Weekend Expedition 38: Over Victoria

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Uplands Park, a favourite place of mine to take pictures.

This weekend, Catherine  and I came over to Victoria to celebrate my birthday in Victoria with my family. As a present, we went in a flight in a Cessna 172 with my brother, who is a pilot with the Victoria Flying club and a photographer as well. This was Catherine’s first flight in a small plane (although she has been in a helicopter), so we gave her the grand tour of Victoria from the air.

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Checking the fuel for water and debris.

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Victoria on a hazy fall day. This is typical light for this time of year, and you can see the Olympic Mountains across the Juan de Fuca Strait. .

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HMCS Regina (foreground) and HMCS Ottawa (behind) at dock in Esquimalt. They have material laid around them to protect the ocean from fuel spills, but I wonder, given our current government’s stance on oil spills on the coast, why they bother.

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The Gorge Waterway.

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My mom’s house, and where I grew up!

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Clover point, where later in the day we attended a large protest against the pipeline.

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Chain Islets, a good place to see breeding birds and resting seals.

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Island View Beach, from the air.