This past week we had the pleasure of sending Monorail Bunny, and his traveling companion Otter, on an overnight trip to Victoria. For those of you who haven’t heard of Monorail Bunny, in 2012 he was accidentally left behind on the Seattle Center Monorail. Bunny was discovered by a Monorail conductor who took him back to the main office in the hope that his owner would come collect him. The Monorail staff subsequently spent months looking for Bunny’s owner, but were still unable to reunite Bunny with his owner and adopted him into their family. As a new resident of the Pacific Northwest, Bunny decided to spend his time visiting many popular attractions around the area and documenting his journey on camera. Recently, Bunny has been joined by Otter, who, like Bunny, was left behind on the Monorail.
Over the past few years Bunny has visited hot spots like Pacific Science Center, the Woodland Park Zoo, Teatro ZinZanni, the Museum of Flight and has even taken a Hawaiian vacation. However, we learned that Bunny had yet to travel out of the country, so we decided it was the perfect to time invite Bunny and Otter to spend a weekend in beautiful Victoria. We caught up with Bunny and Otter after their adventure, and they filled us in on the highlights of their trip and shared a few photos.
Clipper Vacations (CV): What inspired you to travel to Victoria?
Monorail Bunny: We asked our friends on Facebook where we should go on our next big adventure and many people recommended taking a ride on the Victoria Clipper.
Otter: I was real worried about traveling so far from home – I didn’t realize that Victoria was less than 3 hours away on the Clipper! It is so close! That helped me to feel better about the trip and once we arrived, we started having so much fun exploring that I forgot about being worried or homesick! You Otter Know… I love Victoria!
CV: What was your favorite part about your trip to Victoria?
Bunny: My favorite part about our trip was meeting lots of new and interesting people in Victoria – there are people from all over the world who go to Victoria! We made lots of new friends [on] The Butchart Gardens & City Highlights Tour and at Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont Empress. Some people even wanted to take photos of us! Everyone was so nice! Did you know that when we stayed at the Inn at Laurel Point , the hotel had these awesome treats that were waiting in our room when we checked in?! I got a lot of veggies and a HUGE glass of jellybeans! Otter got these giant oysters – bigger than he was! We were in heaven!
Otter: My favorite part about our trip was going behind the scenes on the Clipper IV and exploring the wheelhouse! It was so amazing how many buttons and levers and screens are inside! We get to sit in the driver’s seat at the Seattle Center Monorail all the time, but the Clipper wheelhouse is something completely different! So cool!
CV: Did you learn anything new during your travels?
Bunny: I learned that the Clipper IV can go up to 30 knots – that’s super fast! It was really cool how the boat just slices through the water! Also, where we sat, there was a table, so we could play cards during our trip up to Victoria! We played Otter’s favorite card game… can you guess what that is?? Go fish!
Otter: Oh yeah! I love Go Fish! It was so fun to play during our trip to and from Victoria! I learned all about the history of the Butchart family and how they created such an amazing garden! I really love the Japanese Garden – it’s so beautiful in the fall! I also learned that Victoria’s Chinatown is the second oldest Chinatown in North America after the San Francisco Chinatown. It was pretty cool walking around and looking at all the fresh produce!
CV: Did you get to try any tasty treats while in Victoria?
Bunny: My new favorite tea is the tea we had at The Fairmont Empress during Afternoon Tea! They served their own unique blend called The Empress – it’s made exclusively for them! I brought a big box home with me so I can keep drinking it! I’m a Seattle Bunny, so coffee will always be a big deal to me, but this tea is REALLY good!
Otter: I love all the seafood in Victoria! Our hotel, the Inn at Laurel Point gave me the biggest oysters I’ve ever seen – they were seriously bigger than me! Also, I had great food at the Gatsby Manor across the street from the Victoria Clipper Terminal – it was a great place to eat and watch the boats come in and out of the harbor. Also, the tiny sandwiches and the scones at Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont Empress were out of this world! The size of the sandwiches were the perfect size for Monorail Bunny and me – the egg salad one on the croissant was my favorite!
We are so glad Bunny and Otter were able to travel to Victoria, and had a wonderful time exploring the city. We hope that they come back again and get to check out more of the fun activities the city has to offer. Perhaps we can convince them to take a ride on the AdrenaLINE Zipline Adventure Tours or visit the Royal British Columbia Museum.
We were delighted to meet these unique visitors from Seattle and spend some time with them at The Gardens. It looks like they had a great time. Come back again, perhaps in the summer and have some gelato at The Gardens! And perhaps catch a whale watching tour or a flight on Harbour Air!