A Day in Victoria, British Columbia

One very early Seattle morning we drove down to the Clipper terminal.. went through immigration, grabbed some breakfast and found ourselves comfortably seated on the Clipper ferry ready for our two hour ride. Via Clipper we had booked a round trip plus a trip to the Butchart Gardens, We arrived in Victoria around 10 am.. disembarked, went through immigration again and got on our tour bus. We are not usually ones to take a tour.. but we found our tour guide funny and informative and it was the perfect way to get to see a bit of the city knowing we had to be back on the ferry in just a few hours. 

The Butchart Gardens are just outside of Victoria in Brentwood Bay. Robert Butchart had the dream of making the best cement.. (seriously) so he and his wife Jennie Butchart moved to the West coast of Canada because of its rich limestone deposits. They established their home in the Todd Inlet in 1904 and when Jennie heard of a Japanese Garden designer visiting Victoria she commissioned a Japanese Garden for their estate.. She very soon discovered her love for gardening.. when the limestone quarry was exhausted she turned it into a sunken garden.. then the tennis courts were replaced with an Italian garden. In the 1920's people started to visit the Butchart Gardens.. Jennie herself giving tours and serving the tea.. today over a million people visit each year.

They don't look too happy.. it turned out to be a very very hot day.. our smiles aren't exactly genuine either.. plus as beautiful as it was it wasn't amazing.. I heard people commenting that the gardens are a lot more beautiful in the spring.. so maybe it was the wrong season.. but we weren't so impressed.. We rushed through some of the last few areas so that we can make it back to the bus which left hourly.. and back to Victoria.

We got off the bus and started strolling through the streets.. Victoria is such a charming little city.. 

We found Chinatown.. did you know that the Victoria Chinatown is the second oldest Chinatown in North America after San Francisco? 

We found the Fan Tan Alley.. and after walking through it on the other side we found Fan Tan Cafe where we had the most delicious lunch.. 

We strolled through the Bastion Square where so many wonderful artists were selling their goods.. one particular booth attracted us the most.. 

These are what my nightmares are made of... I have a major entomophobia.. I don't even like butterflies getting too close. But the boys were extremely fascinated. 

We grabbed some coffee from BruBike.. its was a cute coffee cart attached to a bike.  It moves daily to a different location... 

We started to head back to the ferry terminal.. where we learned the ferry was delayed.. then more delayed.. we went through immigration.. and waited some more.. instead of arriving in Seattle around 9pm we got back closer to midnight.. forgot which floor we parked our car on and had to carry/drag half asleep children up and down the car park.. 

All in all we found Victoria lovely.. in hindsight we may have skipped the gardens and explored the area and the streets some more.. and after the long delays with the ferry we thought spending a night may have been nice too.. 

     

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