Retire Trip - Victoria & Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island

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• published: 10 Jul 2013
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On July 6, 2013 we left Anacortes, Washington to Vancouver Island taking the Ferry to Sidney, including Serena. It was a very interesting experience seeing how these ferries are packed with vehicles and people. The ferry ride is very smooth because of such a large boat and the route being pretty calm. The passenger areas are spacious and one can avoid the cold and still have a beautiful view. Ferries have no front and no back; both ends look identical and it can move in either direction and surprisingly fast. I started the navigation to the Fort Victoria RV park where we stayed while about a half mile from the shore when they announced to get in the vehicles; the TomTom informed me that part of the route would need a ferry and showed us moving along the water towards land. I was surprised the GPS worked in the belly of that ferry. Fort Victoria RV park is clean and adequate. Public transportation is nearby to get to the attractions. This is a busy area and hilly, so not much biking here. We took the bus to downtown Victoria and had a great time exploring it. Lots of tourist traps, but the waterfront is beautiful and the British Columbia Museum is great. We watched an IMAX and saw a couple of exhibits. One covered the early 1900's expedition to be first at the South Pole which turned into a competition between Norway and Britain. Norway won and the British expedition died on the way back freezing in bad weather. The second exhibition was on early native people of the area. We had excellent dinch at the Spaghetti Factory. On Tuesday, we went to Butchart Gardens and Butterfly Gardens, in that order. Butchart Gardens are so incredibly beautiful, that the Butterfly Gardens looked worse than they are; in addition, we had already seen a butterfly garden near Niagara Falls that was much better. The Butchart family still owns and runs this famous garden, a must to see when visiting this area. We had dinch at the famous Tea Restaurant in Butchart Gardens which was exquisite.We stayed at Oceanside RV Park on Tuesday night which is near the water and closer to Sidney for the Ferry ride on Wednesday.