Oct. 15, 2013 Port Angeles/Vancouver Island

Oct. 15, 2013 Port Angeles/Vancouver Island

We were up early and caught the Coho Ferry to Vancouver Island from Port Angeles at 8:00 a.m.  It was a very smooth ride, but once we got on board we found out that our ‘good timing’ was coming to an end.  The tourist buses from Victoria to the Butchart Gardens quit running on Sunday.  We had two options.  We could take a cab, or city transit.  We opted for the city transit, and it tested our patience.  We bought a bus pass for the whole day, as we had to transfer buses and this would just simplify our ‘new experience’.  It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to take the bus to Butchart Gardens, once we found the correct bus stop!  We learned quickly, and only lost a half hour in that process.  This is cutting into our precious time at Butchart Gardens.  We arrived at Butchart Gardens, paid $29.95 each for about 1 ½ hours of garden viewing!  We needed to be back to the boat as it sailed at 4:00.  This was the last ferry for the day, and that schedule changed today!  It has been 7:30 p.m.  We had to leave at 2:00 from the gardens, as the next bus would have arrived too late.  We covered the whole gardens and didn’t miss a thing, and had plenty of time to connect with our bus again.  We had a great bus driver on the way back.  She wasted no time and we made it back to downtown Victoria in 45 minutes!  This allowed us to walk around downtown and get some harbor pictures, and we felt like well-seasoned travelers!  We were glad we took the bus, as it was fun, once we got over our frustration of ‘where IS our bus’?  We did ask ourselves if we thought this was all worth the effort, and we feel it was.  It was a beautiful day, we navigated around a big city, and we saw some gorgeous gardens. We did feel, however, that the summer time is the best time for viewing the gardens, as many of the areas were filled in with mums, the roses were just twigs, and we thought they would be gorgeous in their prime, but they still had a beautiful wall of Dahlias.  It was perfectly manicured, and much smaller than we had anticipated.   We had met and talked with a couple from Cincinnati, Ohio on our trip over to V I, and they were on a cruise around the harbors in the peninsula, and their group was going to V I.  They even asked their tour guide if we could go with them!  They were both teachers in Cincinnati, retired and marveled at our lifestyle.  When we hooked up on the return trip to the U.S. and we told them that we took the city transit, they thought we were very adventurous. We know that we are!. We ended our day with dinner at the Kokopelli Bar and Grill in Port Angeles.  The seafood here is always fresh and delicious. 

The Parliament Buildings at Victoria

Our Coho Ferry in the harbor at Vancouver Island

Mums at Butchart Gardens

Japanese Garden/Butchart Gardens

Sunken Gardens/Butchart Gardens

Harbor in Victoria, Vancouver Island BC

The regal Fairmont empress

I'm chuckling as I post this, as I should have had a picture of our city bus!  We did have a wonderful time in Victoria, and the people there were very friendly and helped two old people get around!