5 July 2012
Onward to Victoria.
We left Branbury (Vancouver “suburb”) to go to Tsawwassen (in greater Vancouver)
for the 10:00 BC Ferry over to Vancouver Island through the Gulf Islands
waterway. Roger and I were both amazed
at how efficient loading and unloading went.
We drove on to the main deck, with cars also being loaded above via a
sky ramp. It took 90 minutes to make the
transit from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay.
On the ferry, we sat across from a very spry 83 y/o lady,
Sophia. Sophia’s husband died 8 years
ago and so she now lives in Victoria.
She always wanted to retire to Victoria, but her husband didn’t want to
so since his retirement they had lived in Ottawa. Sophia was on her return trip from
Newfoundland, where she was visiting older family members. She left Newfoundland when she joined the
Navy. She had to quit the Navy when she
got married, because back then it wasn’t allowed. Her husband was career Air Force. Anyway earlier this year she had bypass
surgery and now is the proud owner of a cow valve that replaced her worn out heart
valve. Sophia told us that this
replacement was pioneered in the USA. I
asked her if she now likes to take her coffee with cream and she laughed. Sophia flew to Newfoundland and was finishing
a land cross country trek, by herself, across Canada which was something she
always wanted to do. So her trip was
definitely a planes, trains, bus and car adventure. She told us that she had a wonderful time and
adventure. She told her children that
they would only her from her if there was a problem. This she said was rather liberating, because
it meant she wasn’t tethered to a cellphone or computer. Sophia was a lovely lady to chat with.
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When we arrived on Vancouver Island we headed to Butchart
Gardens. We spent about 2 hours with
over 10 busloads of our closest oriental friends. Herding our way through the various walkways,
dodging people who would stop with no warning to take a picture, it was pretty,
stressful, and not terribly relaxing despite all the wonderful spring flowers
that were in bloom. Some cultures do not
share our concept of personal space.
Butchart Gardens has seven unique areas:
the Sunken Garden which was built in the old quarry, a Rose Garden that
had a heady fragrance despite every rose I smelled not having any smell, a
Japanese Garden, a Star Pond area, an Italian Garden with piazza, and
Mediterranean Garden. Roger and I
enjoyed the flowers, but not the throngs of people. We got spoiled with all the gardens we
visited in England and New Zealand that weren’t crowded with busloads of
people. I’ve picked a few of the choice
flower pictures to share with you.
Afterwards we drove on to West Bay Marine RV park. We found out today that 1 July officially
starts the summer holiday period for Canadians.
This means that on the weekends RV parks are always full, especially at
the highly desirable tourist destinations such as Victoria. We got lucky and got the second to last spot
at the RV park. Tomorrow there aren’t
any empty spaces, so we’ll be leaving to go to Port Angeles, Washington. We set up camp and unloaded our
bicycles. We rode into Victoria and were
both glad we had parked the RV. Victoria
was crowded, but is a very bicycle friendly place. Lots of folks were out riding, both as a
means of transportation and also as a form of exercise. We rode to the US ferry company location to
figure out how to take the ferry back to the USA. Then we rode down Government to see the
provincial parliament buildings and the marina.
We did some information asking about things to
do tomorrow, as we don’t have to be at the ferry dock until 1:30 pm to clear US
customs for a 3:00 pm departure.
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