Victoria, British Columbia
As we approached the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island, Bryan could barely control his excitement and pride in being able to share “his” city with the rest of us. As a Canadian from this area, he was quite justified in his enthusiasm, as by the time dusk had arrived, I was as enamored of this small city as everyone else.
We spent the morning at Butchart Gardens, a most extraordinary place outside of Victoria. A limestone quarry was turned into a formal garden-extraordinaire, through the almost single-handed efforts of Jennie Butchart in the first decades of the 1900’s. I spent most my time in the Japanese Gardens because of my fascination with moss when combined with falling water. The rose gardens tickled my fancy with the various names: Eye paint, Iceberg, Gertrude Jekyll, Othello, New Daily Mail, Oh la la, Fisherman’s Friend (who received a rave review for the scent from Arlene).
After lunch we had free time in town with a pass included to the outstanding British Museum of Natural History. Chocolate stores, Murchie’s for tea, The Empress Hotel and other landmark locations, all deserved a “look-see” if only for a few minutes…until 4:00 pm when the ship sailed for a visit to Race Rocks before sundown. This location is a wonderful sea lion haul-out, but what made it extra-special was that two different species of sea lions share the rocks. Both Steller and California sea lions could be heard long before we came within identification distance of the rocks. However even before we could see or smell the pinnipeds (they smell the same), we were distracted by the presence of two male killer whales (T14 & T41) in the area. Being carnivores, and therefore known as “transients”, we held a hope of seeing some action, but neither sea lion nor seal tempted these killer whales enough to stay for a hunt. Apparently these two are well known in the area, and particularly T14 spends his time circling Vancouver Island year-round.
Flat, calm seas made our sail most pleasant, and by eight o’clock we were back at our dock ready for an evening in town. Saturday night in Victoria!
As we approached the southeastern corner of Vancouver Island, Bryan could barely control his excitement and pride in being able to share “his” city with the rest of us. As a Canadian from this area, he was quite justified in his enthusiasm, as by the time dusk had arrived, I was as enamored of this small city as everyone else.
We spent the morning at Butchart Gardens, a most extraordinary place outside of Victoria. A limestone quarry was turned into a formal garden-extraordinaire, through the almost single-handed efforts of Jennie Butchart in the first decades of the 1900’s. I spent most my time in the Japanese Gardens because of my fascination with moss when combined with falling water. The rose gardens tickled my fancy with the various names: Eye paint, Iceberg, Gertrude Jekyll, Othello, New Daily Mail, Oh la la, Fisherman’s Friend (who received a rave review for the scent from Arlene).
After lunch we had free time in town with a pass included to the outstanding British Museum of Natural History. Chocolate stores, Murchie’s for tea, The Empress Hotel and other landmark locations, all deserved a “look-see” if only for a few minutes…until 4:00 pm when the ship sailed for a visit to Race Rocks before sundown. This location is a wonderful sea lion haul-out, but what made it extra-special was that two different species of sea lions share the rocks. Both Steller and California sea lions could be heard long before we came within identification distance of the rocks. However even before we could see or smell the pinnipeds (they smell the same), we were distracted by the presence of two male killer whales (T14 & T41) in the area. Being carnivores, and therefore known as “transients”, we held a hope of seeing some action, but neither sea lion nor seal tempted these killer whales enough to stay for a hunt. Apparently these two are well known in the area, and particularly T14 spends his time circling Vancouver Island year-round.
Flat, calm seas made our sail most pleasant, and by eight o’clock we were back at our dock ready for an evening in town. Saturday night in Victoria!
