Victoria
Earlier this month my work sent me to a workshop on digital scholarship called the Digital Humanities Summer Institute. It's something I've wanted to go to for a few years now, not least because it's in Victoria, British Columbia, a place I've always wanted to visit.
Note to future travelers: Do not accidentally book your flight to Vancouver instead of Victoria. It's deceptive: Victoria is on Vancouver Island, Vancouver is not. I'm not saying I made that mistake and had to change my ticket at the last minute or anything.
There's a line from a book called Cadillac Desert that has always stuck with me: "Anyone who flies in an airplane and doesn't spend most of his time looking out the window wastes his money." And so on a plane ride when everyone is trying to look cool and nonchalant, as though sitting in a pressurized tube 35,000 feet in the air is no big deal, I'm the goober with his nose pressed against the glass, taking a bazillion pictures.
The institute was useful and mind-expanding and will help me in my work on the Joseph Smith Papers website. I talked to people about all kinds of cool projects, like writing programs to read Old English handwritten manuscripts and using Google Maps to compile oral histories about urban gardening. There was even a class focused on 3D printing.
But let's be serious, what was really awesome was all the stuff to do while I was wasn't at the workshop. I stayed at the dorms at the University of Victoria. The architecture of the university is kind of ugly - kind of the 1990s concrete-heavy look - but the location is amazing. Just south of campus you run into woods, and if you keep heading south you end up on the beach.
The second evening I was there I went to downtown Victoria, which has some beautiful old buildings, an airport for seaplanes right in the harbor, and lots of cruise ship tourists. I rented a bike and pedaled about 12 miles along the coast back to the university. The view was stunning - you're looking south across the strait, and then way on the Washington side you suddenly have the snowcapped Olympic Mountains shooting 8,000 feet into the air. And off to the east you have the Cascades across the water, with Mt. Baker almost 11,000 feet high. I spent most of the ride with my mouth hanging open and probably ate a lot of bugs. Also, the houses in the area were, you might imagine, not exactly inexpensive.
The next morning I ditched class and rode my bike another 26 miles, to Butchart Gardens and back. I've wanted to visit the gardens ever since a mission companion of mine from Victoria talked it up. And it was well worth being saddle sore for several days after (since I hardly ever ride a bike). It was a bit too late for bulb flowers and a bit too early for roses, but the foxgloves and hollyhocks and such made up for that.
I ended up having some awesome roommates from Texas A&M, and I spent an evening with my roommate Jacob climbing to the top of nearby "Mount" Tolmie to get a 360-degree view of the island. The next day he said, "I was describing our evening to my colleague this morning, how we ate Thai, strolled down to the beach, and watched the sunset from the top of a mountain, and he said, 'That's probably the best first date you'll ever go on in your life!'" Only slightly awkward...
The next evening I went with the Texas A&M contingent back downtown and we ended up at an oyster bar, which was awfully expensive, awfully slimy, and not very filling. We ended up going from there to an Irish pub and no one gave me a hard time for ordering all my drinks off the virgin menu. And heck, I got to meet Sulley.
I did miss my family like crazy and have a feeling they missed me too. My cell phone got zero service in Canada, which was about the only thing that made me realize I was in a foreign country (that and the money and the using Celsius and km instead of miles). Luckily I had free wifi just about everywhere and could use the Internet pretty reliably to make and get calls, including the exchange at 6:00 Monday morning with a frantic wife about turning off the water...
Note to future travelers: Do not accidentally book your flight to Vancouver instead of Victoria. It's deceptive: Victoria is on Vancouver Island, Vancouver is not. I'm not saying I made that mistake and had to change my ticket at the last minute or anything.
There's a line from a book called Cadillac Desert that has always stuck with me: "Anyone who flies in an airplane and doesn't spend most of his time looking out the window wastes his money." And so on a plane ride when everyone is trying to look cool and nonchalant, as though sitting in a pressurized tube 35,000 feet in the air is no big deal, I'm the goober with his nose pressed against the glass, taking a bazillion pictures.
Different colors of the Great Salt Lake.
On the 30-minute flight from Seattle to Victoria, we had an amazing view of Puget Sound.
But let's be serious, what was really awesome was all the stuff to do while I was wasn't at the workshop. I stayed at the dorms at the University of Victoria. The architecture of the university is kind of ugly - kind of the 1990s concrete-heavy look - but the location is amazing. Just south of campus you run into woods, and if you keep heading south you end up on the beach.
I strolled and ran on this path several times during the week.
The Empress hotel.
I refueled with shrimp ravioli and raspberry lemonade at a restaurant down by the water.
The provincial legislature building, with totem pole.
The pictures do 0% justice to the dramatic mountains across the strait.
The next morning I ditched class and rode my bike another 26 miles, to Butchart Gardens and back. I've wanted to visit the gardens ever since a mission companion of mine from Victoria talked it up. And it was well worth being saddle sore for several days after (since I hardly ever ride a bike). It was a bit too late for bulb flowers and a bit too early for roses, but the foxgloves and hollyhocks and such made up for that.
I ended up having some awesome roommates from Texas A&M, and I spent an evening with my roommate Jacob climbing to the top of nearby "Mount" Tolmie to get a 360-degree view of the island. The next day he said, "I was describing our evening to my colleague this morning, how we ate Thai, strolled down to the beach, and watched the sunset from the top of a mountain, and he said, 'That's probably the best first date you'll ever go on in your life!'" Only slightly awkward...
Downtown Victoria in the background. About two minutes before sunset, a bunch of tour buses and limos showed up, presumably from cruise ships.
Mt. Baker in the distance.
I did miss my family like crazy and have a feeling they missed me too. My cell phone got zero service in Canada, which was about the only thing that made me realize I was in a foreign country (that and the money and the using Celsius and km instead of miles). Luckily I had free wifi just about everywhere and could use the Internet pretty reliably to make and get calls, including the exchange at 6:00 Monday morning with a frantic wife about turning off the water...
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