Happy Canada Day🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

July 1,2024 Victoria, British Columbia Aboard Crystal Serenity

After breakfast in our room, we walked off the ship and grabbed a taxi to Butchart Gardens. We could have taken the Crystal shuttle to town, and caught another bus to the Gardens, but the taxi was so much easier and quicker. The 35 minute drive passed quickly and before we knew it we were transported to a stunning place. As always, I snapped way too many photos …here are a few of my favorites.

First stop: the sunken garden

We came upon this adorable little guy as we looked down into the sunken garden.

I was aiming my phone down, Timmy aimed his up.

Begonias, I think.

The Rose Garden was as fragrant as you might imagine.

And the weather was as perfick as you could wish for.

Japanese Garden…peaceful, tranquil, lovely.

As I waited for this guy on the other side of the pond to move, I realized he was waiting for me to move for his people free snap …I flinched first. Whatever…

Japanese garden.

First photo attempt of a ship in the Cove.

Second try, slightly improved.

Butchart Cove

Japanese garden.

Lombardy Poplar

Monkey Tail Tree

Dragon fountain

African daisies

So here is the third iteration of this bronze boar that we’ve encountered…the original in Florence, a replica in Provence and now here in Victoria. Turns out there are about two hundred reproductions around the world…including 20 in the USA. Who knew? Thanks to Wikipedia we know now.

Even the parking lot is beautiful …we grabbed a taxi and were writing postcards back in Tastes after a wonderful few hours. We had originally thought about revisiting the Inner Harbour…but when we saw the crowds and traffic, we changed our minds, and declared ourselves lucky that we visited the day before without all the Independence Day merry makers.

Piotr and Timmy

We shared the pizza

After lunch I headed out in search of Fisherman’s Wharf…Turns out, it’s a pleasant 15 minute walk from the port, through a pretty residential neighborhood.

There are many adorable shops and cute little fish and chips bars.

I’m sharing this photo because I saw a large fish jump out of the water and I stood patiently waiting for it to surface…once again I flinched after about 5 minutes.