Victoria, British Columbia

Our last port of this trip. What a beautiful day we had. It ended up sunny and in the 70's. When we got off the ship, we transferred to buses for a trip out to Butchard Gardens. This was about a 40 minute drive and we took a scenic route through a nearby park. The Gardens themselves are located north of town in an area that had been mined at the turn of the century for limestone. It took the Butcharts about 25 years to plant this 50+ acre showplace and it is impressive. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of spending half a day at a garden, but I was very surprised. It was gorgeous. There were different areas as we walked such as the Sunken Garden and the Japanese Garden. The Rose Garden had a tremendous variety of roses. As we walked along near the Japanese Garden there was a little peek-a-boo hole in the hedge from which you could see a small harbor that had been used for the mining and also by the Butchart family. It made kind of a neat photo.

We were here on September 21 and the explosion of flowers was incredible. I figured by this time of the summer, we wouldn't be seeing much. Victoria is know as the Garden City and I certainly found out why. I would highly recommend a stop at these gardens if you are visiting Victoria.

On our way back to town on the bus, we were able to catch some glimpses of the Canadian Snowbirds. This is a precision aerobatic team and they were flying in formation over the city. We didn't see the whole performance, but sure got an idea of what they could do. There were nine jets in some extremely close formations. It was fun to see.

We were dropped off at the ship and took a taxi into town. We had the driver drop us off at the Empress Hotel as this is one of those places that you just have to see. What a beautifully grand, ivy covered place. It sits right on the edge of a harbor with great views. We walked on from here toward the Chinatown area and visited some very bustling shops along with a stop for ice cream! Then we made our way along the harbor, past the Science Museum and back to our ship. It was a lovely walk and only took about 20 minutes from the heart of town back to Ogden Point where our ship was docked. I of course got a kick out of this since that is my last name! As we pulled away from Victoria, it was the most beautiful evening. The sunset was amazing, full of yellows, oranges and pinks. It was sad that we were about to end our journey, but Cathy and I were going to extend it as long as we could. We opted for the Express Walk-off for the next morning so we could explore a bit of Seattle before our 3pm flight home.