June 25: Victoria & Vancouver Island
What a great day! After arriving here yesterday morning and touring the city, we closed out the first day by watching the first two episodes of Big Brother 18 - our favorite reality TV show - and were out like a light by 10:30 pm. But we had to set the alarms this morning as we needed to meet our guide in the lobby by 8:30 am. We set out to the ferry which would take us to Vancouver Island and Victoria.
The trip to the ferry was 45 minutes and the ride over on the boat, with all the cars and tourist buses was a unique experience! The weather was overcast and with the wind from the boat on the water it was very cold when Kim and I posed for a photo op on the observation deck.
We went through "the passages" between the islands on the way and were looking for whales and we think we saw a couple just off the side of the boat for just an instant. We arrived on land after a 90 minute trip to find, lo and behold SUNSHINE and a goregous day. We have been told over and over that this kind of weather is NOT typical of the Pacific Northwest, but we continue to be blessed by the wonderful cool summer weather. The drive to the city of Victoria was about 40 minutes and then we had two hours to explore the city, especially the waterfront. We headed down to the pier and had a fish & chips lunch while looking out on the bay which is officially an "international airport" because of all the float planes which fly in, including from Seattle, thus making it an "international" destination!
The view at lunch
We walked around the city and went into the Empress Hotel, photographed the legislature building and had some of the very delicious home-made ice cream which comes from dairy cattle right here on the island. Our driver arrived and we drove out to Burchart Gardens.
This was to be one of the highlights of the day's excursion. The flowers were amazing. The BEST story of the day's trip was this.....the gardens were started by a couple who loved to travel. They lived on the property here in a private home which was adjacent to a cement factory which provided their income. Everywhere they traveled all over the world they would bring back seeds from the flowers they'd seen. Their garden grew and grew and became a popular spot for locals and then tourists to stop by, knock on the front door, and go out back to see the garden. Finally they decided to expand begin to charge to see their ever-expanding garden. But to do so, the wife had the brilliant idea to tear down the cement factory and make a "sunken garden" in the "hole" left in the ground from where the plant had been. This truly is the most beautiful part of the gardens.
EVERY where you look there are beautiful plants and flowers and I'm sure if you were a floral fan you could spend hours looking at the different varieties of flowers. We were here a little over two hours before heading back to the bus to travel back to the ferry where we had a 6 pm reservation to cross back to the mainland. We arrived back at the hotel about 8:30 pm - a long day, but the BEST was yet to come. Fifteen years ago I'd gone to a class reunion - I'd tell you which one, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you which one it was, so let's just leave the numbers out of it! Anyway, while there (outside of Columbus, Ohio) I ran into one of my buddies/football teammates from high school (by the way, our team when 25-2-0 in three seasons and were three-time conference champions AND ranked #3 in the state of Ohio in our undefeated senior season!). We chatted and I discovered he'd moved to the Pacific Northwest. We became Facebook friends and we share a love for travel, especially to Europe. So as this trip approached we made tentative plans to get together. David and his wife Heather drove nearly two hours to meet us at our hotel - then picked up the entire tab for dinner.
The four of us had THE BEST time! Kim and I made David and Heather promise to come to South Florida so we could take them out on the town and show them the best of our area....but we encouraged them to come during the winter, NOT now where the weather is in the 90s with outrageous humidity. It was nearly midnight when we exchanged hugs and goodbyes in the hotel lobby to cap off one of the best days of the trip!
Vancouver Island/Victoria Video Highlights
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