Last Wednesday, the housemates and I made our way to Victoria, BC for part one of our vacation. It involved flying to Seattle over an hour late, rushing to grab Lydia’s car from our dear friend, Doug, driving to the ferry, taking the two hour boat ride into Sidney, BC, and driving another 30 minutes to our airbnb. I handled the stress relatively well and am proud of myself.
We ate at a Thai restaurant for dinner that night and I had perhaps the most delicious yellow curry I’ve ever had. I got their vegetarian version that had broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, onions, and tofu. It was so delicious I ate it all, minus some leftover tofu.
Thursday morning we made a quick stop at Tim Horton’s so Elisabeth and I could split a donut (maple glazed, it was very subtle) and then we went straight to the Buchart Gardens. We made it there right after it opened so there weren’t too many people and the weather was good for us. There were lots of gorgeous flowers and an entire patio of hanging baskets. I found one kind of bush that had these delicate looking flowers that hung down like bells. But what I really liked about the gardens was that their trash cans had flower arrangements on top of them. What a lovely and creative idea. On our way out we discovered a giant succulent, similar to the one I liked in New Zealand, so we all had to take our pictures next to it.
After the gardens we headed into downtown Victoria to have a proper British tea. Our tea came with little sandwiches, baked goods, and desserts. The sandwiches were a bit too flavorful for me, somewhat surprisingly, but I liked most everything else. We walked around town and along the water for a while after that. I got to see a water plane taking off and it was awesome. We ate dinner at a delicious fish and chips place right along the water.
Friday morning we got breakfast out and then wandered a gorgeous park for a couple of hours. Saw some herons, a peacock, and the tallest freestanding totem pole in the world. We met up with Gene’s uncle for lunch which was so much fun. I had never met him before so I loved getting to learn about this man that hung out with baby Gene by the pool. We went kayaking after that where, get this, a seal popped up out of the water right between Elisabeth’s and Gene’s kayaks! We couldn’t believe it, definitely a highlight of the trip. Then we went to the Royal BC Museum and then back to Buchart Gardens to see the place at night. The museum was decent, their exhibits were extremely well put together. There is an entire town within the museum that blew me away. The gardens were pretty cool at night too and I’m glad we got to see them.
The next morning we headed to the ferry to go back to Washington for Katie’s wedding.
Just Lauren 