Victoria, B.C.

June 5-7

Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia, is an interesting mixture of England and the Northwest. This is the Parliament building, with its British architecture and a totem pole in the front lawn.
 

The inner harbor of Victoria. It was Sunday, and people were strolling around and enjoying the weather. A D-Day commemoration was taking place on the lawn of the Parliament building in the background. The white "statue" is a live person. For a donation, he will pose with you for a photo. We saw several of these around town.
 

The double-decker bus - another reminder of England. But here they drive on our side of the road. However, some of the double-decker buses used by the Gray Lines tour company have the driver on the wrong (i.e. English) side.
 

They were also holding bicycle races in the downtown area. The speed the racers travel at, and the closeness to each other is amazing. Of course, there were some crashes and pile-ups.
 

There were also the usual stands operated by local artists and craftsmen. Of course, we had to do our part to add to the local economy. Now, what shall we toss out of the Roadtrek to make space for this latest addition?
 

Monday we went to see the Butchart  and Butterfly gardens. The Butchart Gardens are in a old quarry operated by the Victoria Portland Cement Co. Jenny Butchart started converting the quarry into a garden in 1904, so this is their centennial. The gardens are very beautiful.

The dancing fountain was very interesting to watch; the water jets made interesting patterns as the nozzles moved.

Flowers everywhere. Nancy, why can't our patio look like this?

A rose is a beautiful thing, even in the rain.
 

After the Butchart Gardens we stopped at the Victoria Butterfly Gardens. The garden is a warm (about 80 degrees F) and humid room with lots of different butterflies from all over the world. This butterfly has a beautiful iridescent blue color on the top of the wings. To camouflage themselves, they always close their wings when the land, so it is hard to photograph the blue wings. I caught this one just before he closed them.

The "eye" coloring on the wings is a defensive mechanism to make the butterfly look more dangerous to potential predators.
 

Tomorrow we drive to Port Hardy, which is in the northern end of Vancouver Island, to catch the ferry to Prince Rupert.