Summer 2024 Vacation Photos (Long-Delayed)

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I’d let this project fall to the side for a while, but I started coming back to it last week, and this morning before work, I finally finished processing and uploading my photos from our summer 2024 vacation up to Victoria, B.C.

If you’d like to scroll through someone else’s vacation photos, I have them split into two albums on Flickr: 2024 Summer Vacation 1: Sequim and Port Angeles and 2024 Summer Vacation 2: Victoria, B.C.. Otherwise, here’s a one-shot-per-day sampler.

My wife and I on a hotel rooftop deck, with green fields under a blue sky filled with fluffy grey clouds.
Day 1, Sequim: At our hotel in Sequim.
A Nikon camera with an old reflex telephoto lens attached.
Day 2, Port Angeles: While wandering through antique stores, we stumbled across this very cool old lens, a Nikkor 500mm f/8 reflex telephoto, still with its original carry case and filter set. If you’re into quirky old photo gear, I have more shots of and by this lens.
Flat stones on a sandy beach, in a nearly monochromatic image.
Day 3, Klaloch Beach: Playing with the new lens while walking along Klaloch Beach. The out-of-focus rocks in the distance show the characteristic “donut” effect caused by the mirror setup of the reflex lens.
A whale's flukes break the surface of the sea as water streams off of them, with forested hills visible in the distance.
Day 4, Whale Watching: A whale watching tour on the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles and Victoria.
A snow-covered mountain in the far distance, rising above marshlands and out-of-focus driftwood in the foreground.
Day 5, Dungeness Wildlife Refuge: We took a nice, long, slow wander about a third of the way out along the spit at the wildlife refuge. Lots of birds and gorgeous views of Mt. Baker.
A dimly-lit basement with a gigantic spider sculpture.
Day 6, Port Angeles: On our last day in Port Angeles we went on their “underground” walking tour. Not as much underground as Seattle’s, but historical walking tours are generally fun, and this one was occasional enhanced by Halloween decorations that never got removed after the 2020 pandemic shutdown; apparently when the tours started again, enough people were amused by them that they’re just year-round decorations now.
A man wearing a keffiyah and waving a Palestinian flag stands next to a row of people holding an elongated Palestinian flag on the steps in front of Victoria's Parliament building.
Day 7, Victoria: We ferried over to Victoria, took a carriage ride tour through one of the historical neighborhoods, and then happened to be walking by the Parliament building when a protest against the Palestinian genocide was getting started.
On a hilltop with Camelot visible in the distance, a tiny knight in armor on horseback raises a sword in salute.
Day 8, Victoria: The Miniature World Museum was a fun treat, with lots of intricately detailed miniature dioramas of scenes past and future, real and fantastical. Our day also included high tea at the Empress Hotel and an evening walk along the waterfront.
Water drips from a bamboo pipe into a circular basin with a square indentation in the center. It's visually satisfying in an incredibly generic sort of way.
Day 9, The Butchart Gardens: We bussed up to spend most of the day at the Butchart Gardens, which are beautiful. Lots of pretty landscapes and flowers…and this, what I think is probably the most hilariously “should be sold with the generic artwork in frames at Ross or T.J. Maxx and hung in a mid-tier hotel somewhere” photo I’ve taken yet.
A 1960s stereo on display in a museum. It's made of two wooden cases, one on the right to hold LPs, the other on the left, twice as wide, to hold the turntable and central control panel. Black spherical speakers are on either side. The whole thing is probably about eight feet wide.
Day 10, The Royal BC Museum: The museum had an exhibit with a lot of mid-century-modern items as part. There were several stereos like this one that I’d love to have (if I had the space and budget to ignore practicality, neither of which I do).
A narrow brick alley, strung with lights and round red paper lanterns.
Day 11, Victoria: For our last day in Victoria, we took two walking tours: a food tour in the morning, and a ghost walk tour in the evening. Both were a lot of fun.
A snow-covered mountain in the distance under a clear blue sky and with flat blue ocean in the foreground.
Day 12: Heading Home: And then we hopped back on the ferry, caught a nice view of Mt. Baker on our way back to Washington, and drove back home.

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