Travel Tuesday - North to Alaska - Day 2 Vancouver Island

Thanks again to Hailey and Zaphod for letting me share my travel adventures here!

On the second day of our trip, we took a bus tour to Vancouver Island.  It is about 104 km/ 76 miles from Victoria (British Columbia's capital) and Vancouver. I think later on the trip I disappointed travellers who were hoping to go for a bit before catching flights, that you need a minimum of 2 hours to get from one city to the other and it could be longer, depending on ferry service. 

Our day started early, with the bus meeting us at our hotel. While we were waiting for other passengers, we watched more of the opioid crisis - the paramedics checking for life and a guy just doing his drugs on the bench across the road. I admit, it was hard not to stare as it is so outside my normal experience.

Once we were all on board, we drove the 30 minutes to the ferry terminal, and hit the jackpot that there was room on the 9 am ferry (we were scheduled for the 10 am one) and drove right on. We then spent the next 90 minutes enjoying the ferry ride across the Strait of Georgia.

Here are a few shots from the ferry:

Our first stop was Butchart Gardens. This has been a public garden since 1904, is a natural heritage site and attracts over a million visitors a day. There were so many people with dogs walking the paths, it made me miss mine. The most famous garden is likely the sunken garden.  When the quarry went 'dry' so to speak, Mrs. Butchart started a project in 1909 to turn it into garden, which were completed in 1921.

The sunken garden

Another of the famous gardens is the Japanese garden, which was built by Isaburo Kishida, a garden designer from Japan. This was also the garden where the 'phone incident' occurred. As mom was enjoying the gardens from the comfort of a wheelchair,

at one point she unlocked the chair without first securing her phone and her driver set off with a good clip, sending the phone flying, and then the driver drove over the phone.

The phone was cracked to the motherboard and useless. Never fear, a new phone was awaiting mom when she returned home and with her iPad, she didn't really need it on the trip. Life lesson, always secure your belongings before letting me push you in a wheel chair!

The Japanese garden

While I found the Japanese garden lovely and it reminded me of Tokyo (what great shade on a hot day), I missed the koi.

Another of the famous gardens is the former tennis court turned Italian Gardens.

There were so many beautiful gardens and fountains. I will share more of these on Nature Friday, but before we leave the gardens, a few more sights:

After a few hours in the gardens, we headed to Victoria. The city was named after Queen Victoria in 1851 when Victoria became an official British colony. It became the capital of British Columbia when BC officially became part of Canada in 1871.

Here we took another horse drawn carriage, this time a private tour, around the harbour area and Beacon Hill Park. Much smaller than Vancouver's Stanley park at 183 acres, it has been a free city park since 1882. It is named Beacon Hill park because historically the navigation beacons for ships graced its hills. 

BC's capital building

Me thanking my driver, whose name has left my brain. 

After a tour around the park, we enjoyed the harbour area and cool drinks. 

Hotel Grand Pacific is to the righ

This statue looked so much like my dad!

The city was full of beautiful flowers - this was at a street corner

This statue made me smile

On our way out of the city back to the ferry, we say the world's tallest totem pole made out of one tree.

We splurged on the ferry ride home and paid to sit in the 'quiet lounge' that had hot tea and snacks. It was a nice break from all the people. After nearly 14 hours, we arrived back at our hotel, ready to rest for our travel day to Alaska.

Come back Friday for more flowers from Butchart gardens and come back next Tuesday for our arrival in Alaska.