We arrive at the WorldMark in Victoria, room 3111.
Our deck overlooks the rather meager Fisherman's Wharf. This end has a fresh fish shop along with a place renting out kayaks, a fish and chips place, an ice cream shop and a Mexican restaurant. All the shops are built on houseboats.
The houseboats on the outer end of the docks are all residential. Many are for sale. All the real estate blurbs say they're wonderful to live in, but they don't explain why so many people are selling.
Our room turns out to be right above the pool. There's a bit of noise during the day, but we're planning on being out and about during the daylight hours anyway.
Oh look, there's a old wooden ketch going by. Signs at the entrance of the harbor say "No sailing" so we don't get to see it under full sail.
We take a stroll to the inner harbor and downtown Victoria. Here's one of the harbor ferries. On Sundays during the summer they all get together and do "Harbor Ferry Ballet". We missed it.
The Undersea Gardens exhibit can be seen on the left edge of the picture. We visited it on Friday.
This fellow was out here every day playing his guitar, banjo and/or harmonica. Singing songs from the seventies like Crosby, Stills and Nash or the Eagles.
A typical shopper on the streets of Victoria.
A set of topiary killer whales on the corner near the Empress Hotel.
The Empress Hotel in all its glory.
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia. Here's the capital building or whatever they call them up here.
We planned to take a harbor ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf near our hotel, but there's not one at the dock right now. Instead we take a tour of "The Gorge" from Stan here.
The Delta Hotel across the bay from the main harbor of Victoria. The "D" on that building sure looks familiar.
These are the oldest buildings in Victoria. One of them is the prison from the old fort that stood here until 1863.
Our tour guide was not too pleased with these guys. Derelict boats with no masts or engines that are being used by vagrants who are an eyesore on the water here.
Four layers of politics make it difficult to write new laws to get these guys to move out.
Our tour guide wonders what these people do with the contents of their holding tanks. We decided not to go for a swim.
We take a walk over to the Fisherman's Wharf.
The seals get lots of handouts from the tourists here.
Can we please have another herring? How about a french fry?
Some of the houseboats have fanciful paint jobs and decorations.
Took the harbor ferry into town and did some more shopping. Not much was picture worthy, apparently.
It's the obligitory trip to The Butchart Gardens.
Everyone should have a bronze boar fountain in their garden.
Flowers. Pretty flowers.
Roses. Pretty roses.
We stop off at the restaurant to make reservations for afternoon tea. The Italian Garden is visable outside while we wait for the Maitre d'.
Daisies. Pretty daisies.
More roses. Pretty roses.
Lots of roses.
Even more roses.
Yeller ones.
Pink ones.
Red ones and whatever those blue things are.
Arbored.
Now we're in the actual Rose Garden -- I'm not sure what all those other roses were.
Rainbow Sorbet, USA 2006.
Stadt Den Helder, Holland 1979.
Marmalade Skies, France 1999.
Burgundy Iceburg, Australia 1998.
H. C. Anderson, Denmark 1986.
Opening Night, USA 1998.
Chicago Peace, USA 1962.
Dream Come True, USA 2006.
Pride of England, England 1998.
Schwarze Madonna, Germany 1992.
Anisley Dickson, England 1983.
Fragrant Wave, USA 2005.
Sweet Juliet, England 1989.
Fisherman's Friend, England 1987.
Brilliant Pink Iceberg, Australia 1999.
Whew!! We escaped from the Rose Garden.
Not roses. I believe it starts with a bee.
I'd call it a daisy of some sort.
There are several fountains scattered around.
Looking back toward the restaurant and the Italian Garden. It's not yet time for our afternoon tea.
Borders.
Little orange guys.
Little white guys.
I'm sure there's a name for this. It's likely in Latin.
Mossy glades.
Entering the Japanese Garden.
Large bonsai.
Bamboo and whatever that little mossy tree thing is.
A pagoda cricket house nestled in the ferns.
Dew tell.
The bridge in the wood.
More full size bonsai.
Zen garden.
Over the brook.
They've done an excellent job of making these stones wobble-free. I'm sure the cement helps.
If you stay here long enough I bet you'll catch some frogs on the lily pads.
Darlene finds a secret hole in the hedge.
Not Wonderland, just a view of the bay where you can dock if you're visiting the Gardens by boat.
More giant bonsai.
It's easier for the wheelchairs to take this path rather than the stepping stones across the pond.
Looks tasty, huh?
I can identify this one. Bamboo.
A couple heron getting a drink.
Can't be tulips.
Out of the Japanese Garden.
The Star Fountain.
Through the hedge to the Italian Garden.
The Italian Garden. And the restaurant -- too bad it's not time for tea yet.
Some dahlia type things.
I don't recall ever seeing fusia not in hanging pots.
The Sunken Garden.
The far overlook in the Sunken Garden.
Pink.
Pink.
Orange you glad I didn't say "Pink"?
Oh, no, it came up pink again!!
Pink bluebells??
Mums?
Heading up to the far overlook.
A spider near the top of the stairs.
The view back from the far overlook. It's more picturesque from the other direction.
More yummy looking berries.
This would be the Bearded Collie of bushes.
The sunken lake in the sunken garden.
I'm not quite sure it's really big enough to call a "lake".
A little repelling to trim the ivy.
Hey look, more pink flowers!!
There's got to be a frog in there somewhere.
Ross Fountain.
It's amazing how these flowers just grow wild here.
The pink ones are more photogenic than the orange ones.
This was a weird plant with a bloom in the middle of a large leaf.
I don't recall them having a carousel the last time we were here.
Some topiary elephants and a bee.
This was a plowed field the last time we were here.
Darn, and we already have reservations for afternoon tea.
Totem.
Pole.
The grassy knoll.
This whirley gig was more impressive while it was spinning in the wind. Sorry I didn't make a video clip. You'll just have to imagine it.
At least they're not pink.
The dahlias didn't have any name plaques so I can't list out their names. You'll just have to look at the pictures of pretty flowers.
This guy was as big as your head, I swear.
Escaping from the dahlia and into more daisies. Blackeye Susans, I believe.
Ah, it's finally time for afternoon tea.
Can't you just taste the cucumber sandwiches?
Hey!! Save some for me.
Outside the restaurant.
Near the Italian Garden.
A sign worth reading.
More fushia.
I think this flower might have been the inspiration for the upholstery colors in a '56 Chevy I once saw.
Pretty blue flowers.
If you want to get a little putting practice, this would be the place to do it.
Read the right side, it's funnier.
The Peace Doves statue. According to the plaque, this was the site of Mr Butchart's pigeon house. Good to know.
A snail fountain.
A dress made entirely of paper napkins. It would be good for when you had a cold if it weren't sleeveless.
I think we parked somewhere in the row designated with the seahorse signs.
After our jaunt through Butchart Gardens, we headed up north to Naniamo.
Had some dinner at a Mexican restaurant named Gina's. “A tacky but friendly place.”
We get decked out to go ziplining.
Darlene goes first on the training line. It's only about 100 feet. She passes the test and is allowed to go onto the rest of the course.
We ride a surplus military ATV up to the top of the hill. This is Sean, one of our guides. He and Ryan, our other guide, will lead Darlene and me and two other fellows through the zipline course.
It's a narrow suspension bridge up to the first platform.
The first run is 350 feet long. You'd expect them to list this in metres, eh? Must have been someone from south of the border who set this course up.
We go from platform to platform. First one guide goes. He slows himself down at the end of the run by grabbing the cable with his thick leather gloves to brake. He then controls the brake block to slow each of us down as we approach the next platform. After the last of us is across the second guide comes across and then we continue to the next platform.
There's a second suspension bridge at one point where the next launch platform isn't on the same tree we landed on.
Here's a slightly better view of one of the brake blocks as the fellow from Florida approaches it.
Darlene takes a blurry picture of her thumb as she launches on the 1000' run. The runs get longer and longer culminating to one thousand feet. The last two runs are shorter but they're steeper so more exhilarating.
The Floridian fellow liked to ride upside down. It actually made it easier to aim yourself. I tended to ride in a sitting position. In that position your feet act like a big air rudder and you invariably come into the landing facing backwards. It's easier to land when you can see the landing spot.
This is one of the rare times I saw the brake block coming -- I must have tucked my feet in and spun around just before the picture was taken.
Back to terra firma.
Very stylish.
Looking for something to do, we check out the Undersea Gardens exhibit in the harbor. We didn't get a real good picture of the thing from the surface. It shows up at the left edge in a picture from Monday.
A lot of crabs move slow enough to get a picture without much light. The flash doesn't work well through the windows here.
Anemone.
There were a couple of eight foot long eels down here and numerous salmon, but they all moved much too fast for the camera.
These grouper guys just kinda lazed along and allowed me to take some pictures.
This little pool was lit up which made it easier to take pictures.
An octopus.
Hey look, it's Plasterman. Today he's decked out in purple. We saw him in 2005, too.
A mosaic orca.
There's that ketch we saw on Monday morning.
And it brought along a friend.
The harbor ferries beetling around.
If you catch them just right, you can get four of them in the same frame.
Darlene wanted me to take a picture of this crane for some reason.
Oh, that crane. That's the back side of the Undersea Garden exhibit.
A funky tree on the walk along the waterfront.
The seaplanes are constantly coming and going on this harbor. Stan, who took us on a harbor ferry tour back on Monday, said the lady who owned the condo with the green roofs in the background sold it for $1.3 million. When he asked why she was selling she told him it was due to the seaplanes. She said she was able to get used to the noise, the seaplanes only fly in and out during the daylight hours, but she couldn't get the smell of kerosine out of her bed linens. It's unlikely that she informed the new buyer of that reason.
Our last day, we visit the museum. Lots to see regarding British Columbia history, but didn't take any real exciting pictures. Figured we'd let you experience it for yourself when you're in town.
This is the view out the window of the upper floor of the museum. The bell tower overlooks the harbor.
It's after dinner now. I want to get a picture of the capital building with all its lights on before we go, but it's too early yet.
A closer look at the ketch.
The mizzenmast isn't missing.
Detail of the figurehead under the bowsprit.
These funky monuments litter the landscape.
Each of these monuments commerates some feature of the native people. The plaque on one of them challenged us to find them all. We did not rise to the challenge. It'll give us something to do the next time we're in town.
Dave's still here. His open guitar case there was a good place to get rid of the extra funny money coins we had collected during our stay.
Hey look, the lights are coming on.
The queen keeps an eye on us as we say g'bye to Victoria.