On the island

After settling in we headed straight to the harbour. It is a spectacular view with the BC Government buildings on one side, the Empress Hotel facing the harbour and the lovely old buildings that make up the downtown area on the other side.

BC Parliament Buildings

The Empress Hotel

After a walk we settled on Sam's deli for supper - another great seafood chowder!!



Cute snail in the Butchart Gardens

The next day we set off for the Butchart Gardens. They were set out in the 1920s by Mrs Butchart to cover used quarries that had been the Butcharts' business. There are about five huge manicured gardens with a range of themes. They were absolutely spectacular, and we enjoyed strolling around and enjoying them over a number of hours.

Rose Garden

Sunken Garden



Japanese Garden

Arty shot of our group




Phoebe and Liam on Annabelle

On the way back to our apartment we stopped in at Craigdarroch Castle, a mansion built by a coal magnate in the late 1800s. It is castle-like in design and has an interesting history.




Staircase in Craigdarroch Castle

Exterior of the castle













That night Dad and I set out for some real fish and chips, and ended up at a little outfit working out of a container called Red Fish Blue Fish. It was great fish and chips!

The following day we continued our search for Emily Carr. We spent the morning at the Royal BC Museum. The exhibition on Carr that was on was not really what we were after, and contained only a handful of her paintings. The museum, though, was excellent, and we really enjoyed their First Nations and local history displays.


This caught Mum's eye in the Royal BC Museum

Still on the trail, we walked to Emily Carr's house in the afternoon. It had a lovely collection of memorabilia about her and her family, and one of her paintings. They directed us to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoira. We were starting to think that we were never going to see these paintings!!



Emily Carr's House

On our way to Kamloops the next day we stopped off at the gallery and were able to see about 30 of her works in a very nice exhibition. The gallery had a number of interesting displays and we spent a nice morning there before heading back to the ferry and then embarking on the long drive back to Kamloops.