From the Laptop of Jeremy Irish

Over the weekend, the family took a short, two-day vacation to the lovely Victoria, British Columbia via Clipper Vacations, a travel site specifically for the Victoria Clipper Ferry. The vacation package included a trip to see the holiday lights at Butchart Gardens (pronounced "butch art"). As kids don't equate to a romantic weekend, we focused on kid-related attractions to tire out Colin since we are far happier when he is.

If you plan on visiting Victoria with kids, here are some recommendations:

On the ferry:

• If you have children under 5 you are allowed to pre-board on the Victoria Clipper. Get there at least an hour early to do this.
• When you get on the ferry, immediately head to the center of the boat and find the seats that face the bow of the ship and have their own tables. Because of the emergency exit on the port and starboard of the ship, you have an empty space across from your seats.
• Try not to check any luggage. If you do, you will be the last to leave the vessel and go through customs. In the future we'll likely just bring two or more smaller bags instead of a large one. We did bring our Kelty backpack on board and put it between the seats.
• You can order drinks and food from your seat, but service can be slow.
• Customs can take a while, so patience is a virtue.

In Victoria

• Get a hotel near the Clipper so you don't have to take a cab or walk far. We stayed in a suite at the Royal Scot Hotel. We love places that have both a bedroom and a sitting area with a television.
• There are no wifi connections anywhere, so we pretty much went dark for the trip. It isn't a bad thing but I realized I need to be better prepared when I don't have a lot of information at my fingertips. We ended up using paper maps and guides which felt nostalgic.
• Miniature World is great! It is on the side of the Empress Hotel and has the best collection of miniature displays that I have ever seen. There are a ton of interactive buttons that make things move in the displays. Colin had a great time pressing them all. And an added bonus during the holidays - There are 6 hidden santas. If you find them all you get a free year membership. We found 3.
• Government Street is the main shopping strip. Visit Rogers Chocolates on the corner of Government and Courtney for some delicious ice cream and chocolates.
• Don't visit the Original Christmas Village with kids. The proprietor doesn't want your child's grubby hands on his merchandise. He also doesn't want looky loos. If you visit you better darn well purchase something. Bah humbug!
• Take the free trolley. We rode it on the last day it is in use (December 20) and just circled downtown Victoria. Colin loved the ride and we enjoyed the Christmas music and the trolley bell. There are also free horse trolley rides downtown. We ran out of time so we didn't do it. If you are taking a romantic holiday there are also paid rides through town.
• We grabbed some 2010 Winter Olympics swag at the mall, including the cute mascots designed by Meomi.

At Butchart Gardens

• Definitely take a tour to the gardens. The winter lights follow the 12 days of Christmas throughout the gardens. My favorites were the 4 calling birds and the 11 pipers piping.
• Don't bring a stroller unless you don't mind seeing the 12 days of Christmas out of order. The normal path leads down a staircase to the sunken gardens, so you have to take the handicapped slope which takes you backward through 3 of the 12 days. People give you weird looks when you head upstream through the crowd.
• If you have older children, bring your ice skates. They have a nice skating rink at the gardens.
• Make some extra time to go in to the restaurant and have some pastries and hot cocoa.