June 3, 2010

We are now in Canada, on Victoria Island. We did not realize that this island is so long. A little over 300 miles from Victoria to Port Hardy. We are at the All Fun RV park in Langford. A few miles north of Victoria. We will drive back to Victoria tomorrow and do the tourist thing. What I could see of it, while driving strange streets pulling our home, was very pretty. It is the Provincial Capitol of BC and the government buildings are spectacular. Went to one of the local shopping centers and looked into prepaid cellphones. The phones were reasonable but a $35 activation fee and outside of the Victoria area the cost per minute is $.70. I may as well use Verizon as pay that. This campground is supposed to have Wireless Internet but I need the password and no one is in the office to get one from. I will check later tonight or in the morning.

June 4, 2010

We woke up this morning to rain drops falling on our roof. But by the time we had breakfast and got around to leaving for Victoria it had stopped. We went down to Government Street and walked through the parliament building. No metal detectors, no pat-down searches, no one wanting to look in backpacks. How nice. A much friendlier feel than going to our capital building.

The interior was quite beautiful. Stained glass windows, pictures of the queen and murals painted on the 100 foot tall rotunda. We were able to go to each level, take pictures and walk around. Parliament was not in session but the doors to the chamber were open and we could look through and take pictures.

We also walked around the boat basin taking pictures and reading the signboards.

After that we went up the Sanich Peninsula to Butchard Gardens. These gardens dated from 1903 and has a staff of 50 full-time gardeners. The garden that I enjoyed the most was the Sunken Garden. It was the site of a limestone quarry that had been abandoned. These were not wildflowers but Joyce had a field day taking pictures. I took several myself.

After that we went to the Butterfly Gardens. A man-made tropical rainforest. Lots and lots of butterflies. I have not looked at my pictures yet but hope to have some good ones.

Tomorrow we move on. Will relocate about 150 miles north for a couple days and then on to Port Hardy where we will catch the ferry to Prince Rupert.