VICTORIA — The Royal B.C. Museum has a full slate of events for the month of July.
To kick off the month, the simple pleasures of play will be celebrated at the Canada Day Old-Time Penny Carnival, held on the Royal B.C. Museum campus at 675 Belleville St. in Victoria from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The penny may now be fit for a museum piece, but odds are everyone still has a few rattling around in drawers, jars and couches.
Those who bring them down to the grounds surrounding Helmcken House and St. Ann’s Schoolhouse can try their hand at an egg-and-spoon race, bean bag toss and other old-timey events.
Canada Day celebrates the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, today called the Constitution Act of 1867, which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire.
Vikings exhibit
On July 10, the Vikings ParTEA evening will include instructions on making tea-infused cocktails, recipes and food.
Just as the Vikings: Lives Beyond the Legends exhibition slays myths of Vikings being barbarians, Silk Road’s tea mixing master Daniela Cubelic and mixologist and Little Jumbo proprietor Shawn Soole are taking everything you know about teas and turning it upside-down.
The event, which includes demonstrations and features local liquors, runs from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Tickets, which are $55 Canadian per person for the general public and $49.50 per member, are on sale at www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.
Vikings Summer Camps start in July, giving youths ages 8 to 11 a chance to learn what it takes to be a Viking during weeklong day-camp programming.
Participants will explore behind the scenes of the Vikings: Lives Beyond the Legends exhibition, as well as heading into the great outdoors for some summer fun and learning.
Summer camps
Space is filling up fast for the Vikings Summer Camps, and many are already full.
Behind the Scenes tours continue in July every Wednesday and Saturday with Museum Alchemy, a look at the Royal B.C. Museum’s exhibit arts studio and multimedia lab.
Behind the Scenes tours run at 2 p.m., with sign-up starting an hour prior. Tours are limited to 10 people.
The Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria — reached by a 90-minute ferry ride across the Strait of Juan de Fuca — is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays through Saturdays to Sept. 27.
Admission is $23.95 Canadian dollars for adults and $17. 95 for seniors 65 and older and students 19 and older with valid identification.
The MV Coho ferry makes four round trips between Port Angeles and Victoria daily.
One-way passenger fares are $17.50 for adults and $8.75 for children. The one-way fare for a vehicle and driver is $62.
Information is available at www.cohoferry.com.