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When:13th-15th July 2012
Where: Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC What: typical tourist attractions
It is two weeks since we have been here in the 3rd largest city in Canada, Vancouver. According to statistics, Vancouver has the population 5 times of Calgary. We are living in the heart of the city, in downtown. Feeling like a newbie(at least me) I am trying to get used to the culture shock. Within this time, we made a trip to the capital city, Victoria. We have heard very many good things about the city so far.
1. One of the top places to live in Canada.
2. Geographically situated in such a way that it gets very little rain compared to the west. In winter, they get flurries and sometimes that tips off Victorians I hear😊
3. A very expensive place to live, but gorgeously beautiful with temperate climate most of the year.
4. Contrary to Vancouver, all the stores and restaurants close early. I even heard someone say that by 8.00 pm everything is shut down.
5. The minute I landed, it felt like a place I could live. There are not many places that are this warm.
In Canada!!!
We were not sure about the ferry availability. So, to be safe, we made reservations at the Twassessen bay terminal from where we were to take the 1 hour ferry to Victoria. There weren't too many cars in waiting this weekend, but we were told to make reservations for any long weekend.
The ferry was awesome. They had many decks with different TV channels going on. S was busy with G, while I gathered information about Vancouver Island. We were excited that there was a Whitespot cafe inside the ferry that was not very expensive. The ferry was similar to the Alaskan ferries that we used last year. We are biased towards
BC ferries as we received free wifi and a play area for kids with Treehouse channel on TV. 😊
It was still sunny as we landed in Vancouver island. The minute I got out, I loved the place. I loved the Sun and the humid weather, a rare combination in Canada, at least for a Calgarian. 😞
We made a pit stop at Sidney, the book town to get some groceries. We headed to
Oceanside RV resort, very close to the
famous
Butchart Gardens. We did not waste any time in setting up camp as we saw thunderclouds closing in.
Just in time, we got into the tent to keep ourselves dry. It was quite a feast to the eyes though...all that thunder and lightning. A view from the office an hour later showed me how close we were to the ocean waters. Well! That is a rare commodity that I realized I've been missing out so far being in Alberta.
To summarize, I was absolutely loving it all...the place, the weather. From wondering(forever) on
how people can live in an island, I came to the point of accepting that this was a living paradise in Canada.
Quite a turnaround!!!
We went to bed early to get enough sleep for an early morning wake up.
Saturday, 14th July Weather, all clear. Sunny blue skies found us at
Butterfly Gardens. A steep $15 fee got us in. S sneaked in for free though.
The place claims to have 3000 butterflies at any given time, but it definitely didn't feel like it. There was a display of a
great horned owl by the entrance,
where I learnt that captive owls, can see in the daylight as well. They just take naps through the day. We were allowed to take pictures with her(the owl was female) and I still remember the owly eyes looking at my lens when she heard the shutter click. 😊
Though I welcomed the more humid weather maintained inside, I was so relieved to find a heater to warm up my camera lens. The condensation is crazy!!!
They also have Parrots, Flamingos, Koi fishes, Tortoises and Turtles but the highlight was definitely butterflies. We saw a whole range of butterflies.
The average life span of a butterfly is between 4-6 weeks and so, they buy butterflies from nearby farms to keep up that 3000 figure. We had the opportunity to see several caterpillars, pupae and a butterfly that was actually emerging from a pupa. Quite exhilarating and humbling at the same time. I had always thought that the process happens so fast. That a butterfly just flies out immediately from a pupa. Reality was the exact opposite. We learnt that it is a very slow process to come out of a pupa and it
takes much longer for the butterfly to actually fly. They fly only when they are ready(when wings dry up). Until then, they just hang from the branch. Absolutely awesome, when you actually see it firsthand.
S was super excited to see her first
Venus Flytrap with her own eyes(I'd never seen one myself). And some other carnivorous plants too. She enjoyed it so much. But was glad to leave after a while. The place is not too big. You end up going in circles.
IMO, the place is overpriced for sure, but one should definitely stop here once.
Our next/final stop for the day is the very famous
Butchart Gardens. It was going to be a long day and so we focussed on giving S a nap. Took a while. But it worked!😊
After the nap, we entered the garden refreshed.
I was surprised. It probably happens only in Canada. Butchart Gardens is the topmost attraction in Victoria and it is privately owned!!! It rarely happens in US. All the top attractions are usually managed by the Federal/State Govt.
The garden is over-rated and steeply priced as its
twin attraction Butterfly gardens, with an entry fee of $30. But being a summer Saturday, we got more value for the buck with their fireworks. It was fantastic, something like I have never seen before. It definitely had an English feel to it(In fact, all of Victoria does). It seemed all fine, but once I started reading how this lady started the idea and how from a no-good limestone quarry, they shaped this garden bed, it is absolutely inspiring. That is probably worth the money we put in.
The best part was S got a free ride in a stroller and used it effectively. 😊 The early supper at the Blue Poppy restaurant helped us to stay put until the very end. After our visit to the sunken gardens, due to heavy demand😊, we had to stop by the Rose carousel. We walked by the area where fireworks were supposed to happen in about 5 hours. But people were already saving their spots. So, we set up our blanket and continued to the other gardens. The Japanese garden was pretty interesting with a view to the Butchart cove. They also had sea lion watching tours on boats
as well seaplane tours for reasonable rates. We skipped it.
At the very end, we came to my favorite. I knew there was something special right behind those archways. And there was.
The Italian garden. That space actually felt like being in Italy with the small make-believe windows, the shades, the hanging flower pots and to top it all, an Italian gelateria. We asked S the obvious question(Which flavor do you want?) but we influenced her. 😊 Poor thing! Was so confused. Daddy and Daughter devoured it all.
And then we walked back to our positions for the fireworks. Our legs refused to move any more and we were glad to settle in early, for a change. The ground was full. I thoroughly enjoyed my people-watching.
Come 10pm, the traditional fireworks started. It was a story well choreographed, not just random cracker shots with music et narration. It lasted for about 30 minutes. It was definitely worth one visit at least. S was so excited to see fireworks coming from here, then there and everywhere.
It was crazy when all those 500+ people try to move out at the same
Sunken Garden
Butchart Gardeninstant. Once in the car, S fell asleep almost immediately. So we were no more in a hurry. It was really late when we came back to our dry tent. 😊 Crashed immediately!
Sunday, 15th July We woke up to rain showers. Thankfully, the resort had a cookhouse with microwave, fridge and recreation play tables where we indulged in some air hockey. Unfortunately for S, it rained most of the time we were there and hence could not fully utilize her play area.
We left in good time to Victoria. Showers still. Thanks to iPhone, we saw that Vancouver was damper than where we were. So, relieved.
We walked by the
Inner Harbour . Ferries to Seattle and Port Angeles, WA, USA go from here. And as I had seen photos, the area was picture perfect. Even with the showers.
It had a strange English feel to it. And so different from Vancouver, 100 km away.
From the first stop at the visitor center, we found our way across to the
Capital Building. We took the 20 minute tour which I became somewhat politically enlightened. It is an absolutely magnificent building, built by
Francis Rattenbury who had never designed any building prior to this.
The showers
continue. And we checked out "
The Empress". This Fairmont property is way more classy than the other ones we have
been to. 😊
The showers refuse to stop. And we walked towards
Fan Tan Alley in Chinatown. Canada's oldest chinatown. I was quite intrigued by some shops there though they had nothing to do with Chinatown. S found a spiritual store and made herself busy with some candles/incense smelling. She had a responding audience too. The owner does Kundalini yoga and we struck a conversation. S, as usual, did not want to leave the smell and encouraging company. But we left to look for the real chinatown. Well! there wasn't much. It probably could have been the oldest, but definitely not the most ethnic. San Francisco seemed more intriguing and bigger in size. Hands down!
We continued. We turned to the direction of music. We saw some people dancing to Mexican music. It was a Mexican festival. S wanted to take center stage and dance, but we danced a bit along the rails and we had a ferry to catch. G was staring at the watch, already. We picked up our souvenir from the umpteen stores on
Pandora ave. I managed to go into a farmer's market that was almost closing and even picked up some chocolate strawberries. First time! 😊
We walked to the Inner harbor again. This time, the sky cleared up. And we saw a street performer setting up a show. We stopped to have a look. It was a comedy show and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had to miss our 7pm ferry from Sidney, but were right on time for the 8pm one. It was a much larger ferry and S had a play area and a friend too. She was ecstatic and did not ask for anything more. I grabbed some supper witnessing one of the most amazing sunsets I have seen from a ferry. It was perfect.
Once on mainland, a short drive brought us back home(currently Vancouver). S crashed on the way. It was a wonderful trip. Feels like yesterday!
Disclaimer: This trip was made 2 summers ago. 😊
~travelbuffs We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls. Anais Nin
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Perfect rainy Canadian holiday!
Butchart Gardens, butterflies and chocolate strawberries--what could be better! I love those gardens (though the price has gone way up since I visited) and your photos did it justice. I also adore that quote by Anais Nin and will surely use it sometime--thanks so much.