2For66

September 26-27, 2024

Our hotel for our stay – The Royal Scot Hotel & Suites – is less than half a mile from the ferry terminal; so even though it was getting dark, we easily found our way. We had two days of sightseeing to do: one day devoted to the James Bay part of the city, and the other Butchart Gardens. Victoria is a biggish city; we concentrated our efforts along the harbor in the James Bay area.

And here is a closer view of the James Bay part of town.

Truth in photography notice. The pictures of Victoria actually come from two different days; but I want to keep them thematically separate from the photos of Bucharest Gardens.

The British Columbia Legislative Building dominates James Bay. Since it is so close to our hotel we walked in front of it several times.

Just east of the Legislative Building is Thunderbird Park where a number of First Nation totem poles are on display. This web page provides some details of the park.

We followed our feet as they took us down to the harbor toward the Fisherman’s Wharf tourist area. If you spend much time along the water you’ll see one after another of these tourist (I think) Harbour Air sea planes that come and go. Here is one that landed and is making its way to its dock.

There’s a lot of traffic in James Bay. Here the Harbour Air plane is crossing paths with the Black Ball ferry that goes back and forth between Port Angeles and Victoria.

Carla and I remember the Fisherman’s Wharf area from our last trip and wanted to get another look at it. There are many colorful houseboats that serve as homes and tourist shops.

And a closeup of one of the homes.

If you look at the bottom left of the second map above you’ll see the breakwater which protects the harbor. There is a path that runs along the top. On the second morning we walked out to the lighthouse before catching our tour bus to Butchart Gardens.

After messing around Fisherman’s Wharf we realized we had to get back for our reservation at The Empress Hotel. We decided to take one of the small water taxis that shuttle tourists hither and yawn around James Bay.

This taxi pulled up at a bit after a “regular” passenger boat came. We had our choice and waited for the cute boat. Our pilot was a fun guy but kept a keen eye out for all the James Bay traffic.

We got back to The Empress in time for our High Tea.

On our last trip when I first heard about High Tea I thought “Not for me” but then we went. So much food: savory and sweet. You can see we are having fun. You can see that Terri and I were not embarrassing ourselves: we keept our pinkies out while drinking our tea.

That night we went to China Town for a delicious dinner. It was pouring rain so we took a ride share. Rain was lessening – but not quite finished – after dinner; luckily we had our umbrellas so we decided to walk back. We couldn’t pass up Fan Tan Alley – the narrowest (about 3 feet wide) commercial street in North America. As the Wikipedia post (linked above) says it was once home of the opium factories. Now it is all tourist-friendly

As beautiful as Victoria is during the day, at night it is spectacular. The Legislative Building is lit up.

On a nice night the boats and building in and next to the harbor cast beautiful reflections.

On Friday – our last full day of our trip – we took a tour bus up to Butchart Gardens. When I was in elementary school (late 1950’s to early 1960’s) in the Southern California desert I had a neighbor friend, Roy Butchart. Even then there was a billboard advertising Butchart Gardens. I think it has been my destiny to go. When I missed it on our 2019 trip, the universe would not be denied and pushed me back north.

Jim is a marvelous gardener; his back yard is breathtaking so there was no way he would miss it. If I remember correctly he and Terri visited there on their honeymoon so many years ago.

Even the lowly mushrooms are beautiful.

Originally this was a limestone quarry for manufacturing Portland cement. When its mining days were through Robert’s wife, Jennie decided to turn it into a set of gardens. I can’t even imagine how much earth had to be moved to support this beautiful place. My favorite is the sunken garden; I imagine it was the heart of the quarry.

The Ross Fountain is down there as well.

Carla and I made a point to visit the Japanese Garden – which is very nice. I’m going to brag on Portland a bit here: our Japanese Garden is spectacular. You can get a small idea of it from this post of mine in 2015. I think it is one of the places people should visit when coming to our city.

Okay back to Butchart Gardens. Even though it was late September there were still many blooms. If I remember correctly, Jim told me that the team must constantly be moving plants in and out according to the season. The red and orange evoke the Fall.

This final image resonates with me for a personal reason. Back after I finished college I was a bit directionless; but I had to make a living somehow. A friend of mine – can’t remember if it was Jeff or Butch but I think it was Jeff – worked at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Caldwell, Idaho. He got me a job there. “Memorial Gardens” is a polite way to say “cemetery”. Interestingly, the manager of the cemetery was the son of my college dorm mother.

Jeff and I were “groundskeepers”, mowing and watering. But we also dug graves using a backhoe and a tractor pulling a specialized trailer for moving the dirt. This tractor is very similar to the one I drove.

It didn’t take long at that job for me to realize I didn’t want to work for a living. Working outside in spring and summer was fun; but sitting on an open backhoe in February was no fun at all. I decided to go back to school for to get a teaching credential. My first teaching job – at the Idaho State Correctional Center – led me to get a master’s degree in library science where I discovered computers, which in turn led me to my long-term career in Information Technology.

Back to our trip; after our garden tour we headed back to Victoria and started our long drive home the next day. Good times with good friends. After getting back, I did some reading and cooking which I’ll share in future posts.