We couldn’t make it onto the early ferry today, so we had more time in Victoria. That was nice because yesterday it was too hot to go out, so we didn’t do much. They have a great collection of totems near the waterfront.

Unfortunately, the majority were unidentified by artist or tribe.

Is it OK to call native art cute?

Fierce.

A mortuary totem. The body would actually be encased up there.

Eagle.

Our friend Dan is famous as the guy who makes the moron shirts. This guy in Canada swiped his concept!

This guy paid $30 Canadian for the shirt, he said.

If our schedule is correct, we have now returned to U.S. soil via Port Angeles or are in the process of crossing right this minute. And let me say, it is good to be home!

 We had an issue in Alberta that I haven’t mentioned, involving a Canadian who thought he could call public campgrounds private and shoo us pesky U.S. citizens out of there. That happened on our second day there, and I’m still boiling mad about it. Granted, I don’t like it either when people show up and Refugio  Beach or Figueroa Mountain, my local parks, and act like they own the place. But we didn’t do that, and to have this guy lie to us with such audacity was really unprecedented.

As soon as we drove in, he walked up and checked our license plate to see where we were from. Then he told us that the campground, “was private, and had been reserved by his friends for the weekend.” Total baloney. We left anyway because we didn’t want to stay somewhere we weren’t wanted. But it was still a creepy thing to go through.

This was my sixth trip to Canada and the only time I felt more unwelcome as an American was the time the Quebecians tried to steal my little brother’s kidney. (Long story for another time. They failed.) Anyway. End rant.