Victoria is a Hollywood city

Victoria has been home to many movie productions. In fact movie website http://www.imdb.com lists some 178 titles filmed here. Typically though, Victoria is standing in for a U.S. city and in the case of the 1990 movie "Bird on a Wire" that city is Racine Wisconsin.

Now, I get my hair cut in a small barber shop in Victoria's Chinatown. There, the barber proudly displays a VHS box of Bird on a Wire on his shop's counter. Why? Because there is an exciting motorcycle chase scene in the movie where the action takes place just outside his shop in Fan Tan Alley. Rick (Mel Gibson) and Marianne (Goldie Hawn) ride their stolen motorcycle through the Chinatown district of Racine Wisconsin

Here's that scene from the movie:
That's the Hollywood enhanced version of Fan Tan Alley. Here's what the alley way actually looks like as I follow the same basic route that Mel and Goldie took in the movie - beginning with the Gate of Harmonious Interest:
Interestingly, although Victoria is standing in for the Chinatown district of Racine Wisconsin - there actually is no Chinatown in that city.

The Annual Lighted Truck Parade and Food Drive

Lighting up the streets, and the lives of those less fortunate with the Annual Lighted Truck Parade and Food Drive.

With blaring sirens and honking horns...here they come!

There they go. All done!

Keep Off!

If you're taking the MV Coho ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles you'll spend some time in the ferry line-up waiting to board the vessel. And if you're curious you might venture to the pier's edge to take in the view. But if you try, you'll encounter this dire "Keep Off" warning:And on closer examination you'll discover the individual who enforces the Keep Off command.A masked, apparently Mexican, wrastler! Well, after all, it is a ferry to the U.S..

It's back - Google's Street View camera car

It's been less than two years since Google's Street View camera car rolled through Victoria and they're already updating their street views. I guess Google doesn't realize how slow the pace of development is in this city.

Mobile home

Looking across the Juan De Fuca strait from a point near Sooke shows a very small tug pulling a very large......home!

Quimper Park - Harling Point

Quimper Park in Harling Point, Oak Bay was named after Manuel Quimper Benítez del Pino (c. 1757 – April 1844) a Spanish/Peruvian explorer, cartographer, naval officer, and colonial official. The toys in the park are donated by the residents of this little community for all to enjoy.

Sharing

On a quiet street, a raised wall garden...
...reveals an herb garden.
"These herbs are for snipping"

A backyard statement

They're creepy and they're crawly

Victoria has been invaded by Western tent caterpillars.Something we haven't seen in the six years that we've lived here.
They're mostly a nuisance as they cover walls and sidewalk as well as congregate in their tree tents. Although they do defoliate the trees they build their nests in - the trees do not die.
Hopefully the unusual winter we had this year that provided the conditions for the outbreak will not occur again next year.

Poles apart

Telephone poles in the Victoria area are often painted by volunteers and children with decorative images as a way to discourage graffiti. These particular poles are located in Victoria's funky community of Fernwood.

For sail for sale

It is said that puns are the lowest form of humour - but when it's time to sell your micro yacht, marketing must suffer some degree of "punishment."

Moving house

At the junction of Richmond, Gonzales, and Despard Avenues sits a modest 1930s Art Deco home. But, at the beginning of February trucks and workers began to show up.At first we thought the house was going to be demolished to make way for a new home. Not so unusual in this part of Victoria. But when we saw the large iron beams being put into place it began to appear as if the home would be raised instead. Perhaps to build a high ceiling basement.Then a sign appeared in the window - this house was to be saved and moved to a new location - Point Roberts in the U.S.A.Last night, February 9th, the final preparations were made and the house began its journey to a storage facility in Swartz Bay where it will stay until the property in Point Roberts is ready to receive it.