July 5, 2008 - Victoria, BC

We wake up early on July 5th and head to Anacortes to catch a ferry to Vancouver Island.
A rare sight - a seagull stands guard over her really ugly chick and her pretty ugly egg (which rolled off to the right).

Braving the cool air for a photo op.

We depart past scenic fir-covered islands.

We finally arrive in Sidney.

You'd think we were back in north Georgia!

Trees here are huge!

First stop: the legendary Butchart Gardens...

The long days of sunlight make for some amazing flora.
Jill tries on a lipstick plant wig.

This was an old rock quarry that was converted into a lower garden.

a mini-Bellagio

In case anyone wanted a history lesson...

Jill and Kyle try to get away from me, a picture-taking tourist.

We're so proud of Charlie for climbing on statues!

The rose garden was amazing.

There are 3-4 rose bushes each of different types from all over the world (labeled, of course).

The extensive gardens have a Japanese section.

Great blue heron.

There is a marina at the gardens.

After the Gardens, we head to downtown Victoria, which as one can imagine, has a large Asian population and a quaint Chinatown.

An historic hotel downtown. Beautiful.

Check out the tree!!

Notice the flowers along the bank.

Of course Victoria has a large marina.
Heck, Victoria basically is a large marina.

I like the British Columbia flag.

Out front of their main government building, Grim is deep in thought.

Kyle was our tourguide for the day.
You may remember him from the wedding (almost killed us) or Jason and Abigail's pig roast wedding reception (where he passed out about 4 separate times). He is Abigail's ex-step-brother-in-law. Seriously.

Cool statue.

We watched a couple of planes "taxi" in the harbor towards a place to take off. They're loud...