Blessed by the Potato

I made it to Victoria safe and sound, and the flight, even at 5 hours, was pretty decent. I had my worries at first because there was a small baby seated across from me, and I had nightmarish visions of screaming and crying, but she was actually great and didn’t cry at all. She’d even smile when I turned over and waved.

I was starting to drag a fair bit when I got in though because I just couldn’t quite get to sleep on the plane. I completely spaced about the shuttle bus (~$15) from the airport and just grabbed a cab instead which set me back $55. In my defense, I was swayed by the fact that the cab was a bright yellow Prius. In fact, Victoria seems to be something of a hybrid mecca: virtually every cab is either a Prius or a Camry hybrid, and the ones that aren’t are Yarises (how Toyota got such a lock on the Victoria cab market I can’t really say). That is, of course, how it should be given how much of an improvement hybrids make to cab-like driving. The trip in from the airport averaged about 5.8 L/100 km. Even the “regular” cars seem to have a higher proportion of hybrids and smaller cars; hardly any SUVs at all.

I went for a nice long walk when I first got in and the weather was great. After that it was nap time. When I got up, I was surprised to see the sun still shining since they were calling for rain tonight. I went out for another walk in search of dinner, but came up empty-handed. Apparently Victoria closes at 8, even in Chinatown. I spent nearly an hour walking around trying to find an East Side Mario’s that I swear I had seen close to the hotel when I was walking around earlier, but never did find it. After checking the Yellow Pages, it looks like it doesn’t exist, which makes me wonder if I dreamed I saw and East Side Mario’s, and if I’m tireder than I think I am.

I just checked the schedule for the conference, and I don’t have anything until 6 pm tomorrow, so I’m trying to decide what to do. I found a place that rents bikes, but now my legs are hurting after over 2 hours of walking today. It also looks like the car rental place across the street has a Prius, so I might see if I can rent it and go on an extended test drive and trip up into the mountains of Vancouver Island, maybe find a beach and have a pic-nic or something. If you’ve got any suggestions, leave them quickly (I’ll be making up my mind around 12pm Ontario time).