salt the planet

Daniel and I awoke Wednesday morning at 4am to pack up and travel to Vancouver Island and the beautiful city of Victoria. It was a joy to see him and catch up on all that he has been doing in the last several weeks. I hope that I will be an amiable traveling partner and provide a respite from the solitary aspects of travel. If nothing else, he looks forward to sharing driving duties! (8800 miles, so far, can have tragic effects on even the most conditioned of lead feet).

After arriving in Port Angeles we departed by ferry to Victoria. On the way over we saw a small humpback whale some distance away. The best glimpse we could catch was when, just after surfacing, it blew air from its blow hole and returned to the deep with its tail coming out of the water. Couldn't quite get a picture of either of these, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

After driving around for a bit in Victoria we visited The Empress Hotel and took a brief tour of its archives, enjoying old photos and stories of its beauty. We then walked to the British Columbia Legislative building and took a brief half hour tour. Both The Empress and the Legislative building were designed by the same man, Francis Rattenbury, who is called the Architect of British Columbia. The Legislative building was his first commission, which he took at the age of 25! Most impressive was the ability to go on the floor where the representatives conduct their debates. In an age of intense security and obsession with terrorist threats, it amazed me to be able to walk onto the debate floor with minimal supervision. I also enjoyed seeing the setup for their debate floor, which has the two primary parties facing each other with the Left tenant governor in the middle. Each person who desires to speak must address the Left tenant governor first, before (or sometimes in lieu of) speaking directly to the person(s) with whom they are debating. This is similar to the British Parliament (which makes sense since we are in British Columbia) but most unlike the U.S. Congressional setup where the leader of each party sits at the front and then each speaker proceeds to the podium to address the entire floor, which is seated in forward-facing rows. It causes me to ponder what influences governments (and even churches) to utilize the setup in they do. (Catholic churches with the Eucharist in the center and forward facing rows, protestant churches with the pulpit in the center where the preacher preaches from with forward facing rows, emerging churches setup in the round with couches and coffee tables). What functions do these setups serve? What do they communicate?

Late in the afternoon we found a campsite and, after pitching the tent, I spent some time walking on the beach nearby. After a four hour nap, Daniel and I cooked dinner, stayed up a bit longer just chatting and then went to bed.