Butchart Gardens and Victoria, Canada were the perfect way to spend a beautiful Wednesday! We took the 1&1/2 hour ferry ride from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria first thing yesterday morning and arrived in Canada around 10am. We then chose to ride the public transportation system to get us to the Gardens. With the money we saved using public buses, we were able buy a delicious dinner of fish and chips while we looked out over the ocean. We gotta save money where we can...feeding and entertaining our family is quite the financial investment! The Butchart Gardens were a marvelous splendor to behold!! Everywhere you looked was beauty! It's hard to chose, of course, but I think my favorite was the "Sunken Garden" which was originally started over a hundred years ago by Mrs. Butchart to disguise the ugly limestone quarry where she and her husband lived. The Sunken Garden looked like what I picture the Garden of Eden being like...lush grass, ivy covered boulders and structures, waterfalls and fountains, trees of every kind and amazing flowers everywhere. I could have spent hours in there!! But there was still so much to see...the Italian Gardens, the Rose Garden and an elaborate Japanese Garden...all beautiful and unique in their own way. I do so wish that I could grow gardens like that at my house!! To live and be surrounded by that much beauty would be purely enchanting! First of all, the climate and short growing season of where we live certainly makes flower growing a challenge but the bigger issue is me...I kill everything I try to grow!! So maybe John should take up gardening in his retirement years?!? The rest of our day was spent in downtown Victoria, sightseeing, shopping and eating and taking the ferry back to our campsite. It was a lovely day! Today we are traveling just a few hours to get closer to Seattle and only stay one night here so that our next travel day won't be as long. So, if any of you have thout about seeing Butchart Gardens...you MUST do it!! It is well worth it and will be one of the most glorious things you've ever seen. Today and tomorrow we should have better cell phone and Internet access, so if you need to get a hold of us, we can be available. Blessings to all, Lioness and the pride.