Pacific Northwest; Day 9

The alarm woke us up at 6:00 this morning. We had to leave earlier than usual to drive to Port Angeles to catch the ferry to Victoria, BC (on Vancouver Island) to see the famous Butchart Gardens (Butchart Gardens). When we departed the motel in Sequim (pronounced Skwim) at 7:15 it was sunny and 49 degrees. The high today was the mid 70's.

The ferry left Port Angeles
and crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, B.C. situated on Vancouver Island.

Victoria was a beautiful city near the ferry terminal and we had some time to kill so we walked a bit before hopping on our shuttle bus.

The shuttle took us to Butchart Gardens where we walked around and took a boat load of photos.
The gardens cover 55 acres of a 130 acre estate originally owned by Robert and Jennie Butchart. In the early 1900's the area was a limestone quarry and Robert mined the limestone to be used in his cement plant. When the limestone was gone Jennie turned it into a garden.
Before leaving we enjoyed lunch at the Blue Poppy Restaurant.

The shuttle bus drivers jibber-jabbered the whole trip (going and coming). Most of it was useless information but they did relay several pieces of interesting information. The median home price in Victoria is over $800,000, apartments and rentals are hard to come by as they have a .4% vacancy rate, and they have 100 measurable earthquakes each year.

We drove a whopping 35 miles today.

To see all the photos taken today click on this link: Day 9 Photos

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Colorado; Day 9; June 30, 2012

Image
The evening of June 29th we saw the play, “Is He Dead” at the Creede Repertory Theater ( http://www.creederep.org/ ).  It was very entertaining,  one of the better plays I’ve seen. When we drove away from Creede at 6:05 am it was 41 degrees.  A short distance south the temperature dropped to 39.  We tried soaking up the cold for what we knew would be a hot afternoon. We rode South Fork and then east to Alamosa.  From Alamosa we took a detour north up Hwy 17 to see the UFO Watchtower ( http://www.ufowatchtower.com/ ).  It is a place for UFO enthusiasts to go to watch for UFO’s.  The lady who runs the place said something about some sort of vortex existing on the property.  Weird stuff, even for an open-minded guy like me. If the UFO Watchtower wasn’t weird enough we saw a male driving a Jeep with eye lashes over the headlights at a gas station in Alamosa, CO.  Hopefully it was his wife’s Jeep and he was just gassing it up for her. We c...
Read more

My Last Ride

On January 11th, 2017, I departed on a ride to Kelli's Korner (Paradise, MO - near Smithville, MO) for lunch with four friends (Carl, Gary, Bill and Larry). It was a beautiful day, which was all the excuse we needed for a ride. I was leading the group and we were taking a long way there. Riding north on county road N, about 6 miles north of Hwy 152 and I-435, the road turned and I didn't. I exited the road into a field. Fortunately there were no fences, trees, rocks, oncoming cars, etc. I have no explanation for this except that I was out of it for awhile. I remember crossing the center line but I was looking down at that time, which is weird. I have no memory of seeing anything after that until I was laying in the field separated from my motorcycle. I do remember a sensation of tumbling but that is all. My first thought was to drive my motorcycle out of the field and get it cleaned up so Chris would not know what I did. What a ridiculous idea that was. After I'd been up ...
Read more

Florida Trip; Day 11

Image
A beautiful, sunny and warm day! After our B&B breakfast we rode away on our golf cart at 9:45 AM. It was 51 degrees. We spent an hour or so exploring Cedar Key again and Chris did a little shopping on Dock Street. Morning is low tide. It was strange seeing boats sitting in the mud at the marina. This next picture is of the marina at high tide. At noon we had to return the golf cart and then we walked to lunch at Tony's. After lunch we walked the Railroad Trestle Nature Trail. We went to the Cedar Key Scrub State Park to walk but found it uninteresting so we didn't go far.  Back at the B&B we watched a movie and then watched the sun set. We drove a whopping 13 miles today (not counting miles in the golf cart) and our high temperature was 68. A very relaxing day! Tomorrow we start home. Click here to see all photos from today - Day 11 Photos  
Read more