July 15 - Going to Victoria

We got up at an ungodly hour this morning so we could be in line for the ferry from Port Angles to Victoria by 6:30 a.m. Once we had our ticket and the van was in the loading line, we were able to walk up the street to the Cornerhouse Cafe and eat breakfast.

We got to Victoria and through customs by around 10:30 a.m. One of our objectives for the day was to have "high tea" at Empress Hotel, so we proceeded to a parking lot and walked to the hotel to make reservations. When we mentioned that Lynda did not like fish and that I was diabetic, the young woman who took our reservation told us we could request special menus. She made notes (on the computer) of our request.

The second main objective for the day was to visit Butchart Gardens north of Victoria, so after walking around a bit, we drove about 10 miles to the gardens. We had a picnic lunch and then spent about 3 hours viewing the fantastic gardens.


One of the specimen trees had been planted in 1934 as a seedling. Since that was the year I was born, I asked Ray to take a picture of me in front of the large Sequoia.



It's hard to pick a favorite part of the gardens.



We got back early to the Empress Hotel for our 5:00 p.m. reservations