Day 14 - Travel to Victoria, BC and Butchart Gardens

Day 13 - Sightseeing around Vancouver, BC

Starting mileage: 4323 Starting time: 7;30 am

Ending mileage: 4461 Ending time: 12:00 pm
Travel mileage: 138 Travel time: 4:30 hours

We were fortunate to have another beautiful morning,

The ferry to Nanaimo, BC was only about 15 minutes from our hotel and we had to be there about 45 minutes before our 8:30 departure. The ferry is absolutely huge, loading on hundreds of cars, trucks and foot passengers. We sat on a sheltered part of the sun deck for about half the trip before it got too chilly. The trip over takes about 90 minutes. The loading and unloading process is very efficient only taking 15 minutes to load and unload all the vehicles from multiple decks.

Our first stop was the Butchart Gardens about 20 minutes north of downtown Victoria. They were started in 1904 by Jennie Butchart, the wife of the very successful owner of a cement quarry. She started by developing gardens inside the quarry which are absolutely beautiful. Over time she developed Japanese, Italian and other formal gardens, all of which were made available to the public. Although we didn't get to experience it, at night parts of the gardens are illuminated. The gardens are very popular, with tourists from all over the world.

We are staying at the Econolodge a few miles from downtown. The room is very nice for the price.

We had an exceptional dinner at the Spinnaker Brew Pub on the waterfront. We had mussels meuniere as an appetizer that were better than the ones we had in Paris. Carmen had a salad with smoked ahi tuni which was buttery soft and coated with black sesame seeds. I had crusted Sablefish with clams in a delicious broth. This was about the best meal we've had on our trip.

Day 14 route

Leaving on the ferry

Butchart Gardens

The photo doesn't do justice to the beauty