Vancouver Island and Victoria

Monday- July 6, '15
I'm not sure the sun ever went down.  It was bright when we went bed about 11 (1am Texas time) or so and was up when my eyes popped open at 4 Vancouver time.  It'll take some getting used to, but we'll have more opportunity to see things as we ride on the train tomorrow night.

There are lots of serious forest fires in Canada right now with 150 individual fires in British Columbia alone-- this makes the air thick where we are-- although we aren't threatened by the fires.  We didn't see the sun all day and spent the majority of the day with a haze on the horizon.

We learned lots about why there is such a large Chinatown here and why this is one of the most expensive cities in North America.

Seeing lots of blue and white Smart Cars on the streets, we asked our tour guide about them.  There is a company that has a "share a car" business using the Smarts.  If a person wants to rent one for an hour or so to get to work or run errands, they may (if they are a member) check an "app" on their phone to find out where the nearest one is parked on the street.
 They are charged by the minute and when they are finished with the car, they "clock out" and are no longer charged.  Sounds intriguing for city use.

We saw lots of land being used for various crops-- blueberries, melons, grapes, and heard about the cranberry bogs.  We passed a vineyard with the name "Church and State Vineyard"-- there's gotta be a story behind that.

We had an hour ferry trip to Vancouver Island.  Even tho' the sun was covered with smoke, the smell wasn't obvious.  With the boat moving and the wind blowing, it was rather chilly out on the observation deck.  The ferry had a large cafe and a snack bar for coffee, ice cream, etc.

The highlight of the day for me was the 2+ hours spent in the Butchart Gardens which cover 55 acres of a 130 acre estate.  The Garden was created from an idea Jennie Butchart had when she decided to beautify a worked out limestone quarry on their property which had supplied her husband's nearby Portland cement plant.  In 2004 the garden, in bloom for 100 years, was designated a "National Historic Site of Canada"
I will post pictures here, but the most amazing aspect to us was the juxtaposition of rare and common flowers and the amazing blend of color.  There is a Sunken Garden (the original quarry- which blooms because of tons of dirt brought in to create this garden), a Rose garden and a Japanese garden.  Many of our pictures do not do justice to what our eyes experienced.  And the aroma, of course, isn't captured by pictures.  It was sweet and heady, but not at all overpowering. What more can I say, it was breathtaking!

We left the garden and traveled to Victoria for a ride  around on the bus and time to explore the town and have lunch.  Nick had an avocado and shrimp sandwich and a cup of clam chowder (my comment- ugh), which he pronounced GOOD!  My tuna sandwich was very good, filling and just what I needed since it was now 2:30pm and we'd had breakfast between 6:30 and 7 am.  Ambled around, found ice cream (not as good as Blue Bell), and went to wait for the bus.

We repeated the process with the ferry ride and the drive back to Vancouver and were back in our rooms by 8:45 pm.  A really long tiring day, but we're getting our travelers' legs back-- it's been over 2 years since we've been on a tour like this.
Tomorrow is a bus tour of Vancouver, some free time and after supper we begin our train ride (just 19 hours).
We are packing an overnight bag to take on the train, while the large bags will be stored away- unreachable.   This laptop will be in the large bag, so I won't be posting til we get to our hotel in Jasper.  Should be a unique experience.