May 14-18 May 19 May 20-21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25-26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31-June 1 June 2-3 June 4 June 5 June 6-8	Tuesday, June 2 The ship pulled into Victoria bright and early (about 8 am). We had breakfast upstairs in La Veranda. Once again, the cruise director's staff had early tours meet in the lounge again to distribute bus tickets before we could disembark. This would cause confusion for a while. There were five buses for the Butchart Gardens tour (ours), so it took a while to distribute all the little slips of paper. Finally, we were able to leave the ship and board the tour bus. We actually boarded the bus about 9:30!!! And the drivers didn't know anything about the new numbering system, so confusion reigned again... But we did finally get off to Butchart Gardens about forty five minutes later than we should have. As a result, we were only allowed an hour and 45 minutes there. Bummer. I could have stayed a lot longer. I kept looking at my watch to make sure we wouldn't be late getting back to the bus and couldn't just enjoy the stroll. I overheard many others complaining about the short stay. There was no time for the gift shop. The photo on the left shows the interior of a conservatory not far from the entrance. It had a "photo window" available - a section of the glass wall had its glass removed so that photos of the interior could be taken without glass reflections! The photo on the right shows part of the Italian gardens. This pond is full of waterlilies and surrounded by geraniums. The wall in the back is covered with some sort of climbing vine. The three photos above were taken in the very photogenic Japanese Garden. The Japanese Gardens have so many potential photos that I could have spent a day in this section alone. In fact, I think the last time I was here (for a photo visit), I did spend all day in this garden! Of course, that was a three day visit and I had plenty of time to wander. . . And, of course, there are the flowers!!! I read recently that Butchart Gardens has a regular staff of 50+ gardeners. They do a fantastic job. The photo on the left above is a variety of snapdragon (Twinny, if memory serves). I've had a couple of these in the pastel colors (peach and soft yellow) in my yard in the last few years. The center photo is a lovely petunia. The photo on the right shows some of the many delphinium in the Rose Garden. They were at their prime! The photos to the left and center show two colors of geraniums that were quite unusual. The photo on the right is one of the few roses in bloom. We were a little early for roses yet. The photo on the left above is a very unusual iris. I may have to look for this one... The other two photos show some of the many peonies in bloom today. The photo on the left shows a lovely iris (lots of iris in bloom today) with a peony in the background. The photo on the right shows the Rose Carousel. The last time I was here (2009), it was still under construction. By the way, our route through the Gardens today was backwards from the "recommended" route. I did this on purpose to lessen the crowds.. The photo on the left shows me at the lower entrance to the Sunken Garden. This is one of the two times that Carl took over the camera. I had it set in Automatic mode... The photo on the right shows Carl standing in front of the Ross Fountain at the lower entrance to the Sunken Garden. The Sunken Garden is where these extensive gardens started. It's a former quarry pit that Mrs. Butchart decided to reclaim and relandscape. They brought in tons of topsoil and sculpted and planted these extensive gardens. These three photos show different views of the Sunken Gardens. The left and center photos were taken from a tall "island" in the center of this area. It's the first time I've ever climbed the island. The views are really nice! The photo on the right was taken from the upper overlook into the Sunken Gardens. This overlook is visible near the top center of the center photo. The photo to the left shows another view of the Sunken Gardens from the overlook area. The center of this photo is dominated by the "island" in the center of this garden. On the other side of it, there's a set of steps to the top. . These three photos show something fairly new to the Gardens this year. Topiaries! The topiary on the left is a bear. Two of her cubs join her. The center photo shows a topiary big cat of some sort. The photo on the right is a topiary squirrel. Despite feeling slightly rushed, everyone got back on the bus on time and it headed back to Victoria. One thing I noticed on this trip (it may have been the ages of the people involved or the fact that this is a higher end cruise), everyone showed up for the beginnings of tours on time and were back to the bus right on time. The one time I'm aware of the drivers having to go looking for someone, he was looking for us!!! This was when my camera was misbehaving and I was still in the forest by the waterfall trying to figure out what was wrong.... The driver dropped a bunch of us off downtown in front of the Empress Hotel. Some were on their way to tea at the Empress. Others wanted to wander Chinatown and didn't want to go all the way back to the ship, then all the way back to downtown for that. We had plans of our own... Since it was now almost 1 pm, we had lunch near the Inner Harbor. Yummy, but much too much. We should have shared one sandwich and the sweet potato fries. From there, we walked over to the Royal British Columbia Museum. We were last there about 30 years ago. It's still an extremely nice museum and well worth the time we spent there. We left there pooped! The Museum had a special exhibit running at this time on the Gold Rush that centered in this area a little over 100 years ago. It was an interesting exhibit, but I didn't take any photos there. The photo on the left shows an orca topiary on one of the street corners near The Empress Hotel. The photo on the right shows a wooly mammoth in the Royal BC Museum. One of the things I remembered about this museum from years ago is their "immersion" exhibits. They make you feel like you are really there. This mammoth was almost close enough to touch! These three photos show portions of a coastal immersion exhibit. In addition to the diorama format, the Museum was running a sound track of coastal sounds (surf, birds calling, etc), and, if your nose was working properly, it smelled like a coastline! The center and right photo show additional details of the photo on the left. These three photos show another of the immersion exhibits. This time it's a waterfront scene where you can walk onto the ship and see a couple of the interior cabins. The photo on the left shows the steps up to the ship entrance. The center photo shows the view of the ship portion from the top of those steps. The photo on the right shows the captain's quarters of this ship. These photos show two segments of the farmyard display. The photo on the left is a horse in a very "muddy" paddock. It may have looked like well trod mud with snow mixed in, but it was all an illusion. The photo on the right is part of the farm kitchen. Other sections of the Museum had a mining operation, a commercial fishing exhibit, and a turn of the last century town. One of the "buildings" in this town was the train station. If you entered it and stayed for a while, you'd hear a train approaching, then passing the station. Very realistic. They also had old silent movies playing in the "movie theater" (which smelled like fresh popcorn). Then we entered a portion of the Museum with large number of display cases showing how things had changed over the last century. Amazing how many of the items I recognized... The photo on the left is an old portable sewing machine. The photo on the right is a toy sewing machine, which was used to teach domestic skills to young girls. And about half of the top floor of the Museum was devoted to the indigenous peoples of the area. The photo on the left shows one of the many well preserved totem poles in this area. The photo on the right shows a nice Raven mask that was kept in the replica clan house. By this time, the Museum was getting ready to close. We had just enough time to swing through the gift shop (didn't buy anything) before they started closing it down. We walked around behind the museum to Thunderbird Park and the totem poles. Another visitor to the city tried to ask Carl for directions... The photo on the left shows one of the totem poles in Thunderbird Park in front of a sample clan house wall. The photo on the right shows another totem pole in this park. Then back to the Inner Harbor where we took the Harbor Ferry over to Fisherman's Wharf. We didn't stay there long as a storm is threatening. From there, we walked back to the ship, which wasn't far. By the time we reboarded, we were really hanging on to our hats! Now to grab some dinner (our last on board ship) and start packing. The bags must be in the hallway by 11 pm... We took a break from packing and had drinks before a delicious final dinner. We got the bags packed and out in the hallway by 10 before crashing for the night. There was no internet access at all today, unless you had a prepaid plan. We had used ours up already. The ship was scheduled to leave port at midnight. It probably did. Neither of us was awake for that... During the night, we will traverse the Strait of Juan de Fuca and be back in Vancouver early tomorrow morning. Wednesday, June 3 We got up a little before 6:30 and got the rest of our stuff stowed in the five small carry-ons we'll have. Breakfast was spent watching the ship dock at the cruise ship terminal in Vancouver with our carryons around our feet... There was a gaggle of noisy lawyers at the next table. We finally gave up trying to hear ourselves think over the lawyers and went up to the Pool Deck for a little peace and quiet before our debarkation code was called. Debarkation went smoothly – much more smoothly than either of us thought it would. They scanned our room keys one last time, then we walked into the terminal to find our four suitcases. It took two of the available trolleys to load all our junk onto. We pushed the carts down a long hallway, following the signs that said Taxi and got in line for the next available cab. We needed a cab to take us to the airport long term parking lot. He took us directly to the car! I was very glad we hadn't parked at the cruise line parking downtown. The cabby kept having to change lanes and routes to snake around all the construction! I was a bit afraid the cab would only take us to the airport, where we'd have to take the shuttle back to the lot and our car, juggling all our stuff along the way. Fortunately, the cabby had no problems taking us into the lot and straight to the car. We were soon on our way east. Thank goodness I packed Gabby (our GPS). I would never have been able to plot that route out of town! We had lunch at Owl Street Cafe in Hope, BC. Good food. Nice ambiance. Decent prices. Nice stop. However, getting back on the right road after that was a pain. The road numbers didn't agree with the ones in Rand-McNally and, even though the road numbers changed at Hope, Gabby didn't say anything about a turn! I had planned on a leisurely drive east from Vancouver, stopping often to admire the scenery. Mother Nature had other ideas. The rain started soon after lunch. At times, the clouds were so low that visibility was down to 50 feet! Once we reached Salmon Arm, we were both more than ready to stop for the night. It was nice to have a working, fast, free internet connection again... Dinner was at a local pub within walking distance of the motel. We walked over and back in a slight drizzle. After dinner, we crashed early. Next...