Victoria and Butchart Gardens

On Tuesday morning we woke up, dressed, put on our jackets, and walked out into the chilly, but clear morning.  We ate bagels and apples as we walked from the hotel to the Royal BC museum.  It was another beautiful day!

Don't these tulips look like flames?

Mosey finishing his apple before going into the museum

Serendipity was with us, and the museum happened to be free that day.  I didn't take too many pictures, but the boys had a great time in the museum.  Ben liked the Indian exhibit best.  There was an entire long house (I know it wasn't called that, but the exact name escapes me) reconstructed inside the museum, as well as an incredible display of the intricate carvings that the British Columbia Indians were so skilled at making.  And of course, the totem pole room, something I remember seeing when I was there as a kid.  I told the boys to pose by their favorite totem pole.

Brigham trying to imitate the totem's face, and doing a pretty good job.

Joseph liked the realism of this one.

And here's Mosey with his!  He liked the cut-out area at the bottom, just his size.

Think he was having fun?  (This was actually just a couple of minutes before he got in trouble and landed himself in a time out.  Ben was trying to gather the boys together and called Mosey to come over.  Mosey refused, and kept walking away.  Ben asked him again, and Mosey responded with an oh-so-respectful, "Whatever."  Yeah, not such a good idea, Mosey!  Luckily, Mosey doesn't hold a grudge and he was soon back to his normal self.)

My favorite part of the museum was temporary exhibit set up in one of the main halls.  Some of the scientists who work with the museum as researchers set up little areas meant to look like their labs.  They had specimens on display, lab equipment, and, best of all, the scientists were actually there to talk to everyone and answer questions.  So interesting!  I hope Joseph, my future zoologist, liked it.

I also liked the Century Room where clothing and objects were on display from various periods over the last 100 years.  So fun to look at items on display from the 70's and 80's and even 90's that I remember well, and that are now completely obsolete.  The pace of history seems to be accelerating, doesn't it?

After a few hours we made our way out of the museum and bought the boys ridiculously overpriced hot dogs from a concession stand on the street.  Those better have been the best hot dogs they ever ate.  :-)  Ben and I were not hungry enough to justify another $4.50 hot dog.

Brigham liked his. He didn't stuff the whole thing in his mouth at once, despite appearances.  :-)

Joseph models the correct way to eat a hot dog

He really loves me taking his picture.  :-)

Mosey did a good job with his hot dog.  I think Ben hoped that at least one of the boys wouldn't finish theirs.  Mosey was having none of that!

After eating our quick lunch, we went on a similarly quick tour of the Parliament building.  We went around back to the handicapped entrance, and were escorted in by a guard, bypassing the regular guided tours, which was fine by us.  We just wanted a quick look around inside anyway.

These are the beautiful colored paintings surrounding the base of the dome inside the building.  Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendor Without End) is the motto for British Columbia.

 After seeing the Parliament building, we drove to Butchart Gardens.  I know I've gushed about how beautiful the weather was during this whole trip, but holy cow, the weather was beautiful!  It was cool-- definitely light jacket weather, but the sun was clear and bright with not a cloud in the sky.  Butchart Gardens was glorious.  I'm sure it's beautiful all year around, but May has got to be the height of beauty.  There were more kinds of tulips than I ever knew existed.  The trees were blossoming.  The grass was emerald green.  It was just so beautiful.  I took about a hundred pictures of flowers and trees, but I'll only post a few of them here.

 This is the view of the sunken gardens from up above.  We came around a corner, and there it was spread out below us, like a fairytale.  So pretty!  2-D Photographs really do not begin to do it justice.

Sunken garden from down below.

 Every detail of the garden was exquisite.  Can someone please come and landscape my yard exactly like this?

 It almost looks fake, doesn't it?

 The afternoon sun slanting down, glowing through the petals of the flowers and leaves of the trees was almost too much to take in.

 OK, so this picture was pretty much a fail.  It was such a cute location, but the sun was at the wrong angle, and I managed to snap the picture right as Joseph blinked.  Oh well, you can't win them all.  :-)

Brigham on a bronze carousel horse.

 Ben took this one of me.  I should have had the boys pose here, instead.

 Joseph by the sturgeon fountain.

Joseph in the Italian garden while we waited for Mosey and Brigham to come back from the rest room.

 Cute Mosey.

 We offered a carousel ride to all three boys, but Mosey was the only one who took us up on it.  I think Joseph and Brigham regretted this, since it was the fastest carousel I've ever seen!  Look how happy Mosey is.  :-)

We finished our Butchart Gardens tour with overpriced (although delicious) gelato in the Italian garden, and then went on our way.  Our plan was to stop and pick up some dinner, and then spend the evening on the beach somewhere.  Well, we found a beach, but by the time we found a place to get food (like I said, there aren't many fast food places in Victoria), we decided not to go all the way back to the beach.  Instead we kept driving and in a couple of minutes we found a nice jogging/walking path overlooking the Pacific ocean.  We parked on the side of the road, walked out to the walking path, and sat on a bench and looked at the beautiful scenery.  We had  great view of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains across the water.  

We finally tore ourselves away and went back to our hotel.  Ben and the boys went downstairs to swim in the heated hotel pool and I stayed in our room and enjoyed the sunset through our big front window and read a book.  Heaven!