Escape to Victoria

I can't imagine what it's like to be one of only two full-time permanent doctors in a remote rural community, constantly being on call and rarely taking time off.  One of the doctors has been here for 7 years, and he's familiar with all the idiosyncracies of our more--shall we say?--eccentric clinic patients; he's a proponent of kickin' it old school, meaning that he still spends the whole day in clinic after being on call the night before.  He enjoys canning salmon by dividing the fish to fit half-pint mason jars to stew for 100 minutes in a pressure cooker.  The result is surprisingly fresh and has a shelf life of two years.  The other doctor is about a year out of residency (like me) with additional training in acupuncture and other types of alternative medicine, which is wonderful for the abundance of patients with chronic pain.  So many people who work in the commercial fishing industry don't have time to drive 60 miles & back to see the nearest physical therapist, but they're willing to try a 15 to 20 minute session of acupuncture in the clinic.

Over Labor Day weekend, I drove to Port Angeles and hopped a ferry to Vancouver Island where I was absolutely delighted to eat gelato in a waffle cone (for breakfast!), catch an afternoon of the Vancouver Island Blues Bash, tour the Butchart Gardens, and just stroll around marveling at the architecture of the faintly Anglophilic city of Victoria, British Columbia.

The Empress Fairmont, where High Tea is served

The Legislative Building, where the government lives

The Japanese Garden at Butchart Gardens