August 20th

THE DETAILS:

THE WEATHER: It was 42 degrees this morning! For goodness sakes! It’s August! The high was in the 60’s’.

THE DISTANCE: 1 hour ferry ride across Puget Sound


We were up early this morning to catch a ferry out of Port Angeles so we could return to… Canada! Surprise!…. “We’re back”! As we pulled into Victoria Port on Vancouver Island there was a stark difference from the American port we had left an hour before and the Candian one we were facing. The scenery suddenly looked very British, even though the red Canadian maple leaf was flying over ships and buildings. We were ushered off the ferry and onto, of all things, a double decker bus! It was so much fun to take in the city from 8 feet high. We were driven about 20 miles north out of the city, to a place called “Burchest Gardens.” What an amazingly gorgeous place. It was established by Jennie Butchart in the early 1900’s when she wanted to beautify the worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband’s cement plant. It has become 55 acres of manicured gardens bursting to life with brilliant colors, beautiful flowers and towering trees. They actually had a sequoia tree in the midst of Italian, Japanese, rose and sunken gardens. There were ponds and gentle water falls amongst the bushes and walkways. Oh Christen! You would have so appreciated these well cared for gardens! I created a list for Gary when we get home of exactly how I would like our yard to look by next summer!! LOL! He’s got a LOT of work to do.

After 2 hours of touring the gardens we were taken back to Victoria on our very British looking bus and we began our own self-guided tour of the shops, streets and restaurants. We ate lunch on the wharf, eating fish and chips and later had coffee and a scone at a sidewalk café. I would describe this place as a cross between Baltimore Harbor, Piccadilly Square and New York City. Very interesting diversity of fashion-conscious girls, expensive cars, intricate 1800 buildings standing right next to modern curved architecture. There are hundreds of hanging flowers, horse drawn carriages, real house boats in the harbor and multiple languages being spoken as we browsed around the city. It was a wonderful way to spend a day. We returned back to the KOA campground around 8 and we’ll be packing up tomorrow to move on.