Homeward Bound

Saturday morning, July 28th, it was time to head up the Saanich Peninsula to Sidney, to get in line for the Washington State Ferry that would be taking me home, by way of the San Juan Islands. This is a beautiful, serene and peaceful cruise and at 2 hours, far too short. Here's a good map showing the route from Sidney, BC to Anacortes, WA. This is also a good map to depict where the whale watch cruise went around the Victoria point and up to San Juan Island.

I had already made reservations at a hotel in Anacortes to spend Saturday night, so as to avoid the hellish SeaFair Weekend and Mariners game traffic through Seattle at 4:30 in the afternoon. It didn't matter what time I got in line because I had nowhere to go once we arrived, but me being terminally early for everything, I was in Sidney by 8:00, ate breakfast at Smitty's, and was 3rd or 4th in line. They open the lanes at 9:00 so it was a quick trip through customs and immigration, although I have to say, the American officers are way more brusque than their Canadian counterparts on the way in. After I parked in my designated lane, I killed time in the gift shop to use up the rest of my Canadian money, and also read my book till it was time to board The Chelan. Oops! Don't drive too far to the front or you'll drive off the edge!

The ferry left at 11:30 or so and as I said, was a tranquil ride through the Channel and San Juan Islands.

Bye Canada.....see you next time!

Orcas Island, Washington.

There's my car angled in the corner.

Occifer Otto and the Customs Interrogation

Once we arrived in Anacortes, it took an inordinant amount of time to get through customs and immigration on this side. Three lanes were open and we all used a small fortune in gasoline waiting our turn. I was one of the first people off the ferry - probably in the top 20-25 - and it was 45 minutes before it was my turn. I was saying to myself, "For the love of god people, let's step it up!" As I finally got to the front of my lane, before they allow you to pull up for inspection, I watched as 2 of the cars popped their trunks. "Great" I thought. They're searching everyone. I observed the owner of the RV in my lane, which was being inspected, walk around the side and put the steps down. The officer made the owner wait outside, as he boarded the RV and looked around. OK, I already have to pee as it is, but seeing these searches is making my bladder swell with nerves pee. The guy in the middle lane has just handed out of his window what looks like a bag of tomatoes. Uh-oh, the officer has told this guy to pull over and the officer has now coned off the middle lane. This is not good.

Let's just put it this way, I would suck at poker and no police department would ever hire me to do undercover work.

It's finally my turn. My heart is pounding. Why would my heart be pounding if I have nothing to hide? Ah yes. There's the rub. There's a Cuban cigar secreted in my clothes in my suitcase and 2 big 40-capsule bottles of Extra Strength Robaxin, which is available by prescription only in the USA. Ahm not supposed tah be carryin' contraband into the You Ess of A. But I am.

Leave it to me to end up with the jackbooted, crewcut-haired, sunglass wearing (even though it's cloudy) stormtrooper, who I have affectionately dubbed "Occifer Otto", who approaches my window and literally barks, "PASSPORT!" at me. Now, passports are not yet required for sea or land travel to and from Canada, only for air travel. Normally a birth certificate and drivers license will suffice. Fortunately I have a passport. But I got so flustered that when I went to hand it to him, I dropped it out the window and he had to bend over on the ground to pick it up, with me apologizing profusely for being Mrs. Butterfingers. I swear it looked like they trucked this guy in from one of those white supremicist camps in Northern Idaho.

Then come the questions:

"WHERE ARE YOU FROM?"

"Bonney Lake, Washington."

"I SEE YOU ARE WEARING A RING. WHERE IS YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER?!?!?!"

"Home taking care of our dogs.....I take a solo vacation every summer."

"WHAT ARE YOU BRINGING BACK THAT YOU DIDN'T TAKE WITH YOU????"

My mind goes completely and totally blank. I can't think of one single thing I bought, except of course for the 2 things I'm not supposed to be bringing back into the USA. So I'm stammering, "umm, umm, postcards, a tour book....ummm ummmm, a tshirt...uh....oh some jewelry..." (God forbid I let slip that I've visited Butchart Gardens or I'll get the extra special "did-you-bring-any-seeds-back-into-the-United-States" interrogation.)

"HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND ON THE JEWELRY????"

"Eighteen dollars for a bracelet...."

"WHAT ELSE?"

"Um, uh......" My mind is racing! What the hell did I buy? I can't remember! Think damnit, think! "Um, oh yeah, a pencil sharpener shaped like a double deck bus..um....." Good one Jo.

"SHUT OFF YOUR ENGINE AND GIVE ME THE KEYS SO I CAN OPEN YOUR TRUNK!!!!"

I comply and watch hopelessly in my rear view mirror as Occifer Otto pops the trunk. I can hear him unzip my suitcase. The jig is up. The cigar and Robaxin are in that suitcase. I am in for the full on Body Cavity Search and please god don't let his hands be cold. I'm about to feel the long icy finger of the law, I just know it.

SLAM! The trunk goes down. I fully expected to hear "PULL OVER, SHUT OFF YOUR ENGINE AND WAIT FOR ME OVER THERE!" But to my utter relief Occifer Otto sent me on my way. I was practically wetting my pants by this point.

I raced to my hotel, the Anaco Bay Inn, and headed straight for the bathroom, still a bit shaky from that questionning. What I found out the next day is that earlier on Saturday, there had been a bomb threat on one of the BC Ferries traveling from Tsawwassen to Sidney, so I can only assume that all the customs/immigration officers were on high alert, especially on the Sidney to Anacortes route.

Since I was spending the rest of the day in Anacortes, which is on Fidalgo Island, I thought I'd have a look around. I've always wanted to see the Deception Pass Bridge, which connects Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island, so I bopped down to have a look.

And yes, I drove over it. If the parking lots at the bridge hadn't been so full, I'd have stopped and walked onto the pedestrian paths to take pictures as the view was beautiful.

Then I drove up to Mt. Erie, on Fidalgo Island. I have made the all important discovery that my desire to take a good picture suppresses pesky things like my fear of heights. I carefully edged my way out to a rock ledge to take this picture and it was dizzying to say the least. I had to lean my back against the rock before I lifted the camera to my face because I thought I was going to fall forward. But hey, I got the shot and that's all the counts.

Looking northwest from Mt. Erie, at the San Juan Islands.

I left for home at 5:00 a.m. last Sunday morning and arrived in Bonney Lake by 7:15 a.m. I wish I could do it all over again!

The Crown Jewel

I've been doing photography for a really long time now, ever since I got my first Kodak C-110 for Christmas in 1977. Every time I go away on vacation and shoot a ton of photographs, I am always hoping for the perfect shot. The "postcard shot", if you will. It's damn hard to do, and most photographers will tell you that if we get more than 3 stellar shots on a roll, that's pretty good. 1 per roll is more like it.


On my last night in town, I remembered that I hadn't gone downtown to get pictures of Parliament all lit up. All of my favourite postcards of Parliament at night show the dusk sky in a beautiful indigo colour. So I waited for the sun to start to set, and I got in my car at about 9:00 and drove back to Inner Harbour, while it was still light-dusk. I figured it was getting late enough that traffic on Belleville Street would be non-existant. I could easily pull over, put my flashers on and carefully, methodically start shooting pictures, mess around with apertures & shutter speeds.

Wrong.

I turn off of Blanshard onto Belleville and the closer I get to Government Street, the more traffic and pedestrians there are. While "panic stricken" isn't exactly the right way to describe the way I felt upon observing the scene before me, it was more like, "holy shit you better think quick how you are going to do this." It was too late. I was committed to crossing Govt. St., and passing in front of Parliament. Traffic is heavy in both directions. Pedestrians are spilling off the sidewalks into the traffic lanes. There are still horse & carriage rides clippety clopping along the street between the cars. I was SO screwed. There was nowhere to stop, nowhere to park, and traffic was so heavy, and it was clear that I was going to be stuck for quite some time going straight ahead and being unable to bang down a side street.

As one car & a pedestrian passed me, rolling slow at about 5 mph and right before the next car obstructed my view, I grabbed my digital camera, and shot this picture. I know it looks dark here, but if you click on any of the pics (from any of these posts) it gets larger and you can see the detail. I set it down on the passenger seat, grabbed my film camera, and still rolling slow, shot this one. I don't even really remember having the time to adjust the shutter speed, aperture & focus.

As I drove past, I ended up doing an extremely long detour loop to get away from the traffic jam. I was crestfallen. I shot 2 pictures....from a moving car....with obstructions coming into view as the shutters fell both times. There was just no way they came out. When I got back to the hotel, I was able to view the digital picture and could not believe my eyes. I finally took "the postcard shot" of Parliament with the indigo sky at dusk. Seeing the film version come out just as good is the icing on the cake.

Hotel Minutiae

When I booked my trip, I did Priceline for my hotel. I asked for Downtown Victoria and named my price. The cheapest 3-star I could get was $122 a night. So that's what I went with and crossed my fingers. Imagine my chagrin to find myself at the Holiday Inn, close'ish to downtown, but not walking distance like the Queen Vic or the Coast Harbourside, places I've stayed in the past that are in the heart of downtown. Now everytime I see Mr. Priceline Negotiator himself, Bill Shatner, doing his slash-and-chop moves, I jeer at him, "thanks a lot, ya dickhead". I very much wanted to have my hotel as "home base", someplace I could return to and kick back, shower & drop off parcels without leaving the downtown core. So I had to park at a parkade and use my car as "home base" which was satisfactory, but not optimum.


However, the hotel was very nice. I had a very comfortable, spacious room.....much better than the room I had in Vancouver last summer. There were two restaurants: Redd's downstairs, and Redd's Pub upstairs on the 2nd floor. I ate at both and they were tasty. There was also a liquor store on-site, although I didn't go in because I'm not much of a drinker, and usually only have a drink with dinner.


I thought I'd remember which room was mine, but it's one of the two arched windows on the 3rd floor....I think it's the one w/ all the curtains open. There was a refrigerator too which was awesome and convenient. Comfy bed & pillows, and nice to have that couch as well.

All week I kept seeing classic cars and street rods driving around Victoria. I didn't think much about it; the weather was beautiful so why not take the ol' classic car out for a spin, right? Imagine my surprise when I arrived back at the hotel late on Friday afternoon to see this scene.

They kept arriving. All afternoon, more and more street rods were in the parking lot, their owners lovingly polishing their babies, and comparing horsepower and restoration notes with each other. Most of the license plates were from BC & Alberta, but I did see a few from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and one from New York. Obviously, there was a road rally that weekend in Victoria.

By evening, I counted 33 classic cars & trucks in the parking lot.

The owners had set up some chairs that afternoon and were enjoying themselves. Well, by 10:00 p.m. it became a full blown party that was now taking up the sidewalk AND the parking lot. A loud party. An annoying party. Keep in mind, Redd's Pub is on site. There is no reason that they couldn't have taken it inside the pub, you know? I called down to the desk, apologized for being a buzz-kill and how long they were going to let it go on? He told me he was, in fact, on his way to break it up. 30 minutes go by, and the loud music starts up. Knots of people are whooping it up in the parking lot. It's about 10:30 now. I called the desk to inquire again, and am told that the Victoria Police have already been called and are on their way.

Don't get me wrong....you know I love Canada and I think that the people are really nice and courteous. But there's a point you know? I peeked out the window close to 11 and yes, the Vic PD is out there alright. Both female officers are standing around chit chatting with the partiers, and you can tell by their body language, they are discussing the classic cars!! The officers were laughing, pointing at the cars.......and I'm like, "You have got to be KIDDING me!" I was half expecting the cops to crack open a couple of Kokanee's and join the revelry. But finally, the party broke up, so if nothing else, the incident gave me an interesting end-of-vacation story.

Bound to Cover Just a Little More Ground

Up early again on Friday, July 27th. My plan was to head to the southwestern short of Van Isle, to French Beach Provincial Park.

The first time Brian and I went to Vancouver Island, in 2003, it was a bit of a disaster. We stayed at a beautiful place called Point-No-Point. Email me if you want the details; it's turned into a funny story now, but then it was not at all amusing. For one thing, in the States, if you decide to stay at a cottage resort in a wilderness area, there are amenities along the roadside. Stores, little restaurants, gas stations, etc. Vancouver Island is a different story. This is the gateway to some seriously HUGE wilderness. Not your east coast woodlands, but huge rivers, cliffs, waterfalls, thick forests, bays, coves, inlets, fjords, ocean and an awful lot of large animals. And if you ain't careful, you will die. But when the tourbooks described the southwestern shore of Van Isle as "remote", I was thinking Ft. Bragg, CA or Lake Quinualt, WA "remote". No, the books mean remote in its most literal sense. The nearest town is Sooke (the double-o is said like "loop", not "look"), and that's a good 20 miles away. On that 2003 trip, we had picked up a few things in Sooke for the cabin (which was fully furnished and quite beautiful, but no TV), because we figured there'd be a local store closer to the resort. We were quite sadly mistaken on that point.

But I digress.

I decided to go to French Beach to exorcise the demons of the 2003 trip. French Beach is located on this remote southwestern shore. I took my metal detector down to the tideline but it didn't register anything unfortunately. Although the first couple of times it beeped I was all excited, then I realized that it was only beeping b/c I was also carrying a metal shovel so the detector beeped when it got too close to the shovel. Oh well. I did find some pretty rocks though. And a maple leaf too, which I've pressed into the pages of my travel journal.
Again, those are the Olympic Mountains on the other side of the Strait.

That's my new house. I wish!

Ya have to respect Ma Nature when you live up here. Case in point: beach logs. Huge logs and tree stumps, like this one, wash up on shore after winter storms carry them down the rivers and into the ocean. You do not want to be standing on the beach with heavy surf and turn your back to the water. It's not a good idea to turn your back to the ocean under any circumstances, but especially not in heavy surf. I can only imagine the power it took to get this giant stump up that far on the beach.

After I left French Beach, my plan was to drive down into East Sooke Park. There are lots of trails and one of the trails leads to ancient petroglyphs. I drove all the way down to the trailheads and changed my mind. I was, however, chuckling to myself, thinking about if Julie had been in the car with me, she'd have been like, "Jo! Come on! Let's hike! It'll be fun!" and me saying, "Yeah, you go right ahead and hike the shoreline trail...I'll pick you up in Metchosin in a few hours." As I drove away, thinking of that scenario and laughing, I said out loud in the car, "Because JoJo. Don't. Hike." and I went back to Victoria.

I was back downtown by 12:00 noon, so I walked aimlessly and messed around a bit with some old postcards I bought at an antique show last year. This is Government Street in days of old......

And this is the same shot, now....although I was unable to stand directly in the middle of the street.

And this is me trying to be artsy fartsy.

Another "compare and contrast" postcard vs. current view of the Empress Hotel.

This is a nice view of Inner Harbour and Parliament from another old postcard.

I couldn't get up into any of the buildings on Govt. Street to shoot the same scene from that high, so this is the best I could get.

I read a ton of stuff that highly recommended Pagliacci's as a must-eat restaurant. I went in for lunch and all I can say is WOW. This is the kind of place that is really tiny, always packed and has autographed photos of celebrities dating from the present time back to what looked like the 1940's and 50's. I had a caesar salad and "vegetarian mediterraneo". It was DEE-LISH-USS!

Inner Harbour promenade with all the artists. I bought a beautiful painting from the artists on the corner, under the 2 green & white umbrellas...you can see one of the guys dressed in white under the umbrella. That's a protective suit b/c they work with spray paints. I've seen them every single time I've been in Victoria and they always attract a huge crowd. They create the most amazing works of surrealistic art focusing on nature, animals, Northern Lights, etc. that I've ever seen, and they do it right before your eyes. I overheard one of the artists answer a tourist's question that they've been at it since they were 13, in 1992. I bought one of their gorgeous creations, featuring an orca whale to commemorate my whale watch, and once it's framed, I'll take a picture of it. Only $40 too. I thought it was a very reasonable price for such a beautiful painting.

The only thing I didn't get a chance to do was take the Harbour Air float plane tour. After I had lunch at Pagliacci's, I walked down to the terminal but the next tour wasn't leaving until very late in the afternoon, and I have to admit, I was pretty exhausted and I didn't think I could productively kill 4 more hours downtown, so I had to forego it. But hey, now I have an excuse to go back.

"Admiral! There be Whales Here!" Scotty, Star Trek IV

At 3:30, I board the Prince of Whales boat, seen below, the Ocean Magic II. This was a very comfortable boat, and since I had managed to get a terrible sunburn on my scalp, face and arms, I was grateful for the indoor area with the open sides, where I could sit out of the sun but still be close to the water. This boat can move too. Once we got out of the harbour, the Captain sped up significantly and we flew around the southern tip of Van Isle, and back into US waters off the coast of San Juan Island. It was a wild ride too. Seas were calm - probably 4' - 5' swells, but it was a wild ride, nonetheless. One of the marine biologists even commented that we got to take "the rodeo tour" that afternoon. I did not want to take the Zodiac boat, seen below. There is no bathroom on board, and it was full on sun. Of course these boats can get much closer to the whales because they are smaller.

I have a lot of pictures of dorsal fins, but I've only posted the best of the best. There were 2 marine biologists on board, Anna and Nicola, who were, of course, very knowledgable about marine mammals. They are able to identify the whales by the shapes of their dorsal fins. J, K and L Pods were the ones making their appearance the day I went, and so we got the benefit of L Pod. The land behind is San Juan Island, Washington.

I think it was when I saw these 2 whales swimming together that I wanted to burst into tears of happiness. I've seen orca whales perform at SeaWorld and Marine World Africa USA but this is the first time I've seen them in the wild. Anna identified these as a grandmother and grandson. She said that families often stay together their whole lives and joked about "how would you like your grandson hanging around with you all the time?"

At one point, far off in the distance, I saw a whale breach and then the giant splash as he came down. It happened too quick to get off a shot, but at least I have that memory burned into my brain.

Then we lucked out big time. This big guy, who Anna identified as the whale called "Mega" was feeding off San Juan Island. He would dive slowly, then come up. I kept my finger on the shutter button every time his fin would emerge, hoping that I'd capture some good photos of him. I was not disappointed.

This is the best whale shot I got all day. I could not have been more pleased. Anna and Nicola agreed that this is about the best you can hope for when on a whale watch....or as they called it "A whale wait". Apparently it's a crapshoot when they go out there. Sometimes you see orcas, sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's from very far away and that's it. Today, Mega swam close enough and slow enough to give our tour a real treat.

That humpback who was sighted in the Strait the day I sailed over was still hanging around but we didn't get to see him that day, although other tours had spotted it. After we hung around and watched Mega, it was time for the Captain to turn back. The ride back in to Victoria was as wild as it was going out. We were hitting wakes and waves like crazy, with the water spraying up high on either side. I was "whoo-hooing" because I love being on a boat that's traveling fast in open water.

The Ocean Magic pulled back in to the harbour at 6:30 and I left completely content and satisified. I had a blast and I got to finally see real orca whales in the wild. I headed back to my hotel with a grin on my face.

Victoria Day: Thursday, 7/25/07

After my big day on Wednesday, I let myself sleep in a little later on Thursday morning. I was planning to spend the entire day in downtown Vic, so I parked my car in the "parkade" (they don't call them parking garages in Canada) on Broughton Street - centrally located so that I could drop off my parcels as the day went on and then go back out again.

My first stop on Thursday morning was the Victoria Harbour Ferry tour. I'd been wanting to do this for years but never had the time. So I paid for the combo Harbour & Gorge tour, each lasting 45 minutes. I boarded one of these adorable tour boats with a family of 3, who were from Sacramento. I felt really bad for the woman though, because we hit several boat and float plane wakes so we were rocking from side to side quite a bit, and she kept having to get up to spit out the window. It didn't appear that she was seasick, but, obviously embarassed, she was apologizing profusely to me. I felt so bad for her discomfort so I offered her a mint sucking candy which she gratefully took. They had to disembark at one of the stops so that her stomach could settle down. Some of my pics have the glass reflection, which I couldn't help because there were only 3 open-air windows, and the family from Sacto was sitting on that end of the boat so that she could get the benefit of the fresh air. The flowers spell out "Welcome to Victoria". Artists set up along the promenade below the flower sign and sell their wares. There are musicians, and people that stand still like a statue till you pitch a "Looney" or a "Toonie" ($1 and $2 coins, respectively) into the kitty, then they'll do robot-like moves and change position.

This is the Johnson Street Bridge, or as Victorians call it, "The Blue Bridge". It's a drawbridge an the big cement counterweights lift the bridge when a tall boat needs to travel underneath. In all the times I've been in Victoria, I've never seen it open. The thing that surprised me a lot is that the tour boat driver said that Joseph Strauss designed this bridge....Mr. Strauss' other claim to fame is his design of that beautiful bridge we know as The Golden Gate Bridge.

These are some of the delux "float homes" built on the Esquimalt side of the Harbour. The steel pilings keep them from moving around too much in a storm. Aren't they beautiful? One of the houses had a cute sign that said "H2-ome".

After we cruised around and crossed the main shipping channel, we went over to the funky float home area called "Fisherman's Wharf", which is a lot different than the one in SF. Over here are the more artsy homes, which I liked better because they were more colourful and fun.

This is a popular stop for people at lunchtime because you can get off the Harbour Ferry and have fish-n-chips at one of the stands, then get back on the ferry later on when one comes by. I liked this sign, "Grilligans, Where Buoy Meets Grill". Cute play on words, no?

After we left Fisherman's Wharf, our ferry driver decided it'd be cute to try and race the Coho into the harbour. It was coming in behind us at an alarming rate of speed, blowing it's horn.....I was laughing so hard because I'm sure the Coho Captain is used to the harbour ferry drivers playing chicken with them. Our driver said, "well, I guess I should let him have the right of way, eh?" and we moved off to the side, where I was able to shoot the Coho from water level. The opening is where the cars will disembark once in to port. But of course, being the silly tourist that I am, I had to wave enthusiastically to the people on the Coho looking down and laughing at our little putt-putt ferry chugging along merrily beside this massive ship.

L'Oreal - I took this one just for you. You might have mentioned that you had your very own delux hotel in Victoria! lol

My next venture after the harbour tour was the Gorge Tour. This time we crossed under the Johnson Street Bridge, up past the industrial area and into the gorge which was very pretty with lovely homes on the water, private docks and boats. There was no shortage of birds to watch, including huge herons.

This photo is of the least expensive float home in all of Victoria. Apparently one of the industrious local homeless people cobbled this together from discarded gas pipes and other flotsam and jetsam that washed ashore. When he goes in for the night, he erects the tent on top. He uses the top of one of those "Yakima" car carriers as a canoe to get from shore to the float home. He spends his days fishing or panhandling downtown.

My water tours ended at 11, so I stopped at Sam's Deli for a tuna sandwich on wheat. I'd read a lot about Sam's Deli, that their sandwiches are fresh-as-can-be and delicious. They were right. After lunch I started walking around and shopping at my fave stores. I apologize for the lack of photos of downtown. I've been to Victoria so many times now that I have had to force myself to stop shooting pictures of things I've shot on past trips - like the Empress, Chinatown, Market Square, Fan Tan Alley, Parliament, Trounce Alley, etc.

But I did luck out when I was on Wharf Street, and heard sirens going off. When I looked toward the sounds, I finally saw the Johnson Street Bridge lifting to let that sailboat pass under. There are 2 sides of the bridge that need to lift - the train tracks side and the vehicle/pedestrian side. I have several shots of the bridge in black & white in various lift positions. I'll blog them later on.

This is the most amazing Christmas decorations store I've ever seen. 3 stories of nothing but decorations from all over the world. Because we have run out of room to store decorations, I have had to exert willpower to keep from going in this shop because I know I'll come out with stuff we don't need and for which we have no room. Still, the Santa on top is cute.

This pretty scene was in an alley off Johnson Street, across from Market Square.

Johnson Street is just one of the many reasons that Victoria reminds me of San Francisco.

I shopped till I dropped this day. I visited my fave store in Trounce Alley and got some a beaded basket and beaded amulet bag, both made in Nepal, and a beaded card by a local First Nations artist. I collect her beaded cards and buy one each time I visit the city. I got some souvenirs at my fave souvenir shop, Nootka Traders, including a t-shirt designed by a Vancouver First Nations artist. It's called "Wolf Moon" and is in the style of the Pacific NW Indian art. Do you know how hard it is to find a t-shirt actually designed by a local artist and made in Canada?! I also visited Woofles: A Doggy Diner in Market Square to pick up homemade doggie treats for the furkids. They love their Woofles!!! I did not venture into Chinatown & Fan Tan Alley this time, preferring to stay around the waterfront.

The Gardens: Butchart & Butterfly

I'd read a travel tip awhile back, that said Butchart Gardens is best visited later in the afternoon, once the crowds have thinned out. Being one of those "have to get there and see it when they open" people, this was a strange concept to me. But I figured what the hell, I'll tack it on to the end of the trip to Chemainus. This gave me a great excuse to take the Mill Bay Ferry, from my previous post.

Butchart Gardens was lovingly created by Jennie Butchart, after her husband moved his gravel mining operation to the Saanich Peninsula. My first stop after arriving was in the cafe for a veggie sandwich on wheat & lemonade. With my belly full and my bladder empty, I entered the beautiful gardens.

The photos seen here are just a tip of the iceburg of what I shot. It's really, really hard to take a bad picture. This is the sunken garden. Can you believe it used to be a gravel pit?

Ross Fountain. My original plan was to stick around the Gardens till it started to get dark because I hear the place is magical all lit up at night, but my feet were in danger of falling off by the end of the day, so I only stayed for a couple of hours.

The travel tip was right; I encountered far less people and that enabled me to take a lot of quality photos of the flowers.

Butchart Cove.

I walked over to the Cove just in time to watch a Harbour Air float plane come in for a landing. Float plane travel is as common as boat/ferry travel.

Italian Garden.

Just down the street from Butchart Gardens is The Victoria Butterfly Garden. It was 4:30 and my feet and ankles were killing. In fact, I was thinking about a photo of Tess & Diane, that they posted from their trip to NYC last year, of the 2 of them standing in a tub of water soaking their poor, tired feet. But I couldn't resist the lure of the butterflies, so I stopped in to have a look. I wasn't disappointed.

Blue Clipper.

There were exotic birds & ducks roaming freely.

The Butterfly Garden is inside of a large greenhouse-type building and is kept very hot and humid with misters. There's a lot of natural light from the windows; at least from those not covered by thick, tropical foliage.

I bought a postcard of all of the butterfly species in the garden, but I can't find one that is exactly like this one....it appears to be a "Julia".

Yes, the flamingoes are real. They make the funniest honking sound. I wasn't sure what they sounded like, but I wasn't expecting a honk.

Brown Clipper.

I followed this guy around for quite awhile till he finally landed long enough for me to get off a shot. The wings were the most amazing shades of blue; it looked like he had sapphires set into his wings. Again, this one doesn't seem to be on the postcard either.

This is the closest I could get to the Blue Morpho, who would not open his wings no matter what. You would not believe the inside colour of his wings, based on seeing the camoflage on the outside. Later on in the giftshop, the woman there said that professional photographers will stay there for hours and hours and leave empty handed too.

So I ended up taking a picture of the fake Blue Morpho magnet in the gift shop.I climbed on a bench and moved a great deal of foliage to get this shot; I was surprised I wasn't admonished by a garden worker. Val, can you identify this bird for me?