Day 12 Victoria to Harrison Hot Springs

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July 16
Victoria to Harrison Hot Springs
From Victoria we drove to Butchart Gardens at Brentwood Bay. But first we had breakfast at a quaint little café called the Seadrifter with the locals. Butchart is divided into several gardens, including the Rose Gardens, the Formal Gardens, the Japanese Gardens, the Sunken Gardens, and the Totem Gardens. Jennie Butchart developed the gardens on a played out gravel pit her husband had quarried for his successful concrete business. They traveled the world collecting plants. Entering the Rose Gardens was overwhelming in its magnificence with more than 2,500 rose bushes of 250 different varieties in full bloom. It was almost sensory overload. The other gardens were equally impressive.
We hurried down the road just in time to catch the noon ferry from Sydney to Vancouver - actually Tsawwassen, just South of the city. Vancouver was a surprise. What had once surely been a modernistic gleaming metropolis of steel and glass it just looked worn and shabby, especially in comparison to old Victorian Victoria which was neat, clean and inviting. We went to the Apple store right smack in the middle of downtown but it was so busy we passed on even going in. Everywhere there were people and cars, none seeming to pay much attention to each other and certainly none at all to us. People on crowded streets were turning left holding up everyone. Right lanes were reserved for buses and motorcycles. It took forever to go anywhere. But we headed against the flow of humanity hoping for a little at Stanley Park right at the tip of the peninsula. After visiting the totem poles and driving through the park we tried to cross The Lions Gate Bridge but the street was blocked off so we had to drive back through the park and all through the city again. Traffic was terrible for more than a hundred miles out of Vancouver. That is probably because there is only one road headed West and none going North. We had planned to drive to Hope, but it was hopeless, so when we came upon Harrison Hot Springs along the way and I looked it up and seemed like a good place to stop. We stayed at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort with a view of the lake. It was beautiful. We walked a block from the resort to the “town” and ate at Ravens. The halibut I had was great. Afterwards we went and sat in the thermal sitting pool. It was very relaxing. We over heard a guy talking about the Chinese in Vancouver. He said there was always a large population there from building the railway. When Hong Kong went back to China most of the Chinese who could left and Vancouver was the most popular destination. Time for bed.

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