Beyond Clallam Bay--August 7 & 8, 2008

We left Clallam Bay and headed for Port Angeles and Sequim. We continued our trek on US 101. Our stop was 7 Cedars Casino just east of Sequim. The weather was dreary for most of the drive, but the scenery was still outstanding. The casino was further from Port Angeles than we had hoped, but it would serve our purpose as a base while we went to Victoria, British Columbia.

After checking the ferry schedules, we knew we would have to get an early start--the passenger ferry we wanted left Port Angeles at 7:45 a.m. We had a 25 or 30 minute drive back to the port from the casino. I set the alarm on my cell phone, we were up and ready to go by 6:30. We stopped at one of the coffee kiosks along the way for our morning coffee. It seems that there is a drive through coffee place on every other corner in Oregon and Washington.

We arrived at the port, found a parking place for the day and headed for the ferry. When we purchased our tickets, the clerk gave us tickets for the 8:10 ferry, but said we might make it on the 7:45 if there was room. Well, there was plenty of room and off we went to Victoria. The ferry took a little over an hour. As we approached the port, we saw a tug pulling a barge. It reminded us of Mayport.

The ferry had to wait for several float planes to land. The planes land, then taxi to the docks to let passengers disembark.

When the white light on this buoy is flashing it means a float plane is coming in for a landing. There are several companies that fly to Victoria.Once we cleared customs, we headed for the tourist information center to purchase bus passes for the day. The agent sold us our passes and gave us directions to the place we needed to be to meet the bus going to Butchart Gardens. We walked the few blocks to the stop and had about 15 minutes before our bus arrived. We looked in the stores near the stop then helped some other tourists with the bus schedule to the gardens. Our bus was right on time and we enjoyed viewing Victoria for the hour it took to get to the gardens. We were glad we didn't drive as there was a lot of construction with many detours.

The entrance to the gardens was beautiful. There were hanging baskets and well-manicured flower beds everywhere.
The gardens were built on an old limestone quarry. The sunken gardens were sodded and planted in the early 1900s. It was and still is owned by the Butchart family. Jennie Butchart had a vision of beautiful gardens and was able to hire professionals to help her achieve that goal.In addition to the sunken garden, there are a rose garden.....

....Japanese garden.......Italian garden.....
,,,and garden areas to transition between them. We had a good view of the house from Three Sturgeons Fountain.There area several areas where you could retreat and enjoy the surrounding area and people watch. There were many tourists from all over the world.The gardens need continual care. We saw people dead-heading flowers throughout the park. In a nook near the rose garden we saw a truck with all the dead-heads.

We spent a couple of hours touring the gardens and the gift shop before heading back downtown. We walked around the downtown area to find a place for lunch--and Irish Pub. After lunch we continued exploring downtown. Near the ferry landing was Parliament.

A few blocks from Parliament was the Empress Hotel.

We headed back to the ferry to make our 5:30 boarding time. We went through American customs before boarding. Much to our surprise and everyone's, we also went through American customs when we arrived in Port Angeles.

We enjoyed our day in Victoria. Saturday we moved on to McChord AFB near Tacoma.