We wake up on Sunday to find that it is cloudy and suppose to rain tonight. We head onto Langley where we will leave the van and trailer at Mike and Lil’s lot while we are on the tour with Tin Lizzie. Our border crossing was very smooth and done in a matter of minutes. We unload and meet the Laughlin’s at the yard. We meet most of the rest of the group at the ferry terminal. The 1200 o’clock ferry was canceled due to mechanical problems, so we all end up on the 1:00 ferry. A pretty crossing to Victoria and our tour is under way. We check in at the “Empress Hotel” right on the bay in Victoria.
Sunday night we all get together at the Milestones Grill & Bar for the Meet and Greet Dinner. It was very good and by the time we left to walk back to the Empress it was raining lightly, the first rain they have had in 2 months.
Monday morning we are up at 6:00 (I thought this was vacation). We have breakfast at the Chateau Victoria Hotel on the 18th floor with a great view of Victoria. We then are on our own to do what we want as far as sight seeing. We decide to take the City Bus Tour first. We get off to see Craigdarroch Castle. Preston would love the library and the dining room was bigger than Carrie’s little house will be!
Next we go see the Butterfly Gardens. Too hot and humid in there and my camera quit working.
On to Butchart Gardens, always amazing to see what was made out of a quarry!
We walk to the cove of the Butchart Gardens and luck into getting a private boat tour of the bay for 45 minutes with a great guide.
He even stirs up the jelly fish to get them to the surface and scoops up one and puts it in my hand! No worries they are not the stinging type. We then head back to Victoria. This maybe the only Orca we see! The night lights on the Capitol Building, after we had dinner at a Scottish Pub called Bard and Banker. To bed at 1100 so we can get up and head up Vancouver Island tomorrow. Who knows what adventures lie ahead.