"Victoria is a bit of the old Empire in that pinkies up, stiff upper lip, tweed and a Gin and Tonic sort of way combined with that frontier spirit of beaver pelts, red serge of the Mounties, and socialized medicine. In short: Canada at its best," writes Race2Alaska director Jake Beattie.
Many readers are likely familiar with the Empress Hotel and docks in downtown Victoria, site of the 2018 Le Mans race start for the R2AK at noon, June, 17th. Though it's dress code has likely changed, some years ago I was barred from entry into the Empress for wearing Levis. More recently, a guest was banned for life from the Empress when a large flock of seagulls trashed his room. Here's the story:
A visitor from Nova Scotia brought some "Brothers" pepperoni pizzas, a Halifax delicacy, to his naval friends stationed in Victoria. As his room lacked a refrigerator, the Empress guest decided to cool the pizza on the window sill while taking a walk, it being a brisk April day.
On his return, the guest found about 40 seagulls in his room. The startled birds "immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room through the small opening by which they had entered," said the Bluenoser.
The result was a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room. Lamps were falling, the curtains were trashed."
The guest waded through the birds and opened all the remaining windows. In his "agitated" state, he threw a shoe at one confused bird who tried to fly back into the room. Both shoe and seagull went out the window.
Finally, only one large seagull, with pepperoni still clasped in its beak, remained. "In a moment of clarity, I grabbed a bath-towel and jumped it," the guest said. Both the towel and bird also went out the window.
Below, the shoe and the towel-wrapped seagull landed on visitors arriving for afternoon High Tea at the Empress.
At this moment, the visitor realized he had only a few minutes before an important business meeting, and only one shoe to wear. He recovered his muddy shoe and attempted to wash and dry it in his room. But a hair dryer mishap knocked out power to the hotel.
You can't make this stuff up. Needless to say, the guest from Nova Scotia and his company received a letter saying he was no longer welcome at the Empress.
Now, 17 years later, the Empress has had a change of heart (and dress code) and pardoned the offending visitor for "time served."
Best to keep your hotel window closed when staying in Victoria for the start of the R2AK. But Levis are OK.
