Victoria - Butchart Gardens, Malahat Skywalk, Fisherman's Wharf, and a Water Taxi

Thursday July 27, 2023 - We packed a lunch and headed out of town to the world famous Butchart Gardens.  It was a 35 minute drive from the house and was quite a beautiful spot.  We had a picnic lunch there, then headed to Malahat Skywalk, which was about 45 minutes from Butchart.  Google took us on a crazy road, for about half of that drive, which went through Goldstream provincial park.  The road was quite windy and was mostly one lane.  After climbing to the top of the skywalk, there are beautiful views of Mt Baker, the Saanich peninsula and Finlayson Arm.  The slide to the bottom was especially fun.  When we got home we packed a quick picnic dinner and headed to Willows Beach for a concert.  It was quite the busy day!

Butchart Gardens

The sunken gardens were made in a stone quarry.  The Butcharts moved here from Ontario in 1904  and started a cement business on the island

The Ross Fountain

There are a few totem poles on Vancouver Island

Entrance to the Japanese Gardens

pathway through a pond

View to Butchart Cove

Picnic lunch on the lawn

Google's windy directions to Malahat 

It was a crazy drive

Walking to the top of Malahat Skywalk

Quite a pretty structure

scary ropes walk looking through to the ground

Views of Finlayson Arm

Meg starting her slide down

Elaine's slide down!

Views from the bottom

Second picnic of the day.  Dinner at Willows Beach

Lots of people for the live band

A quick walk down to see Willows Beach

Friday July 28, 2023 - For our last day together we drove to Beacon Hill Park for some exploring, we walked along the water on the Dallas Rd trail, then walked to Fishermen's Wharf for fish & chips at the Fish Store.  We then continued our walk to the inner harbor where we grabbed a water taxi across the harbor to Spinnakers, which is the oldest brewpub in Canada.  We enjoyed a game of gubs on the lawn with some beers, then walked across the Johnson St bridge to the Craft Beer Market for more beers and our last poutine of the trip.  Dinner was leftovers and pizza on the deck at our house.  It was early to bed since the kids have 6:00AM flights out.

The wonderful Demitasse counter

Meg and I split a strawberry rhubarb danish and cinnamon roll, not sure what Kev had

such a cute spot for breakfast, and only just around the corner from our house

games at the dining room table

and more ping pong

a totem pole?

A visit to Beacon Hill Park

Nicely carved chair for King Kev

Beacon Hill Park was a really nice park, with lots of hidden treasures.  This is the Moss Lady

Bench carved out of a log in a small Redwood grove

Cute circular bench around this mushroom looking shelter

the largest totem pole in the world

A walk along Dallas Rd and some nice deck chairs

Fisherman's Wharf for lunch

Lunch at the Fish Store

REALLY good fish & chips (we had halibut).  Meg & Maddy had fish tacos.

People actually live in these floating houses at Fisherman's wharf

Quite picturesque!

We walked to the inner harbor from Fisherman's Wharf

and passed the Parliament Building again (and another totem pole)

The Empress in the background

Queen Victoria in front of the Parliament Building

Elaine hiding in the hydrangeas

Here comes our water taxi

We're off to Spinnaker's for a beer

We walked along the Songhees Path to get to Spinnakers

Beer on the lawn

The sky was pretty amazing

Another nice path

Beautiful walk back to the inner harbor

Walk across the Johnson St Bridge

Beer at the Bar

And our last poutine

Last pics 

953 Hampshire

Saturday July 28, 2023 - We left for the airport (a 30 minute drive from the house) at 4:15AM.  The airport is quite small, so we probably could have left later, but wanted to make sure everyone had easy flights home.  Kev and I stopped at Mt Tolmie on the way back to the house to watch the sunrise and hopped back in bed for another 2 hours sleep.  After packing up, we headed down Dallas Rd to the Ogden Point breakwater.  It was a nice walk, as the breakwater juts out into the Juan de Fuca Strait.  We then drove to Mt Douglas, for beautiful views of Victoria and Vancouver Island.  We then spent an hour exploring the town of Sydney before heading off to the airport for our 6:00PM flight home.

Sunrise on top of Mt Tolmie

Ogden Point Walkway

We walked out to the end of the walkway

The Dallas Rd stairway

View from the top of Mount Douglass

More views

Picnic lunch with a view in Sydney

Beacon Park in Sydney

Glass Beach

It was only a 15 minute flight from Victoria to Vancouver and so fun to see all the islands, since we never got very high up

Not sure how the trip could have been better!  It was great to get to spend a week with the kids in such a beautiful, relaxing spot...water, mountains, city...what more could a person want?  And Victoria has perfect summer weather with lots of sun, high temps during the day in the mid to low 70s and low temps in the 50s.   Maybe we should move here!?