A Drive Down Memory Lane

Travel Day

• Victoria to Esquimalt Lagoon via Esquimalt Road, Craigflower Road, Highway 1, Old Island Highway, and Belmont Road
• Esquimalt to Vancouver via Old Island Highway, Highway 1, Highway 17, BC Ferry from Schwartz Bay to Tsawwassen, Highway 99, Highway 91 and Knight Street

I drove through downtown Victoria this morning, I thought about the first time I was on Government Street. I occurred to me that I was likely a year old or less, most likely in diapers, and probably in a carriage, my Mom pushing me and my brother along.

So I decided to take a tour down memory lane, visiting places I had been and lived in as a child here in Victoria. The first of these is Beacon Hill Park, an amazing jewel in Victoria. My parents brought me here as a child. I brought my children here. They bring their children here.

Beacon Hill Park is beautiful, running from downtown Victoria to Dallas Road, including any number of playgrounds and a Children's Zoo. My kids loved it. My grandchildren love it.

Out on Dallas Road, you can see over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, all the way over to the Olympic Penisula in Washington state.

This is the Ogden Point breakwater where my Dad used to take us fishing as little boys. There is still pretty good fishing here.

It also protects the new cruise ship terminal. Victoria is now a major cruising destination.

This is where we lived in 1959, before heading off to Halifax where my Dad did a two year stint in his service with the Canadian Navy. We lived in the unit on the left. It's on Lacelles Crescent in Belmont Park, near Victoria.

And this is the infamous rock off of which I tumbled, smacking my head a solid one. Perhaps this was the start of ALS. Who knows?

Can you guess which of these cute little boys is me?

Down the hill from our house is Esquimalt Lagoon and "the spit."

This is the ocean side of the spit. My Dad would take us down here and build a bonfire with the wood on the beach. I was terrified because I thought they were "bomb fires" and they would explode.

At the end of the spit is the Fisgard Lighthouse. You might also notice the foundations for the guns set up during the Second World War, when we were convinced the Japanese would invade. It's the bunker on the right. By the way, Japanese submarine crews did, in fact, land in several places on the BC coast, mostly to burn garbage.

Looking out to sea, towards the Olympic Penisula, from the spit. There but for the damage of ALS go I. I miss the ocean, sailing, the sounds and smells of the sea.

On the other side of the Esquimalt Lagoon is Hatley Castle, a part of the Royal Roads University, or what used to be the Royal Roads Military College. The site has been used for filming the X-Men movies along with other films.

Here is a look at the front of Hatley Castle. Any X-Men fans out there? Does this look familiar?

This is the house on Fernhill Road where we lived from 1961 to 1963. It was from here that my Mom took us to Vancouver, fleeing a bad marriage.

This is Lampson Street Elementary School, where I attended Grade 1 and 2.

Can you guess which one is me?

I left Victoria and caught the ferry back to the mainland. Then I tried to drive through the George Massey Tunnel from Delta to Richmond, under the Fraser River. Unfortunately it was rush hour; it took me an hour to get through the tunnel.

I felt like continuing Memory Lane in Vancouver. This is my grandparents house. They moved here in 1942, when my Mom was 10 years old. My grandparents lived there until the passed away in the mid 1970's. We spent a lot of time here as kids. I miss them.

Just a few blocks away is the house where we lived for a short while when we first arrived in Vancouver from Victoria, in the summer of 1963. It's on Commercial Drive in Vancouver.

And this is where I went to school in that first year, for Grade 3. This is Lord Selkirk Elementary School. It's hard to believe that we walked to school, across Kingsway, one of the busiest streets in Vancouver. I was only 8 years old!

Here I am! Which one is me?

I would like to have a picture of our house on 26th in Vancouver. Unfortunately it has been torn down and replaced with one of those ugly square boxes which seem to be everywhere in east Vancouver these days. So here is a picture of Lord Beaconsfield Elementary, where I went to school for grades, 4, 5, and 6, plus a few weeks of grade 7, before I moved to Richmond for a few months, and then ultimately out to Stave Falls.

Your last chance to guess. Which one is me?