Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Titanic!

We spent a hot couple of days in Victoria and got back last night to hide in the AC.



On Monday morning we picked up Mom and Dad and got the 11 am ferry from Tsawassen. By 1:30 we were in Victoria and checking in at the Royal Scot Hotel. It's very nice, not too fancy, and only one block south of the harbour. It's also one block west of the Legislature building.



Some family friends have recently moved there so we went to their place for dinner on Monday night. Angelo has just taken the job of VP of Royal Roads ( or is it Rhodes? ) University. We haven't seen them for about 8 years so it was great to visit again.



Yesterday morning we got the 10 am show of IMAX Titanica at the Royal BC Museum. I'd seen it before on TV, but IMAX is better. After that we went through the Titanic Exhibit. There were a ton of artifacts that were really neat to see. Unfortunately you can't take photos in the exhibit. Before you enter the exhibit itself, 2 people wearing 1912 cork life vests handing out "boarding cards" with a passengers name, class, age, party they were travelling with, etc. I was a young French girl who was the mistress of a Mr. Harbeck who had been hired by White Star line to film the maiden voyage. My son was Mr. Arthur Ryerson, whose name rang a bell with me as someone of importance on board. My daughter was the daughter of a jeweler from Rhode Island. Hubby was Major Archibald Butt. The idea is that at the end of the exhibit you check the passenger list again survivors to see if you made it out alive. I said right away as soon as Toni got the boarding card, "Sorry honey but you died. You played cards in the smoking room with Benjamin Guggenheim, waiting for the ship to sink."



It turned out that the daughter of jeweler survived. The French mistress did not. Mr. Ryerson didn't either. He could have been in the smoking room with Butt and Guggenheim. Ryerson's wife and 3 children survived.



I'll try to post some photos of Victoria later.

Comments:
Sounds like a great vacation. I love all things Titanic. One of my neighbours when I was growing up was a Titanic survivor, he was a steward on board. Great piccies too!
 
Wow Sam, that's pretty cool that you knew someone from the ship!
 
We're gonna go in August - just Pat and I. Would you say it was worth the trip over...how long did it take to go through the exhibit? I've been looking forward to going every since I saw it advertised.
 
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