Stop and smell the roses

Guess what folks … it’s time for my birthday trip. We had such a great time last year in Alaska, we threw around the idea of rving again but could not come up with a perfect itinerary. After much thought and discussion, we came upon the idea of travelling to Vancouver Island. I had been to Victoria only once and that was for only a couple of hours back in 1999. Lucky for us, Karen has a cousin Pat that has graciously invited us to stay with her.

Even though our Air Canada Rouge flight (25000 Aeroplan miles + $155.03 CAD in taxes) was not until 9:40am, we decided to drive down last night and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn ($180.98 CAD including taxes). Once we got to Toronto Pearson, check in and security was a breeze thanks to our TD Aeroplan Visa and NEXUS cards. This gave us just over an hour to enjoy the Premium Plaza Lounge where we grabbed some breakfast and some quiet.

The flight went by quickly because of a couple of movies and a quick nap. But I did find that the seats seemed to be even more cramped than the last time that we have flown Air Canada Rouge. We landed in Victoria at approximately 11:40am to rain. The airport is small so it was a quick walk down to get our luggage and rental car, a brand new 2019 Chevrolet Malibu ($409.13 CAD which included taxes, filling of the tank ($106.54 CAD) and admission for two to Butchart Gardens, 1015 kms driven, rented through Budget but booked through Costco) that only had 452 kms on it.

Our first stop on this trip was The Butchart Gardens. Here are some stats about it … 55 acres of gardens, 900 bedding plant varieties, 26 greenhouses and 50 full time gardeners. This was going to take some time to explore so we grabbed some lunch before we got started.

The Butchart Gardens was originally the home of Robert and Jennie Butchart which was built next to the limestone quarry. Once there was no more limestone, Jennie had the quarry converted into the Sunken Garden.  This was a stunning garden.

After the Sunken Garden, we walked over to the Totem Poles and then to the Dragon Fountain.

From Dragon Fountain, it was off to the Rose Garden.  I have never seen so many roses in my life.  There are 280 varieties of roses amongst the 2500 rose plants from all over the world.

The last big garden that we saw was The Japanese Garden.

The final garden that we walked through was the Italian Garden where was had some delicious gelato.

It was a half an hour drive to Karen’s cousin’s Pat’s condo.  Once we got settled, we spent the rest of the evening visiting, eating and watching the Toronto Raptors take Game 3 of the NBA Final.