Butchart Gardens

You can't come to Vancouver Island and not see the Butchart Gardens, so that's what we did. We rode the ferry from Mill Bay over to Brentwood and lucky for us it was a partly sunny day. The gardens are phenomenal. I wished I could pick a bouquet full of these luscious flowers. Allie snipped a tiny piece of something that smelled wonderful and I hid it in my pocket. Hours later I was tossing it out with the tissue and crumpled receipts as it was no longer recognizable.

We were supposed to get Carly to Vancouver Airport this afternoon, but when we arrived to the Swartz Bay ferry we found it full. Incredible for a Tuesday we were told, but still, it threw us into panic mode wondering how to develop Plan B on the fly. Remember, we are on an island, you just can't hop over to Vancouver at will. We drove straight to the airport to see about putting her on a plane to Vancouver, but three air carriers later, we were nowhere. How about a helicopter, a concerned bystander suggested. Well, we're just not that panicked, thank you, we'll work something out.

We worked it out by rescheduling her flight to tomorrow--same carrier, same flight numbers, same escorts. Tomorrow will be our own personal Groundhog Day as we re-live the preparations and drive to the ferry again. On the bright side, Allison and James get Carly as a playmate for another day. Oh, and we stopped for lunch in Sidney, something we wouldn't have done, for fish and chips. We had the most fabulous plate of F&C's served with french-fried yams and curry-mayonnaise dip at Fish on Fifth where the world's most enthusiastic waiter, Sean, responded to our news that we were traveling North America by Airstream with "AWESOME!" about a dozen times. I could hear him from the kitchen repeating it over and over again. I felt inclined to take him along.