. She attended Victoria College, class of 1931-1932. Later, as a senior scientist with the US Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Kelsey resisted pressure to grant FDA approval of the drug thalidomide, thus saving a multitude of American babies from birth deformities. In the photograph from August 7, 1962 she receives the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from President John F. Kennedy at the White House. I was familiar with her story after watching “Call the Midwife”. An interesting, addition fact about her story; when she applied for her first job in the medical science field, she was offered the position because they thought she was a man, her name was Francis. So many families were saved so much heartache, and if her name had been Anne, or Sue or Mary, she may not have been at the FDA. Strange how the world works and wonderful that women are now accepted as equals in scientific fields. (At least, they are more accepted then they used to be).
From the castle we walked back downtown for lunch at Frankie’s Modern Diner. It was good and pub food was a welcome change. From there we toured around Beacon Hill Park and fisherman’s wharf. The park, built in the late 1800’s was beautiful with large sequoia trees and views of the sea. Some areas where maintained as gardens and some left wild. It was very pretty.
The wharf was cute with shops, seafood restaurants and houseboats.
Back at the ship we packed up our bags and had a wonderful farewell dinner and after dinner visit with our cruise friends. We exchanged numbers and email addresses with plans and promises of seeing each other again. I truly hope we do!!!
Tomorrow we get off the ship and head for home. We have an 11:40 pm flight and a day to spend in Vancouver. So, while this feels like the end of the trip, stay tuned, for one more post tomorrow.
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