Bearzilla visits Miniature World!

Sooo... we had looked for interesting museums to visit before we came here... and we learned there was one tucked around the other side of the Empress Hotel.... let's go!

That's it over there!

It's called Minature World!

And right off the bat... we were on a space ship!!!

Watching other ships move through space! It was pretty cool!

From there, we came out to a scene from WW2... June 1944 - Normandy!

The level of detail is just... amazing.

And do you see... cause it's miniature world...

I am ginormous!!! 

Good thing there's glass around this displays or Bearzilla might run amok! This is the American War of Independence...

How do they make smoke come out of the guns???

This would require a lot of detailed work... and nimble fingers... not my next hobby...

This one is from 1918 in France... some of the first airplanes...

Then we came to a beary long display that wrapped around in a U- shape. We can travel across Canada by rail!! It's one of the longest model railways! We start in Vancouver...

And travel through BC...

Past the Last Spike at Craigellachie...

The level of detail... wow...

Then we go by the Spiral Tunnel in the Rockies...

Through Calgary...

Where we can peek into stores!

And... it actually gets dark too!!!

We can look inside houses....

Then through Winnipeg and Toronto! The streetcar moves!

This isn't an HO scale railway but... Mama says she used to have that little signaling station building!!

And then we ended up in the Maritimes!

There was soooooo much to see... 

They had Indigenous village models

And fairytale ones... this is Snow White.

Mother Hubbard and her shoe house...

Old England...

Even London!!!!

Some of the models were tiny scale (like the people were less than an inch tall)... and some, like this one were much bigger.

I could almost fit in this house!

But I still wouldn't fit through the doors. Kind of cool to find a world where things are smaller than me... instead of the normal world where everything is so much bigger!

Ooooh... this was the Swiss Family Robinson....

And here we are in Arthur's world...

With the Knights of the Round Table...

And Camelot!

That was pretty cool!!! But this little bear is feeling peckish...

A Scamper through the Royal British Columbia Museum

Hullo! We are going into the RBCM today! The Royal British Columbia Museum. 

Mama says she was last here... ages ago... so let's have a look!

Oooh... this is a fancy car!! Is it from the Beatles? It looks like it should be from them... let me look it up and... YES... it s John Lennon's Psychedelic Rolls Royce. It's touring around and is on display here!

Alright... we got our ticket and we are heading in. You get a great view of the totem poles from up here.

First, we went into the Wildlife Photographer of the Year display... it's from the Natural History Museum in London (we've been there!).

There was a tonne of different categories!!!

We liked this one... from a young photographer!

Then we went into the Natural History section!

These are fossils from Vancouver Island!

The display starts in the ancient past and then moves through time... cool... we're now moving into the Ice Age and...

They have a wooly mammoth!!

We met a wolf along the way....

And saw some bears!!!

And deer!

Pretty realistic displays!

This bear was along a creek and there was flowing water!

Moving through the sea life section...

With a little tidal pool. 

This is pretty neat.

There was a cool Ocean Station where you almost felt like you were in a submarine or something.

It had an small aquaritum with sealife.

Then we moved into the Indigenous Peoples section. These are all the language groups of North America.

They had a replica of a longhouse.

Which even smelled a bit smokey.

Then we moved into the colonizer section.

You could almost think you were on a cobble-stoned street in old Victoria.

We learned about invasive species that hitched rides on the ships that came from elsewhere...

Things like rats!!! And birds (like starlings) and plants (sigh... Scotch Broom).

There was a cool goldrush section...

Can we pan for gold here?

Cause with gold prices being so high... a 1 oz nugget could get you a nice vacation!

And... we are at a fish cannery!!! Is it one from Howe Sound? Or maybe the mouth of the Skeena River?

That was back in the day... for salmon!!

Lots of canned salmon!!

Although I prefer my salmon fresh... or smoked...

We are now in an old town down display which, I have to say, is beary realistic!

There's even an old mail box... although I doubt any mail gets posted from here.

There were stairs up into an old hotel....

And you could walk around up here and peer into the rooms.

They're cooking apple pie for the guests!!!

Sandy Bear... phone home!

Chinatown too!

This car is in the garage getting service...

I wonder if Mama used to drive one of these... heh-heh...

Well, that was uber cool! We poked our heads into the museum shop too....

And met a cousin of Little Fox!

They had some cool art work... and we found a sticker!! We'll show you later...

Outside the RBCM is the Carillion... a bell tower. We heard it ringing!

It was donated by the Dutch People to commemorate Canada's Confederation Centennial in 1967. Thanks Holland!

The bells must be up there...

Right... where to next???