Traveling with Michelle: All Tresspassers Will be Composted

Tuesday, 21 July, 2015

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Warning: LOTS of photos today!

Today we visited the Butchart Gardens near Victoria (twice) and the Craigdarroch Castle as well as driving around some cute neighborhoods in Victoria. I remembered that I forgot to mention yesterday that we met a family on the ferry and that a friend of theirs goes to school with Anneliese (both in Tisch) and that they might know eachother. They have three children--a girl and two boys and their daughter (their oldest) is also home making money for school like Anneliese is. Their sons are 16 and 14 (I think). They are from North Carolina and know UNCSA which was Anneliese's second choice of school. The daughter of the mom's friend just finished her freshman year at NYU also, so Anneliese might know her. We talked to the mom about travel and family, then she left and her husband came over and we talked about social media and how that has changed society (he works in advertising).

But, as for the Butchart Gardens, Randy had heard that they were best seen early, before the crowds became bad but also at night, when everything is lit up. Your ticket is good for all day, so we decided to do both. There were plenty of people when we arrived in the morning, but it was manageable. And, I'll apologize right now for the many, many photos. These are only a small portion of the ones I took!

The Italian Garden

This is a copy of a similar sculpture in Italy. Rubbing the boars nose is supposed to bring good luck.

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The Italian Garden

The Sunken Garden

The water fountain in the Sunken Garden

See the plaque below

See the bee?

There he is!

In the Rose Garden

A rose (even though they're not my favorite)

The Rose Garden (though the man taking a picture is the best part of this photo!)

Joshua

Shelby

Randy (and Shelby)

The Japanese Garden

The Three Sturgeons Fountain

See the bee?

Joshua

The Japanese Garden

The Star Pond

The Italian Garden

The Dragon

We left the gardens around noon and went to Craigdarroch Castle, which is a large Victorian house (25,000 square feet). The preservation group is still working on restoring it. After the last of the family moved out, it was also a military hospital, a college, a music school, school district offices, etc. In one room, they found hand-stenciled ceilings under five coats of industrial paint. And there is graffiti from the college on some of the woodwork.

Craigdarroch Castle

The main stairwell looking up from the entry

In the drawing room--the flue from the chimney had to be rerouted
because of the stained glass window (good choice!)

Stained glass windows reflecting the master's home country of Scotland

There is a candle in front attached to the easel for reading in dim light

Hand stenciled windows (hidden beneath 5 coats of paint)

The entry fireplace

On one of the landing celings in the main staircase

graffitti from the college students

One of the landings

The floor of the tower

from the tower

The tower door--curved door and glass

The breakfast room--morning glories in the windows

The original gates, now just gates to the whole residential area

Then, we drove around some of the cute neighborhoods of Victoria, got lunch and then went back to our hotel for a nap (we were all up late last night). Most of the photos are of the cute public art.

Sculpture

Glockenspiel?

Shelby petting the "kitty"

Randy petting the "dog"

Seals

A happy rabbit

A figure skater

Then we stopped for dinner on our way to the Gardens, and there weren't a lot of people there. Everything was very magical. On one pathway, Joshua said that if we were going to find a fairy, this is where it would happen. It doesn't come out as well in photos, but it was beautiful. I think we were the only people in the Gardens by the time we left. It was kind of eerie.