Pacific Northwest Trip: Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC
The Butchart Gardens
is a large set of gardens in a former limestone quarry, in Brentwood Bay,
British Columbia, near Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Mowgli and I
spent several hours at the Gardens, with a new friend we met on the boat,
and then took the 2nd last boat back to Vancouver and got in around 9pm
(when many restaurants were closing, ooops). It was quite a pretty place.
I took quite a few pictures.
Saturday, August 13, 2016.
Other pages from the Pacific Northwest trip:
Displaying all 101 pictures
The Ferry to Vancouver Island
Mowgli and I drove
from Vancouver to the Tsawwassen Terminal and took the ferry to Swartz
Bay on Vancouver Island. The ferries run every hour. We actually,
ahem, missed the ferry we planned to take, literally by about 1-2 minutes.
We parked, Mowgli went off to pay for the parking and I went to buy tickets.
The woman there wouldn't sell me 2 tickets unless both of us were there,
and by the time he arrived, they had stopped selling tickets. It wasn't
that she was mean, it was that the boat was just about to leave. But
it all worked out OK, we didn't wait all that long, and wound up
befriending a traveler on the boat whom we joined while exploring
the Gardens. Plus we got a free ride to the Gardens.
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Mowgli sits by the stern of the ship, near where its flag is.
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And the starboard (right) side. The black chain-y thing
is, I believe, its...(more)
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A few from the bow looking up at the wheelhouse. In
the bigger version, you ...(more)
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Looking out at the Salish Sea. Before reaching and going
through the islands...(more)
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Lots of water, the Pacific Ocean is not too far away.
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Looking back at the ferry's smokestack from the top deck.
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Looking back at the port side of the ferry as we wind
our way through the...(more)
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We wind our way cautiously between Mayne and Galiano
islands (left and right,...(more)
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You never know what might be lurking around the next bend...
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"There she is! There she is! Ah... not so wounded
as we were led to believe....(more)
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"FIRE!" (We didn't shoot photon torpedoes at the other ferry.)
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Reasonable size boats look pretty small compared to us.
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Mt. Baker in the distance. It looks superimposed on the
horizon.
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In the belly of the beast. Car-go deck. Car-go...cargo.
Get it?
Butchart Gardens
Ingrid, someone we met on the ferry who was
touring the US and Canada, gave us a ride to Butchart gardens as that
was where she was going. Saved us a bus trip and she didn't
try to harvest any of our organs. The three of us explored the various
parts of Butchart Gardens together. It's a very pretty, well organized
place.
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Mowgli checking out a hanging basket of flowers at Butchart
Gardens.
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The yellow of the tree leaves against the blue background looked
cool.
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Panoramic shot of some of the colors on the high
trees surrounding the Butchart...(more)
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The Sunken Gardens, the area that used to be a limestone quarry.
Seen from the...(more)
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Arbor Vitae are on each side of the path of the Sunken Gardens.
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Sunken Gardens with the Arbor Vitae on opposite sides of the
path.
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Looking up at a tall tree, with a green glow of light filtering
through the...(more)
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Some sort of carved animal, a squirel or beaver or something.
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The little mini-cabin thing where I took the previous pictures,
and people on...(more)
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A plaque with information about the Butchart Gardens.
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The water in the fountain shoots up 21 meters or 70 ft high.
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I'm not proud nor easily embarrased. I waited my turn to
ride the bronze horse...(more)
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A totem pole in the garden. I wanted to get its shadow in
the picture but not...(more)
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The fields beyond are where they launch fireworks on the
weekends. We didn't...(more)
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A "monkey puzzle" tree. The leaves are very sharp
and it would puzzle a...(more)
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The Dragon Fountain. It did not, however, shoot out fire.
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Highly manicured lawn. The holes are not for golf, but
where sprinklers are...(more)
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The Sturgeon Fountain, with Mowgli and Ingrid in the background.
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Ingrid stands at the entrance to the Japanese Garden.
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Ingrid and Mowlgi at the entrance to the Japanese Garden.
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Freaky tree roots that look like they should be animated,
crawling.
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Hey, what's that visible in the hole in the bushes?
Water and boats on the...(more)
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A sort of water-wheel stick, that fills with water,
then tilts down, draining...(more)
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The sun made the tree's leaves have a sort of green fire quality
to them.
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Frank and Ingrid. I had to play some exposure games so that
both of our faces...(more)
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The Italian Garden with Ingrid thinking about diving into
the pond.
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A 2-picture panoramic shot of the Italian Garden
pond.
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Frank poses in a shrub door, pondering his options.
It kind of felt like...(more)
Boat tour of Bay and Butchart
After the Italian Garden, Mowgli and I and
Ingrid parted ways (after some much-needed ice cream), and then Mowgli
and I took a boat tour of Butchart Bay and Tod Inlet, the area around
the Gardens, which is a public park. The boat was all electric, so
when we weren't going, it was completely silent. Neato!
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First thing we saw was this sort of mini-house.
("Arr, why buy a house, when...(more)
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The tree at the top of the treeline that splits in a Y-shape
has an eagle's...(more)
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The smokestack was from when there used to be a cement
plant here. Butchart's...(more)
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A shuttlecraft from Star Trek is actually a birdhouse.
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On the rocks, just to the right of the clearing is a small
black spot that is...(more)
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Signs warning boats to keep their distance because
fireworks launch from nearby.
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Recent housing development on the hillside just beyond the bay.
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The tour guide pointed out that there were seals visible from
the other side...(more)
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The heads of two harbor seals are poking up in the middle of the
water.
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Two harbor seals (mother and pup) poking their heads out of
the water in the...(more)
The Ferry back to the Mainland
After the boat tour, we stopped in the gift shop,
then took a bus to the boat terminal and headed back to Tsawwassen Terminal
and then drove back to Vancouver (the city). The sun was setting as we
got to the terminal. Quite nice.
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Taken from the stern of the ferry as we leave Swartz Bay.
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A house on the island catching the light of the setting sun.
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Kind of hard to tell, but there are snowcapped mountains in the
distance, like...(more)
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I quite like this shot of the people on the top deck of the
ferry watching a...(more)
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A panoramic shot of the sunset as we arrived
back on the mainland.
This page last modified Dec 30, 2016.
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