Victoria, BC

Thursday: (09/29) We wanted to get up early to catch the ferry to Victoria today. The ferry runs every two hours starting at 7am. In order for us to make the 7am ferry we would have had to getup before 5am. Lou wasn't interested in that. so i set it for 6am to make the 9am ferry, or so I thought. The alarm went off, we took our showers and were preparing to have breakfast when Lou noticed the RV clock said it was 6am. We had been up and hour already.  I had reset all our clocks after we left Alberta except for our traveling alarm clock. Oops! So if we hurried, we might make the 7am ferry after all. We hurried and were the next to the last car onto the 7am ferry . A minute later and we would have missed it. We enjoyed breakfast on the ferry. Eggs, bacon and toast. We were in downtown Victoria by 9am. We stopped at a few thrift shops, and other interesting stores. We checked in to Paul's Inn downtown.


Lunch was in China Town at the Fan Tan Cafe. Chow mien, sweet and sour pork and fried shrimp.


After lunch we walked around downtown. The whale topiary above was by the Empress Hotel. We took a tour of the Provincial Legislative Building.

We took a walk out at the park on the South end of Victoria overlooking the Olympic Peninsula. To our surprise, we learned that from that location we had good Verizon cell phone connection not a Canadian roaming  connection. Nice chance to call home. We met one of our friends daughters for dinner. Jessica is going to school here in Victoria. We enjoyed dinner at a deli downtown. Lou and I shared a shepherds pie with clam chowder. Jessica had macaroni and cheese. We all shared a slice of excellent apple pie for desert.


We all took a walk downtown and looked at the night lights on the Legislative building. Tomorrow we do Buchart's Gardens.

Unfortunately, in our hurry to catch the ferry, I managed to forget to bring my camera. My phones camera will have to for the photos here on the island.

Friday: (09/30) We enjoyed breakfast at Paul's Inn Restaurant. I had my favorite pancakes with peanut butter, jam and some bacon. Lou had a mushroom and cheese omelet with home fries and toast.


We entered Butchart's Gardens by 09:30 and finished our first rounds by 12:30.


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For lunch we enjoyed High Tea at the garden's dining room. We've never had high tea before.


After lunch we made another round of the garden in the opposite direction. It's amazing how different it looks from the opposite direction. We took advantage of several benches along the way for longer looks.

We left the garden about 16:10 and headed for the ferry. We made it onto the 17:00 ferry much like our previous crossing with only a couple of cars behind us. We decided against dining on board this trip. Dinner was leftovers at home. Spaghetti squash with beef stroganoff sauce for me. Leftover chicken for Lou.