As we docked in Victoria we watched as dozens of small boats made their way out into the harbor to greet us. A group of 10 First Nation people come out to the ship dressed in ceremonial costume paddling a dugout canoe .
We took an excursion to the Butterfly Museum and Butchart Gardens. We’ve been to butterfly museums before but nothing like this one. When you first enter the building there is a very large glass terrarium with a tree growing in it and hundreds of leaf cutter ants cutting the leaves into manageable pieces and carrying them back to the colony. There were other hideous looking insects in glass aquariums also.
We entered through double doors into the butterfly room and hundreds of butterflies along with parrots, 5 tortoises, 4 flamingos and an iguana greeted us. The enclosure was done amazingly well and included a brook and log covered with a dozen painted turtles.
Our next stop was Butchart Gardens which is considered the fifth best public gardens in the world. It is a site to behold and the story behind how it came to be is fascinating. There are gardens within the garden such as the sunken garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden, and Rose garden. There are 55 acres of the gardens, 900 species of plants and 50 full time gardeners. It would take at least a couple of days to view the entire garden. Alice, I thought of you and your love of flowers while we were there.
North By Northwest 