OCTOBER 2, 2011. A lovely autumn day, perfect for travelling! Leg one: Victoria to Vancouver on BC Ferries, Vancouver to Seattle on Amtrak. Thanks to K & R for driving us to the ferry and their love and friendship. Thanks to S & J for taking us out for lunch, seeing us off at the train station and their love and friendship.
Main Street Station, Vancouver BC.
The Moore Hotel, 2nd Avenue, Seattle Washington. This bunny towel sculpture greeted us in our room.
There is a place, 20 minutes or so from downtown Victoria, called Butchart Gardens. I can be inclined to cynicism when it comes to touristy attractions, but every time I visit this beautiful place I am awestruck. We headed out with K and R last wednesday, a fantastically warm late September day. The gardens were spectacular. Every time I go, which is seldom (once every four to five years), I have amazing memories of being there as a small child when my grandmother would visit us from The Bahamas. I’ll let the pictures say the rest.
http://www.butchartgardens.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
I think I love the Japanese Garden best.
Lovely stream in the Japanese Garden.
Even the lowly Chrysanthemum is spectacular when grouped in large numbers.
More Mums.
The wall of dahlias.
One of the typical tourism shots, I really love the layers of colour and texture.
Heading off to Moss Street Market, we stopped at Tre Fantastico at the Parkside. GJ had a strong double Americano which he said was amazing. My hot chocolate was as it always is, delicious! We sat outside looking over at St Ann’s Academy. The fog rolled in waves across the city broken by beams of sun that warmed us in autumn glow.
http://caffefantastico.com/humboldt.php
A foggy Saturday morning repast at Caffè Fantastico's Tre Fantastico at the Parkside on Humboldt Street, Victoria BC. Historic St Ann's Academy is across the street.
I loved the detail of the fancy butter in tiny delicate coloured dishes.
Find the Taxicab. (I know, too many cat posts! One week from today we leave for a big adventure, so there will be lots of other kinds of posts.)
Always peeking from behind something.
TC relax'n
She wanted to be right near the camera, even tho I told her she'd be fuzzy!
One more time I’d like to mention how much we enjoyed staying at the Gold Coast Retreat. Thank you Sulo and Louise. We will definitely be back!
http://www.goldcoasttofino.com/haidaway.htm
Our Tofino home away from home, the Haidaway Cottage at Gold Coast Retreat.
Cat in a cupboard!
The sun comes out! After a rainy night, we had a glorious day on thursday. We walked towards Tofino first along Chesterman Beach, then on the walking/bike path beside the highway. Stopped for lunch at Tacofino and then onto the Tofino Botanical Gardens, which is beautiful and worth the visit. They offer a $1 discount to entry if you arrive on foot. There’s a nice little cafe there, altho we were denied afternoon coffee by a power outage! The 12-acre property has many types of gardens to explore, most with a coastal temperate rainforest theme. There is a wonderful boardwalk trail through the woods which leads to a small secluded beach with a wonderful view.
http://clayoquotbiosphere.org/web/
The duck pond at the Tofino Botanical Garden with a hut made by local artist Jan Janzen.
Looking out to a couple small islands, with, I believe, Meares Island in the background.
K and R in the garden.
One of our adventure days was spent exploring a small portion of Pacific Rim National Park. We began by walking the short 0.8 km boardwalk path at the the Bog Trail. The saturated soil has created an other-worldly landscape of stunted trees, mosses and interesting plants. We moved onto the Kwisitis Visitor Centre which provides an overview of the cultural and natural history of the region. Lunch was eaten at the Wickaninnish Restaurant located at the centre. If you can, wait for a window table. The ocean view is amazing; the fog rolled in and created the most incredible light while we were there. We also spent a bit of time on Wickaninnish Beach and South Beach, a smaller pebble beach accessed by a trail behind the centre.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/bc/pacificrim/natcul/natcul9.aspx
Wickaninnish Beach. The day we were there was a backhoe on the beach clearing invasive grasses.
The conditions at the Bog seem to create trees that grow in a twisted fashion. Many of these bark-less trees dot the landscape.
Another twisted tree.
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