We got up late, had a nice buffet breakfast in the hotel and joined the line to the bus. We met Dan, who would be our bus driver for the rest of the trip. Today we headed to Butchart Gardens, which is north of Victoria in the country. We arrived about 10a.m. and spread out all over to take pictures. The Gardens were beautiful. No comparison at Bellingrath or Callaway Gardens, according to those who have seen those in the daytime. Since we had only been to Bellingrath at night, it was hard for us to judge. The soil was rich black soil that had been trucked in to fill the beds of a carved out stone quarry. The variety and beauty of the flowers were amazing. We really liked the way everything was organized into specific areas. The only disappointment was that the Rose Garden wasn’t in bloom. The Japanese Gardens and Italian Gardens were really nice.
We met at noon at the old Butchart home in the middle of the Gardens for Afternoon Tea. The foods were plentiful and varied. We sat with Lynda, Joyce, Susan and Connie. Each couple was given a three tiered tray of foods. Sandwiches, mini quiche were the savory offerings; a variety of cookies, tarts, and candies were the desserts, then the top layer was scones w/strawberry preserves and clotted cream. - Everything was tasty.
After lunch we had time to look in the shops. We found a beautiful stone called almonite that is native to Alberta. The necklace we looked at cost about $1500, for just a pendant on a silver chain... that was enough! We looked at several items and got a pin, some postcards, Christmas ornament, DVD, and some seeds. We got back to the bus and finally got back to town around 2pm.
We went up to our room and got some things shifted around, then started out to head for Fisherman’s Wharf. We started walking west from the hotel and got to the end of the street where the Laurel hotel is, and we went right to go around the hotel on the water side, because we thought Amy said that was the short cut. Actually going the other way around the hotel would have been a shortcut, as we followed the waterfront in and out and around the shoreline. Finally we had to go back to the street to continue to Fisherman’s Wharf. Finally we arrived and found the Wharf. The harbor seal was gone from the place where he normally hangs out. We asked tat the fish shop, but they hadn’t seen him in a few hours. The Sharps arrived right behind us, so we walked the length of the wharf with them, then hailed a Harbor Ferry Taxi to ride back to the other side of the Inner Harbour. Before we left, Bob and I got ice cream cones - very good.
From the North side of the Inner Harbour, we walked up to Government Street passing Langley Street (so we had to get a picture!). From there we walked south back towards our hotel, stopping at various stores along the way. We went into The Bay Store (formerly Hudson Bay Company) and into the attached mall. We found t-shirts for the kids, various postcards, etc. We stopped for dinner at Scott’s Deli. Some of the ladies were there, but we didn’t get back from shopping in time to eat with them. We had a turkey club sandwich and split it. It was huge!!
After dinner, we stopped by the Visitor’s Center, which was closed, but there were steps near there that took us down to the lower level of the Inner Harbour walkway. We saw several sculptures of whales, like the Pelicans in Pensacola. We took pictures of a couple.There we found street musicians, various vendors and the opportunity to walk by the water front all the way along and around to the steps that took us up to our hotel. We really enjoyed looking at all the things for sale and listening to the musicians. One man was playing a very old Hammered Dulcimer and was doing a really good job. We wanted to buy a CD, but he didn’t have any. He gave us a business card to his website, so we want to check that out later. There were sculptures at the front of our hotel that looked like Avocados and Cantalope. We got some pictures of these. We also found an area right between the Parliament building and our hotel where there had been a dedication of a time capsule about 60 years ago. There were really interesting crests all along the walls. We took several pictures of those.
We went back to the room and relaxed for a while, and the ladies met at the pool for a time together. Later Bob and I went back out to get pictures of the Parliament Building. We also saw several sculptures in different places. Then it was time for bed.
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