Alaskan Cruise - Victoria, B.C.

Victoria, B.C. is such a beautiful city.

Todd and I have visited before,

so all the excursions we could have done weren't necessary.

I thought at one point, Butchart Gardens is fantastic, 

we need to go back, but in the end

I couldn't justify spending several hundred dollars

to do something that we had already done.

 

Instead, we decided to walk around the city and explore.

We had several hours at port, so there was plenty of time

to go wherever or do whatever we wanted.

We didn't make any real plans, just meandered around

and took a bunch of pictures.

 

 

Victoria is extremely clean, and there are flowers everywhere.

This is by the Inner Harbour which is beautiful.

One of several selfies taken this day.

 

You gotta do what you gotta do when nobody is around

to take your pictures.  At least I don't have a selfie stick!

 

British Columbia's Parliament building is

 so majestic and breath taking.

 

 

The Empress is pretty impressive as well.

This is where you have high tea.

When I was in Victoria last, with my mother & daughter,

we went to high tea here.  While costly, it is a fun experience,

and something touristy to do if you like that sort of thing.

 

It was such a beautiful day in Victoria,

I believe it was 74 degrees, and we just enjoyed

taking in all of our surroundings.

This "sculpture" is made entirely with plants.

and was just on one of the streets that we walked down.

 

 

Of course we couldn't go very long without

 getting liquid lightning.

We sat outside Sam's Deli and people watched

for about an hour.  It was a great little spot facing

the Parliament Building.

 

This was a beautiful church that we couldn't resist

taking a picture of.  We're geeks like that.

We say, "Oh pretty!" and take a picture

even if we don't know what it is or

the significance of it.

 

I believe this was Totem Park (or maybe it's part of Beacon Hill),

but don't quote me on that.

It had neat totems, but we had seen so many

I wasn't extremely interested at this point

in looking at them.

So we browsed quickly and then walked up the hill.

Can I tell you I'm glad we did.

It was amazing!

I don't think we have any parks that you

can view for free like this in California.

You would probably have to pay a fee to enter,

but Beacon Hill Park was open to the public.

 

We saw this little guy just walking through the parking lot.

 

 

I was fascinated by this Giant Watering Can

inside Beacon Hill Park.

There were buttons that children could push to

make the watering can spill water,

but I believe they were on a watering restriction,

so the structure wasn't working.

But what a super cool idea!

 

There were beautifully groomed gardens throughout the park.

 

By the time we finished walking through the city

and then the huge park, Todd and I were exhausted.

I think we walked something like 5 or 6 miles.

I wore the wrong type of shoes and my feet were on fire!

We decided to head back to the ship for lunch

and some relaxation.

 

It was a perfect end to a perfect day.

The only down side...

we knew our vacation was coming to an end.