Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

 

The Butchart Gardens in full summer bloom!

From our place in Sequim we could see Vancouver Island across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Getting across the 22 mile strait was fairly simple thanks to the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria.  The ferry runs up to three times a day and the crossing time is approximately 90 minutes.  There is plenty of parking near the ferry terminal in Port Angeles and the terminal in Victoria is in the small marina just across from the iconic Fairmont Hotel.  It was an easy, affordable ($46 roundtrip when we went) and fun way to cross the 22-mile wide strait and spend the day in Canada.  

Black Ball Ferry Line

Our plans for our day in Victoria were to roam around a bit and visit the world-famous Butchart Gardens.  We hadn't made arrangements for transportation from the city to the gardens,  We figured a taxi or Uber would be convenient.  As it turned out, it was even easier.  We were able to purchase transportation and admission to the gardens on the ferry.  Even better, at the time we visited the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar was favorable to us.  Everything we bought and did was at about a 25% discount on the Canadian dollar.

When we arrived in Victoria, we quickly cleared customs/passport control and were soon enjoying the city center.  We had been to Victoria before and found it to be really enjoyable.  This visit was no exception.  We had some "roaming around" time before our bus to the gardens.  

Victoria Government Building

Rob and Pam with their new best friends, the Totem family.

The 55-acre Butchart Gardens hosts over a million visitors annually.  Our very informative bus driver shared a lot of great information on the garden as well as the city of Victoria on the 20-minute drive.  Of course I've forgotten most of it by now, but I do remember him saying there are five seasons at the gardens; winter, spring, summer, fall and Christmas.  We were visiting in August, so it was "summer".  The gardens were lush green and in full bloom!  He said every season is great, but that his personal favorite was the Christmas season.  

Butchart Gardens

Just a few of the pictures Beth took during our visit to Butchart Gardens.  Everywhere you looked was a "Kodak Moment"!

Thankfully not all the one million plus annual visitors decided to show up on the day we were there. However, it was quite crowded on a nice summer day.  Everyone moves at a different pace, so we decided to enjoy the gardens at our leisure.  We went one way, Rob and Pam headed another direction and we had a designated meeting time and place.  which gave us time to catch the bus back to the city center, enjoy a bit more roaming around and get a bite to eat before heading back to the ferry for the late afternoon/early evening crossing back to Port Angeles. We were quickly learning not only to appreciate our rental home in Sequim, but to also appreciate how central of a location it was to explore the Olympic Peninsula and beyond. 

After eight really nice days together we headed out from Sequim and back to the Seattle airport.  Rob and Pam headed back to Texas while we headed back north of the border to Vancouver.  Another adventure and a rendovous with some family members awaited!

Olympic National Park

Ready to explore.  The first stop is always the sign, followed usually by checking out the visitor's center.  The visitors center for Olympic National Park is in Port Angeles.  There was a second visitors center at the top of Hurricane Ridge, unfortunately it was destroyed in a fire on May 7, 2023.

 Washington's Olympic Peninsula is approximately 2.3 million acres in size.  Over 900,000 of those acres are within Olympic National Park.  The park, which was established in 1938, typically receives close to 3.8 million visitors annually.  The parks visitor center is in Port Angeles, which was just a short twenty-five-minute drive from where we were staying in Sequim. 

Unless you're into extreme back country hiking (we're not), there are basically two ways to experience Olympic National Park.  There is the "perimeter road" which is Highway 101, or by going up the seventeen-mile Hurricane Ridge Road to the Hurricane Ridge Overlook.   From the overlook you can get great views of the Olympic Mountains as well as the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  It would be possible to do the majority of the "perimeter road" and Hurricane Ridge Road in one day, but it would be a very full day.  Since we were so close to the park, we decided to break it up into two separate visits.

On our first visit we took the "perimeter road" from the gateway in Port Angeles to Rialto Beach (approximately 68 miles).  There were numerous stops for short hikes, sightseeing, a picnic and even visiting the small town of Forks, where some scenes from the movie Twilight were filmed.  We started the day fairly early and took our time in the park.  On the way back to Sequim, and based on a recommendation from a nice couple from Kentucky, we enjoyed a pizza and frosty beverage at Barhop Brewing and Artisan Pizza.  We didn't arrive back at our rental home until after sunset.  Those McNeely's are party animals!

Near Lake Crescent

The Tuckers doing what the Tuckers do best.  Enjoying the scenery along the shores of Lake Crescent.

A "Driftwood Window" view of Rialto Beach

Barhop Brewing and Artisan Pizza-Port Angeles

Our second visit to Olympic National Park took us up the seventeen-mile Hurricane Ridge Road to the Hurricane Ridge Overlook.  The views were great and there were several trail options from the overlook.  It was an unusually hot day, so we opted for the shorter, flat hike, which in reality is probably what we would have opted for even if the weather conditions had been ideal.  We even took our camp chairs with us on the hike and set up under some shade trees, enjoying the views and greeting other hikers as they passed by.

Hurricane Ridge........

and our new friend.

Olympic National Park is a little off the beaten path to get to, but as we learned from our two visits, it was well worth the effort to visit.........twice!