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5th July 2008
We arrived at our hotel in Seattle at 11pm last night (but for us it was 2am East Coast time) and as we were all hungry and thirsty we had to find a 24hour diner (the Hurricane Cafe), where it seems that Punk is still alive and thriving, and we were served by Goths. It was very noisy in Seattle as all over town there were fireworks exploding to celebrate independence Day (4th July).
This morning we had to get up at 5-30am in time to get a taxi to the harbour to board a boat at 6-45am to go whale watching on route to Victoria, on Vancouver Island.
Before we left however Amy had to go to the fitness room (before 6am) to wear out even more equipment. Mum set off to get some coffees from McDonalds and Richard logged onto the internet.
We boarded the Victoria Clipper at 6-45am in Seattle to go to Fridays Harbour one of the San Juan Islands for 11-30am. There are lots of islands around the coast and it is a very scenic journey weaving in and out of the islands. The water is very turbulent around the islands with the
tides and currents coming in and out from the Pacific Ocean.
We did see some Minke whales but they surfaced and disappeared so quickly, even Dinah could not get them in the view finder quickly enough to take a picture.
After the whale watching we were dropped off at Friday Harbour (the boat was going back to Seattle) to catch another boat the Clipper Express to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We arrived in Victoria Harbour around 5-15pm where there were enormous cruise boats docked and sea planes landing. We saw the Star Princess on which Richard is trying to negotiate a shared cabin for a trip to Alaska.
A courtesy car from our hotel (the Chateau Victoria) met us and took us to the hotel at around 5-30pm but we had to be ready to go to Buchard Gardens at 6-30pm.
We caught a very old double decker tour bus to take us to Buchart Gardens and the driver gave a commentary on route pointing out significant landmarks on the way. The bus was so bumbly and slow on the road it must have held the rest of the traffic up for miles.
As soon as we arrived we
got out our picnic lunch/dinner as it was nearly 8pm and we had not had much chance to eat so far during the day. Then we spent the next couple of hours looking around the gardens.
Buchart Gardens had been created from an old limestone quarry but was a spectacular oasis of flowers, there were rose gardens, japanese gardens, sunken gardens all very well planted and laid out.
At around 10pm as it got dark there was a firework display over the lake. It was an impressive display of fireworks with a musical accompaniment. During the fireworks we opened some bottles of champagne that we had been given earlier in the day on the boat.
After finishing off most of the champagne we realised that we had probably broken Canadian law by drinking in a public place. No one else had wine or beer to drink.
By now it was around 11pm and we were getting tired after our 5-30am start, we boarded the bus to take us back to Victoria where we arrived around midnight.
Our hotel was not to far away so we staggered home happy to be able to get into bed at last. We were even
let off the blog as we were so tired.
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