Like I said before, I won tickets on American Airlines at the Bedford Police banquet last January and determined I would go somewhere cool in the summer with them. As the temperature climbed over 100 several days in a row, I could see the wisdom the Lord had given us in the timing of our trip....
The first thing we did was fly from DFW Airport on Thursday, Aug 21, about 6:30 p.m. Our son, Daniel, took us to the airport and we flew to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We stayed at the Best Western Hotel, near the airport. The room was adequate but the bed was awesome! It turned out to be the best bed of the trip.
We flew from Calgary to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Friday morning. From there to Victoria, which is on Vancouver Island, one must ride the ferry. We had reservations on the 6:00 ferry but when we got there in our bright red Buick rent car, we were able to board early. It was quite surprising that there were so many people and cars on the ferry. We got out of our car and spent the entire trip on the deck or inside. We met a 30'ish young lady who ran a fishing company that her dad had built and she gave us a private lecture about the fishing industry. From there we departed the ferry, drove to Victoria and found our bed and breakfast room. That night we went to dinner at Romeo's in downtown Victoria and headed back to our quaint room.
The next morning we had a scruptious breakfast of museli, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, big slabs of bacon, and toast with Saskatoon jelly. We left about 9 and headed downtown to see the sights. We visited the miniature museum, the harbor, and ate lunch at The Pig. They served delicious barbecue. We ate chocolate at a shop and walked the streets looking at the Irish linen, interesting shops, and the beautiful flowers.
Later that afternoon we toured the butterfly gardens at the entrance of Buchart Gardens. Gary loved the blue butterflies and I liked the humidity. Then we drove up the road to the Gardens. Only the pictures can describe how the flowers looked. At 6 we picked up our fresh salmon picnics with salads, desserts, and cider. We ate those on the lawn, and then toured the gardens until the animated, coreographed, and floating fireworks show began. What a day and evening.
The next day we boarded the train to Qualicom Beach. We had planned to go further up the coast to Courtney, but found that we would not get lunch if we did. It was raining when we left the station in Victoria but by the time we got to Qualicom Beach, the sun came out. We ate at a neat resturant in the middle of this resort town and had a cup of tea as it was very cool. We rode back home and took the ferry back to Vancouver...which is another story for tomorrow.
