Happy Hour Victoria Style

• I have returned to Victoria with a renewed appreciation for this west coast city that I have been lucky enough to call home for almost 16 years. Among the lessons learned during my 5-month absence: this is where I want to stay.

• While the general population of Victoria may be grumbling about the late arrival of spring, it is totally working in my favour. Usually the City's annual Blossom Count takes place in mid-February. This conspicuous form of bragging often reports 3 or more billion blossoms at a time when most Canadians are still coping with deep snow and bitter cold. Delayed by more than a month this year, the canopy of pink and white blossoming trees continues to cloak many streets. I've been walking around inhaling the sometimes intoxicating scent. With trumpets angling toward the sun, hoards of vibrant yellow daffodils are standing tall in gardens and patio planters, alongside tulips that will soon reveal their own splashy colours: red, white, pink, orange.

• Beacon Hill Park is Victoria's equivalent of New York City's Central Park; 200 acres on the edge of downtown, bisecting the city's funkiest neighbourhoods and bordering on waterfront. My friend Rick, visiting from Edmonton, invited me to share the realization of a bucket-list event: sitting by a lake in Beacon Hill Park, feeding the ducks while sipping red wine.

• When I joined Rick on the traditional dark green slatted park bench, he pulled from his backpack two small wine glasses, a large wine-filled thermos, a plastic container filled with cheese and crackers for us and a bag of bread crumbs that brought ducks, seagulls, blackbirds and a few squirrels scurrying toward our feet. Surrounded by bright green grass, blossoming trees and the reds, purples and yellows of assorted ground flowers, we wiled away a happy hour with an occasional appreciative nod and eventually a toast - "cheers" - from passersby.
  

• Although Beacon Hill Park's landscape presented an incredible contrast to the palm treed desert of Arizona and California, the sentiment of happy hour was the same. A relaxing, conversation filled time shared by good friends. In fact it was so relaxing and so good that we went back two days later and happy houred again.