Seattle/Vancouver Part 4

Although it had been cloudy, foggy, and misty most of the day we were in Victoria, just as we were about to head to Butchart Gardens, the sun started peeking out.  I thought it was great timing since we wanted to be able to see the gardens clearly.  But, to our disappointment, the gardens were still very much behind the clouds and under fog.  But we enjoyed it anyway (although we could tell it would be way more beautiful in the summer with all the blooming flowers).  The gardens were established by Robert and Jennie Butchart after the mining of limestone left the area bare and desolate.  Robert Butchart was in the cement business and his wife envisioned turning the quarry into a beautiful garden.  I’d say she succeeded!  The Sunken Garden: The only flowers we saw; if you look closely you can see a bee busy at work! The only stack left standing as a reminder of the cement plant that used to inhabit the land:This is how incredibly foggy it was.Matt standing in the middle of the Sunken Garden:Cool looking tree (hey, I had to take pictures of something!):The Butcharts’ home:It was about 4:30pm by the time we were through in the Gardens and on our way back to the ferry.  We figured we could make it in time for the 5 o’clock ferry and be back in Vancouver to relax, go out to eat, maybe do some shopping…boy were we soooo wrong!  As we got close to the port, the traffic came to a standstill.  We watched as 5 o’clock came and went, and I was just hoping we could make it on the next ferry.  We ended up having to wait for the 7 o’clock ferry…and after a 90 minute ride back (super crowded, I might add), plus a major traffic jam, it was after 10:00 by the time we got back to the hotel to eat our Subway dinner.  Have I mentioned that Canadians must love Subway?  There’s one around every corner!  Anyway, it was a bad ending to our day…one that I’m afraid has ruined Matt’s memory of the entire day.  Maybe looking through these pictures he can remember the fun parts and the 5+ hours of misery will fade in his memory…hmmm, on the other hand, maybe not.  It was pretty awful!!