7/30/2017 - Butchart Gardens

Sunday - We picked a perfect day, weather-wise, for our tour of Butchart Gardens.  And it more than lived up to expectations.  I first heard of Butchart Gardens back in the 80s when we still lived in Terre Haute.  My boss at IMC, Scott Chandler, took his mother to Butchart Gardens and I made all the arrangements, i.e., flight reservations, etc.  He must have had a brochure because it was immediately someplace I wanted to see.  It took a long time, but I finally made it.  I just wish I could have brought my mother with me -- she would have loved it all, but especially the rose garden.

Along with our tickets we were given a map, and a "flower and plant guide" brochure, so we spent a lot of time trying to identify the flowers.  The only plants identified on the grounds were in the rose garden.  We of course took a zillion pictures and for some reason they don't seem sharp to me, maybe it's just my eyes, but I will try to just post a portion (notice I didn't say "a few.").  The gardens cover 55 acres and and began as an idea Jennie Butchart had to beautify the worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband's cement plant.

 The first area we chose was the Sunken Garden, which was the site of the original quarry.  It was breath-takingly beautiful.

There were a few moss sculptures  in the shapes of animals scattered around.  Here are bears and deer. There was also a cougar and an owl that I didn't take photos of.

The Rose Garden was the next "area" although there were flowers everywhere, along every pathway.
I believe my mother's favorite rose was the Peace rose, and we finally found it.

We also found a Tiffany rose.

We went back to the Sunken Garden to the other end, and the Ross Fountain there.  This Sunken Garden was just magnificent.

The pond in here was full of lily pads, and some of those flowers were blooming.  These blooms are exquisite.

There must have been a bus of Japanese tourists arrive just as we got here because we kept tripping over them.  And then we saw a first, a guy was carrying his CAT through here in a pet carrier.  We see people with their dogs all the time, but don't see too many cats being brought along.

Colors, colors, colors.  There are some beautiful combinations of plants and colors that you wouldn't even think about putting together.  I guess this could be called "a riot of color."  And, unfortunately, the pictures don't do them justice.

In addition to the shrubbery sculptures, there were metal sculptures too.

There was a carousel, with nice "critters" to ride.  We didn't ride it, though I think Joe would have chosen the giraffe.  Too much ground yet to cover.

Then there was the totem poles, which Mazie would have loved.  And next to that was a commemoration to Canada's 150th centennial.

But next up was an entire area of different kinds of dahlias.  The Plant Identification lady happened to be picking off dead blooms here, so we got to talk to her a little.  There were lots of varieties of dahlias, all of them beautiful.  I especially liked the ball-shaped ones, I forgot their name.

Then there was the Monkey Puzzle Tree, followed by the Dragon Fountain and the Sturgeon Fountain.

Here is another beautiful specimen, we think we identified this as a Toad Lily.

Concert lawn.

Next was the Japanese Garden, which lead to the Butchart Cove.

Boat rides were available but we didn't think we needed that.

 Star Pond.

Lunch in the Blue Poppy Restaurant, with an open window and what a view!

 The area around these buildings was just awesome.

And there was a Show Greenhouse right here that was full of colors.  It had a photo window to open, Joe took a panoramic photo here.

We were nearing the end, so we stopped in the gift shops.  The art gallery shop had some beautiful items, as well as cute things like these.

And a chess board outside, along with a water wheel that we missed when we came in.

You can do all the "planes, trains and automobiles" you want, but this was AWESOME!!!!  This is a highlight of this trip for me.

We spent about 4 1/2 hours here, logged 8,000+ steps, then we left and "went for a drive," up the West Coast out of Victoria.  It was only about 60 miles but it took about 2 1/2 hours to get there (with a few stops).  We traveled mostly 30-40 mph, road was very curvy, some of it was narrow.  We stopped once for ice cream, then at a couple of pull-outs, but a lot of the road was not near the water, and when it was,  there were usually trees blocking our view.

Our destination was Port Renfrew.  If you look on a map of Vancouver Island going west out of Victoria, and see where the main road ends, that's where Port Renfrew is.  Just before we got there, we came upon a Botanical Beach.  Not knowing what that meant, we hiked down to it, about a mile round-trip, uphill all the way back.  It was a little cove, with huge rocks, tide pools, and lots of foliage on the trail to it.  We didn't see any life in any of the tidepools, but I did find some neat rocks.  There were strips of white in the rocks, maybe marble?, so my walk back uphill also included about 5 lbs of rocks in my pockets.

 Cairns.

BLack sand.

Some of these rocks had weeds growing out of them, and here is the "marble" strips.

And there were photo ops, of course, and someone had built a little hut, so Joe made me get in it and sit down, then he rushed over to join me.

Here's one of my rocks I'm bringing home.

 Our final destination.  Port Renfrew was sort of a "non-event."  We drove through the little town, not much happening there.  Then headed back to the campground, knowing it was going to be about 2 1/2 hours.

We stopped at one pull-out, the same one we had stopped at before I think, and watched two people, who looked like they were freezing, pick their way back to shore.  Most of the other people we've seen in the water have wetsuits on, but not these two.   Must have been a lot of rocks in the water, they were walking pretty carefully.

I did spot one deer on the way back, and our hike to the beach brought our total steps for the day up to 12,466.  We were pretty tired when we got home, at 7:40.  We had a light dinner, then called it a night.  I actually laid down just to be in a different position, and was in bed by 9:00.  Of course, that meant I woke up at 5:00 this morning, just can't win on the sleep issue.

We have had great weather here, 50s in the mornings, 70s during the day, and sunshine.  We have to figure out our final days here, then it will be back to Washington.