VICTORIA CANADA (VIA FERRY FROM PORT ANGELES)

 We left the  ol' RV behind in Port Angeles and cruised across to Victoria, BC Canada with our ol' CRV aboard the Black Ball Ferry for a 5 day stay at a VRBO located less than 30 minutes to the city of Victoria.

 

Quite a LOT more to see on this large Vancouver ISLAND (Oddly, NOT the place where the CITY of Vancouver BC is located...) much more than I had allotted time for at least. May have to come back some day to see the far western side of the island....  While in Victoria, did the standard views of their BC Assembly Building and the Empress Hotel... Inner Harbor, Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown (Fan Tan Alley.)

 

Took one day to do a ton of walking and see both the MALAHAT SKYWALK and the Butchart Gardens. At the skywalk, there is an area at the very top where one can walk out on a clear glass floor enclosed area- to look down hundreds of feet directly below where you stand.  Darwin REFUSED to walk out there with me for a good 5 minutes... then he did (in his doggy mind) risk his canine mortality and joined me for a little while. Cool place for kids as it has a slide at the top which you can take to the bottom.  Many kids were on it over and over again displaying energy we wish we had as they repeatedly would RUN all the way back up to the top for another slide down.

 

And just when we thought we'd had more than enough 'Flower Experiences' on this trip, we just couldn't pass up a visit to Butchart Gardens.  So glad we did not miss this place as it was FANTASTIC! 

 

One day, we took a boat out of the Sydney, North Saanich area to do some (fingers crossed) WHALE WATCHING.... But only got to see some seals and eagles.  One eagle appeared to be in distress, floating on top of the water, flapping its wings unable to take flight.  When we ventured closer for a look, it did finally take flight and flew away.  We suspect that it  might have had a huge fish in its claws and perhaps was overly optimistic about the chances of taking flight WITH that added weight in its grips. Weather has cooperated nicely with our plans