Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Saanich: Sidney and Butchart Gardens

With the tour of Victoria behind us, our next area of exploration would be the coastal town of Sidney and a visit to world famous Butchart Gardens.

This day, the sky was brilliant blue and the temperature was near perfect.  Sidney did not disappoint us.  It's a typical tourist town though .. complete with waterfront.  This is how it looked...



This diver is carved from red cedar.

I met a nice, older man here and after some intense conversation, I was nearly ready to throw Wayne over for him.  He and I picked flowers together. Unlike Wayne, this quiet gentleman let me rant on and on about anything and everything. Anyone who knows me knows I am a big talker.  My new man friend let me talk without interruption.  I think I was falling in love.


It took some doing, but Wayne did manage to pull me away from my new man friend. I let him keep the flowers we picked. He looks sad in the picture here. I'd just told him that I'd have to leave.

Next stop was for lunch and we were still looking for some good fish and chips. This time we'll avoid the tourist area and opt instead for a hole-in-the-wall local looking place called Fish on 5th. 
We ate outside on the patio.
The car was parked directly in front of us on the street so we could keep an eye on Lexie and Ozzie.

Mine is a tiny piece of halibut with a dollop of cole slaw

Wayne's is a bit larger piece of salmon.

Now this food was real, real good but once again... much too expensive.  Everything in Canada is expensive. I saw a beach side food stand that charged $8 for hamburger, $9 for cheeseburger. That's some expensive burger. 

After lunch we scooted on up to Swartz Bay, the northernmost point and then started south again on the opposite side of the small parcel of land. 

Before we knew it, we were at the world famous Butchart Gardens. 



Now I like plants, blooming and otherwise, and would have liked seeing Butchart Gardens.  At the gate, we were welcomed and asked to hand over $75 Canadian. In US dollars, with the credit card fees added that's going to be closer to $100.  I just can't see paying $100 to drag Wayne around a flower garden.  Just can't see it.  We left Butchart Gardens and I hope we won't regret not going in as it's doubtful we'll ever go back to the island.

Hope you're not too disappointed about the gardens thing.  Just couldn't pay that fee. I'm so cheap.

No comments:

Post a Comment