Pacific Coastal Cruise Travelogue #5

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Travelogue - Day 5 & Day 6
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada & Day at Sea

Hello everyone! -

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We arrived early in Victoria, BC and because we were only in port for about a half a day, our tour of Butchart Gardens, Wine & Chocolate left around 9:00 a.m. The day was gloriously clear and about 70° outside with no winds.

The ride out to Butchart Gardens was quite enjoyable with our tour guide, Mike. He was an elderly Irishman who was full of information about the area giving us tidbits of history and all sorts of information interspersed here and there with a cute joke. He made the 30 minute ride from Victoria out to Butchart Gardens quite enjoyable.

Butchart Gardens is about 18 miles outside of Victoria. It was started by the Butchart family and was initially a limestone quarry. They used the limestone to go into making cement. Mrs. Butchart started planting the trees in 1904 to try to keep the dust from getting into the house. Once the quarry was played out, she kept planting more and more after that. They hauled in something like 150 wagons of top soil and people started wondering what she was doing and so the let them come to see what she was doing. During WWII, the gardens fell into disrepair; and then grandson, Ian Ross took over the caretaking of the gardens and finished the vision of his grandmother.

Many of the plants are those that we will all find in our own gardens, such as chrysanthemums, roses, etc. The plants are arranged by predominant flower colors. There are over 50 gardeners now that maintain the property and it’s exquisitely manicured lawns and flower beds.

We followed the path down to the “sunken garden” passing every color of flower you can imagine. The chrysanthemums were either in full bloom or about to bloom and the flower beds were all lined with them. Each bed has a row of flowers in different colors and heights to give the gardens magnificent depth and color. The varieties of the flowers are unbelievable. For instance, the different colors of coleus, magnolias, roses, zinnias, begonias and dahlias were everywhere in a multitude of colors from solid white to deep reds and purples, orange and pink.

The sunken gardens are also where the beautiful water fountain is that does not repeat any pattern. It is similar to the floating water fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, but I’m sure this one was there long before Bellagio put there’s in! We walked all along the paths of the sunken garden and back up to the totem poles where we also had a view between the trees out through the gardens to the ocean. It was spectacular and couldn’t have been any more beautiful. Wee continued on through the zinnia garden and over to the rose garden. Many of the rose were just absolutely perfect buds and so fragrant I wanted to stop and smell all of them. You have to stop and smell the roses! Our time ran short as we approached the Japanese Garden and so we briefly glanced in there, but were not able to spend any amount of time.

We did have a little bit of time to stop in the fabulous gift shop on our way out and did find a couple of treasures.

From Butchart Gardens we again boarded our tour bus and headed to Church & State Winery. It was a small winery outside of Victoria proper and just delightful. This was the “Wine & Chocolate” part of our tour. We walked into a beautiful tasting room with one wall full of oak barrels stacked as high as the ceiling, a very nice tasting counter; but we were directed to the back of the tasting room to a small dining area where tables were all set up for us with four taste glasses of wine for each of us, paired with some delectable chocolate truffles. We tried a Pinot Gris, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and something like a Cabernet (we can’t remember). They were all really nice and the owner’s son presented the wines to us with a wonderful explanation of their facilities and operation. It was very enjoyable and we all purchased some wines! How odd!

Once we got back on board the ship in the mid-afternoon, we continued our Euchre tournament. And girls, I have to tell you, the girls are now doing so well! We are lagging, but trying to hold our own.

As we left port in Victoria, we stood up on the top deck of the ship to be able to see the San Juan Islands and watch as we passed a lighthouse near Victoria and then the real fun began! Those wonderful BLACK & WHITES (Orcas) were there along with what we believe was some minke whales and a humpback or two. I was in heaven! And, we did get some pictures, although the whales were at quite a distance from the Golden Princess, so I am not sure how the pictures came out.

The further south we went and once we entered the Pacific Ocean, the whales disappeared and the fog surrounded us. The ship’s horn blasted the fog warnings all night long.

Wednesday was a day at sea. We were lazy and slept in late. We enjoyed playing more cards and just enjoying the ship.

Tomorrow we will be in San Francisco and will have our tour of Sonoma. Our time will be quite short in San Francisco, only about 4 ½ hours.

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