Posted in Field Trips

When we drove down Douglas street heading into downtown Victoria I couldn't believe how many statues of the Kermode Bear there were along the streets. It seemed that everywhere we drove there was another one! They were beautiful. Some were painted with landscapes and forest scenes others were brightly coloured collages, some even were painted as if they were wearing clothes.

The Kermode Bear or Spirit Bear has recently been adopted as British Columbia's official mammal and mascot of the upcoming 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The Kermode Bear is a genetic throwback from the Black Bear with a recessive gene that causes it to have its beautiful snow white fur. Only about 10% of the bears in our area are Kermode Bears and they are quite elusive. Princess Royal Island which is in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest off the coast of northern BC is one of the few places along the coast that you can find them to view. If you click on the link for the Great Bear Rainforest you can see some amazing wildlife pictures!!

K standing by one of the Kermode Bears in front of the Royal BC Museum.

Inside the Royal BC Museum just behind where you purchase your passes is this awesome skeleton of a whale hanging from the ceiling.

Another really great place that we had a chance to visit while we were in Victoria was the Pacific Undersea Gardens which is right in the Inner Harbour. This was one of Karl's favourite spots on our trip. Once aboard their ship you descend down a stairway to the bottom of the vessel and you are now 15 feet beneath the ocean's surface and you have a chance to view up to 5000 different species through the viewing windows. They had a pool as you can see in the above photo with a couple of starfish in it and K and L got a chance to touch them and find out what they feel like : )

Once you have finished looking through all of the viewing windows around the vessel there is a theatre room with a bank of really large viewing windows and there are stadium style benches to sit on. This was perfect. K and L ran from window to window following fish and crabs and I got to sit on the benches with little M. The highlight of our viewing experience was when one of the octopuses swam out and stuck right onto the viewing window. All of the children got to see his tentacles and suction cups up close. They continued to chase it back and forth as it swam around in front of us. Did you know that each suction cup is moved independently from the rest? and that he moves by jet propulsion? British Columbia is home to the largest octopus in the world called the Giant Pacific Octopus.

Blessings,

BChsMamaof3