Approaching the Stars

 Hullo!! We are in a Starbucks in View Royal! Which is a suburb of Victoria...

What are we doing down here you ask? Well, we are on an epic adventure day... let's head out!

First... we saw a place on Google Maps that looks interesting...

It's just up here...

Although this looks like someone's driveway and garden...

Are you sure we are on the right path???

Yep, we are on the right path. We are looking for Stranton Lodge, which is a heritage house...

Whew! At least we aren't walking up someone's driveway...

Errr... those look like cars... is this the parking area for the park or...

... someone's driveway??

oookaayyyy then... it is someone's driveway!!! AND it's access to the park...

We can't really see much of this historic Stranton Lodge... and it is rented out so you can't just wander around snooping... We found a slightly better picture from the heritage houses website...

It looks cute, right??? Too bad it's not visible. Sigh...
 

 Well... that was an epic fail as an "adventure"... let's keep going and see what else we can find.

We looked at the map and found this place... There is an observatory up there... let's go!!

FYI... it's also a federal research facility but the gates are open so we are going to just drive up... cause apparently we can...

Let's go!

It's quite a drive up here... cause this place is on the top of a hill...

There's even a funky s-curve!

There are some gorgeous views along the way! 

 And we drove by some modern buildings... which are the National Research Council site... 

And we are at the top! And I think I see the observatory...

Hmmm...

It's not quite as big as I thought it might be.

But there are also signs for... the "Centre of the Universe"...

WHAT???!!! We are at the Centre of the Universe!!??? OMG!

Let's see what we can find!

Hmmm... another house... is someone living in this one too??

Nope it's just a historic house... whew!

Really... this observatory dome is quite small... hmmph... but as we walked around the building... 

And we have arrived! This is pretty cool... I wonder if my pal Ajdin knows about this place? He's an astrobear you know...

There's a visitor's centre here... but it's closed (of course)... we'll have to come back and see what's in the centre of the universe... and maybe peek through the observatory.

Speaking of observatory... that little one is not "the one"!! There's another one up here!!

The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory was built in 1918!! When it opened, it had the largest operational telescope in the world!

Let's poke around here and see if we can get a good picture...

There's a trail down the backside which leads down to the main NRC research buildings (which are much more modern)...

But down here gives us a good view of the observatory... ready?

Oooh... is that not impressive?? It's like a "real" observatory!

It's quite impressive... and to think people drive by here all the time enroute to Butchart Gardens and never stop to check it out...

Although... given that you can't get into it... and the Centre of the Universe is closed today... who knows... maybe this place is heaving with visitors on other days of the week...

I like the blue doors...

There's also a pretty cool view from up here...

There you can see the sliding doors on the roof that cover the telescope.

I wonder what discoveries they are working on here today?

Definitely worth a visit...

We'll have to come back here when the place is open and we can see what's inside the Centre of the Universe...