Chasing Waterfalls – Day 5

Day 5

I was very surprised when I woke up and it was just before 07:00. We had been in bed quite early, and we had gained another three hours the day before. Better still, I had slept through the night only waking up briefly to use the bathroom. I checked what was happening online and then I researched breakfast options. The hotel offered a la carte and buffet breakfast option at the main restaurant and there was also a quick service option with either pick up or room delivery. I decided to run the options past Graham when he was awake. In the meantime, I took a quick shower and this time, I did not take flying lessons.

When the alarm went off, Graham went to have a shower as well. Then we were discussing breakfast options. Graham suggested we just go to the Starbucks in the lobby. I was fine with this idea. Once we were both ready, we headed downstairs. We both had a sausage, egg, and cheddar sandwich. Graham also had a slice of lemon drizzle cake and an Americano. I had a piece of cinnamon coffee cake and an iced cherry chai latte. I was not entirely sure what to expect, but I love chai and anything cherry. It turned out that it was a standard iced chai latte with cherry cold foam on top. It was delicious. As delicious as it was, I had a slight case of FOMO. Before I placed the order, I checked if they still do nitro cold brew. This is my favourite cold drink at Starbucks, but it has shown as permanently sold out for months back home. The fact that I did not see it on the menu made me think that it was no longer available in Canada either. However, while I was waiting for our drinks to be made, I noticed that the barista made a nitro cold brew for somebody. I told Graham about this, and he suggested that I should have one. I was not sure if I wanted to queue again, but then I spotted that I could order this via mobile order. I had a vanilla sweet cream nitro cold brew with chocolate cold foam, which was delicious.

 

Once we both had finished our breakfast, we headed back to the room. We got organized for our excursion and then had a little downtime. About 20 minutes before we were due to be picked up, we headed downstairs. We knew that we were in the right stop as there were already people waiting there. Soon it felt like half of Vancouver was waiting to be picked up. There were various excursions picking up from this stop as well as the free Capillano shuttle. Quite a few people were picked up ahead of us. Our coach was running slightly late. When we were picked up, we had two more pick up points and then we were on our way. Traffic was atrocious. The Vancouver marathon was taking place two days later and there were already road closures and diversions in place. The bridge we were supposed to be taking out of Vancouver was temporarily closed as well. Fortunately, our driver found a reasonably quick way to another bridge that only presented a minor detour.

On this tour, our driver Justin was also our guide. He lived in Vancouver for most of his life and he pointed out various landmarks that were not necessarily tourist spots. He also told us about the various neighbourhoods in Vancouver. The detour was actually quite scenic, and I don’t think it added too much to our travel time. Once we were back on the regular route, we spotted a number of bald eagles, which is always a treat.

When we arrived at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, we had just over twenty minutes free time until we had to be back on the coach. There are various market stalls and food outlets in the terminal. We were advised that we were OK to bring food onto the coach if we wanted to pick up something for the crossing. We both used the bathroom, and then we had a quick look around. I was tempted by the outlet of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company. I used to love their truffles. However, not only have their truffles shrunk, but the available flavours also did not appeal to me. I passed and we headed back to the coach.

Everybody was back on the coach in time and shortly afterwards, we got moving. Once we were on the ferry, Justin gave us a time when we needed to be back on the coach. He also pointed out that we needed to look for the red sealion sign when it was time to come back. The different areas of the ferry are marked by a colour and a sea creature. This made navigating nice and easy.

We took the elevator up to the main passenger deck. There were quite a few window seats available, but Graham headed one deck further up. Seating there was limited. Graham headed outside. I was not too impressed as the only seating out there were very high boxes. I did not think I had a chance to get up there. I decided to head back inside. By then, all the window seats had been taken. I had a quick look at the gift shop and picked up a bottle of ginger ale from the grab and go section of the cafe. Then I headed back to the outside deck.

I had got turned around and went out the opposite side from where Graham was. I walked around the deck. On the stern there were some benches, but they were taken, and it was also pretty breezy back there. Eventually I did find Graham and it was much more sheltered there. He helped me to get up on the box. The box was actually surprisingly comfortable, and I had a great view from up there.

The ferry trip was very pretty. We passed close to the gulf islands. We saw all kinds of sea birds as well as plenty of harbour seals. At some stage, Graham went inside. While he was gone, I had my first close up sea otter sighting. I had seen one at a distance in Seward last year, but this one was right in front of me. By the time, Graham came back, the otter had disappeared.

 

About 10 minutes before we were due back on the coach, we decided to head back inside. The deck we were on did not run the full length of the ferry. Because of this, I initially headed in the wrong direction. I realised my mistake soon enough and just as we reached the right elevator, the announcement came that everybody should return to their vehicles. We were ahead of the crowd and managed to get on an elevator ahead of the rush. 

Everybody was back on time, and we soon were on the move. On our way to Butchart Gardens, Justin told is about the different parts of Vancouver Island and the wildlife that can be found in certain parts of it. He also told us how it came about that Victoria became the capital of British Columbia. 

It only took about 30 minutes to get from the ferry terminal to Butchart Gardens. As we were approaching the entrance, Justin gave us a quick overview of what to expect. He then gave us our return time. As we got off the coach, he gave us our tickets. We had about 2 hours to enjoy Butchart Gardens. 

When we were there in 2022, we had seen a hummingbird near the entrance. We stayed in that area for a little while, but we were not so lucky this time round. Then we headed to the Sunken Garden, which is the centre piece of Butchart Gardens. Even though we were nearly a month earlier than we had been in 2022, almost everything was in full bloom. We took our time enjoying this area.

 

We were almost halfway through our allotted time when we moved on. I passed on the carousel this time but took a photo through the door. I also took some photos of the totem poles that are nearby.

 

When were at Butchart Gardens in 2022, the organ pavilion was closed. I figured at the time that this may be as it was quite a confirmed space, and Canada had only recently emerged from Covid restrictions. However, I noticed this time round that the organ pavilion is no longer marked on the maps and all signage referencing this has been removed. This is such a shame. I would have loved to see the historical organ.

There was one more thing in that general area that I wanted to see. This was the dragon fountain. The dragon fountain was gifted to Butchart Gardens in 2015 by the city of Suzhou to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Victoria and Suzhou being twin cities. Sometimes I wonder if Suzhou is haunting me. Ever since we visited Suzhou in 2018, we have been to so many places that feature gifts from Suzhou or that have gardens that were designed in conjunction with the city of Suzhou.

 

Then we cut through the rose garden to the Japanese garden. The rose garden is something that I would love to see in bloom, but both of our visits have been too early in the year for that. 

The Japanese garden is my favourite part of Butchart Gardens even though it is not terribly authentic. There are some plants that are native to Japan like Japanese maples, some plants that are native to British Columbia and some plants that have nothing to do with neither like California redwoods. However, Japanese design elements bring everything together. This is where I wished that we had an extra 30 minutes as we only had time for a fleeting visit this time.

 

The back exit from the Japanese garden comes out near the star pond. This is next to the Italian garden. I think of all the areas; this is the least impressive one. It was built on the former tennis courts and just feels a little nondescript compared to the rest of the gardens. It does however have one redeeming feature, the Gelateria. They have a nice selection of gelato with some interesting flavours. I got a cone with wild honey and lavender gelato and strawberry gelato for Graham and a cone with wild honey and lavender gelato and cookies and cream gelato for me. I was not sure about the wild honey and lavender gelato when I saw it on the menu, but curiosity got the better of me. I was glad that it did as this was delicious.

 

As all the benches in this area were taken, we decided to slowly walk into the general direction of the entrance while enjoying our gelato. Once we had finished the gelato, we quickly used the bathroom and then we headed back to the coach. Again, everybody was either slightly early or bang on time. I have no memories from the time we reached the end of the driveway until we already were at the outskirts of Victoria. Either this was a case of temporary alien abduction, or I had fallen asleep. When we reached Victoria, Justin pointed out various landmarks including a tiny building, which was Victoria’s first Chinese public school.

We were dropped off outside the Royal BC Museum. Before we got there, Justin gave us a few pointers on what we could see and do. We had just short of 90 minutes. As we were walking down the hill from the museum to the Inner Harbour, I got a nice photo of the Empress Hotel.

 

The Empress Hotel was our first destination. We had visited very briefly on our first visit to Victoria in 2013. All the cruise ship shuttles dropped off right in front of the Empress hotel and it felt like every single person had decided to visit at the same time. We turned around. This time round it was fortunately a different proposition. What probably helped that we got there a bit later in the afternoon, but it was also before the cruise ship season really got going.

The Empress Hotel always reminds me of the Hotel du Canada at the Canadian pavilion at Epcot. Technically, this is not correct as Hotel du Canada was modelled after the Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa. However, Justin had explained earlier that the Empress was originally part of the Grand Railway Hotels of Canada. He explained that in the late 19th and early 20th century the railway companies realised that the railway would only be profitable if they could sell customers a complete luxury product. To this end, they started building high end hotels in every Canadian city. A lot of them were built in the same châteauesque style. Some of the later hotels are in different style, but both the Château Laurier hotel and the Empress hotel were built in the châteauesque style.

Where we entered the hotel, there were a number of shops and a lobby area where they served afternoon tea. There was also a bar in this area. We then headed towards the convention centre which has the look of a Victorian market hall. There are also a number of totem poles in this building. We then headed back to the main building and checked out the guest lobby. They have an amazing chandelier in there. However, I felt like this space needed a Chihuly chandelier.

We headed out in the garden. Graham had wondered if we would see any Sitka deer there as we found out on our last visit that they are in that general area. However, we were out of luck. The gardens are very pretty though. They even have their own bee hives and the honey that is produced there is served in the hotel.

There was one more thing nearby that I wanted to see. This is Thunderbird Park. Thunderbird Park is part of the neighbouring Royal BC Museum. Thunderbird Park was created in 1941 to display the growing collection of totem poles that were part of the museum’s collection. Unfortunately, about 10 years later, the totem poles had significantly decayed. The museum started a restoration program and hired a master carver. Over a number of years, the original poles were moved to inside storage and replaced by replica versions. All of the poles now in Thunderbird Park were carved in the Carving Studio building there. All but two of the totem poles on display there are versions of the originals. When it was constructed in 1941, Thunderbird Park featured a Northwest Coast-style house with an inaccurate frontal painting produced especially for the building. There were also original carvings from many different First Nation people on display and none of it belonged together. The present building was created by Thunderbird Park’s original master carver and is considered authentic. It is used for events by the local First Nation people.

We had a walk around Thunderbird Park to look at all the totem poles. Then we found ourselves a bench to sit down and enjoy our surroundings. When we started to get a bit hot, we headed inside the Royal BC Museum. We used their bathrooms and had a look at their public lobby. One of the original totem poles that stood model for one of the totem poles in Thunderbird Park was in the lobby as well as two other totem poles that were not represented at Thunderbird Park. That was a pretty cool thing to see. Once I had a good look at them, we headed outside. It was still a bit early for our coach to return, but just as we entered the square in front of the museum, the coach pulled up. Some other members of our tour group were also already waiting and we headed to the coach. I finally got around to having the ginger ale that I had purchased on the ferry that morning while we were waiting for the rest of the group to come back.

 

Once everybody was back on the coach, we took a detour on our way out of Victoria. We went past Beacon Hill Park, which we visited on our first stop in Victoria back in 2013. Justin wanted to show us some landmarks in that area. Two we were already familiar with. One was the Mile 0 marker, which is the start of the over 8,000 km Trans-Canada Highway that spans the entire length of Canada. 

 

Next to that is the statue of Terry Fox, which we learned about in 2022. Terry Fox had lost one of his legs to cancer. Back in 1980, he attempted to run across Canada from the East Coast to the West Coast to raise awareness and also funds for cancer research. Unfortunately, before he reached his destination of Victoria, his cancer came back, and he lost his life. He had hoped to raise one dollar from each of Canada’s 24 million people at the time. However, his legacy lives on. Since 1981, there has been an annual Terry Fax race and as of last year CAD900,000,000 has been raised in his name.

 

What was new to us was the tallest freestanding totem pole in the world. There is a totem pole in Alert Bay, British Columbia which is taller, but it is anchored into place by guide ropes. When we visited, the totem pole was even taller as a bald eagle had decided to perch on top. This apparently is quite a common appearance as I found numerous photos online covering a number of years that show the totem pole with a bald eagle on top.

After this little detour, we headed towards the ferry port. As soon as we had left Victoria, it started to rain. At that stage, it did not matter as we were going to stay in the dry for the rest of the day.

When we arrived at the Swartz Bay ferry terminal, Justin gave us a return time. We did not have very long and there seemed to be very little there. We decided to stay on the coach. A few other people had the same idea. When the rest of the group returned, we got in line to get onto the ferry. This was running a little late. Apparently, this is not unusual for the evening ferries as ferries pick up delays throughout the day. Justin explained that part of the reason for this is their cargo operation. The ferries are equipped to take quite substantial trucks, but moving freight that way is very expensive. The cheaper option is to just drop the trailer at the ferry port and BC Ferries then uses tractors to move the trailer on and off the ferry. The owner of the freight then picks up the trailer at the other end. This seems to be a very roundabout way of doing things.

Eventually the ferry arrived and soon we started to move. It is impressive how quickly they can unload and load a ferry. We were roughly in the same spot as we had been in the morning, which was very convenient to access the passenger deck. Justin gave us the time to be back on the coach and then we were free to go.

It was time to get some dinner. Both breakfast and the ice cream we had were a distant memory at that stage. There was both a cafeteria and coffee shop on the ferry. Graham had done some research, and it stated if you wanted to have a meal, to go to the cafeteria as soon as you get on the ferry as it gets very busy. That was sound advice and was precisely what we did. Already the line was huge and moved very slowly. Still about 20 minutes later, we got to the front of the line. Graham had a bacon Cheddar burger with fries and some apple juice. I had a beef dip sandwich with fries and a raspberry lemonade. The food was very nice and there was a lot of it. Graham had asked me before we ordered our hot food if I wanted to share a rhubarb and strawberry pie with him. This should have acted as a warning as this was huge. Graham just about managed to finish his main course. I did not manage to finish mine. We took the pie with us to have for breakfast the next day.

 

While we were having dinner, Justin came by to give us an updated time to be back at the coach, which was 15 minute later than the original one he had given us. When we had finished our dinner, we went to find some seats in the main seating area of the ferry. We even got a window seat. Not long after we moved, there was an announcement that people should return to their vehicles. This was round about the time that Justin had originally given us. It turned out that somebody had jumped the gun a little. Once we were back on the coach, nothing happened for some time. I don’t think we were even docked at that stage. Eventually things started to move and soon we were on our way again.

Pretty much as soon as we left the ferry port, I fell asleep. When I woke up again, we were just about to go over the bridge that would take us back to downtown Vancouver. The drop off was in the same order as the pickup in the morning. We had been the third group out of five to be picked up and were the third group to be dropped off. Traffic was relatively light, and it did not take long to do the previous two drop offs. Even with the delay on the ferry, we were back at the hotel slightly ahead of schedule. We gave Justin a tip and then headed inside the hotel. We went straight to the room and got ready for bed. It did not take long until we were asleep.