Seattle Day #5, Wednesday

Well, day #5 was wonderful, too. It was the day that we had set aside for our trip to Victoria BC!

We arose very early and drove northward to catch the ferry at Anacortes, WA. We wanted to take as many ferries as possible to see as much of the area as we could. We had read of the possibilities of seeing a glimpse of whales on this ferry trip. It took us from Anacortes, WA to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island to Sidney, BC. There would be no whale sighting. It was foggy almost all the way to Sidney. Here are some photos of our ferry trip.

Here I am knitting on a pair of fingerless mittens for one of my dear friends. I made these for her b-day. 

Here I am at Friday Harbor. We did not get off the ferry here, just dropped off and picked up passengers. 

In this photo, the fog cleared a little so that you could get a small glimpse of land. 

I am not sure which island this was on, but I loved the boats in the harbor. 

Fog, fog everywhere!

Ahhhh! Sunshine and land!

Sidney BC coming up!

Some sweet person took our picture for us.

Sidney!

Buchart Gardens............

We got to Buchart Gardens right at lunch time, so we had lunch at one of the restaurants there. This was the view from our table.

Yum, a lovely salad for me, soup for Michael.

Now the beauty begins! I'll only comment on a few of these. They need no comments.

I love hydrangeas!

This was in the Japanese garden. It was the only color in the garden. I think that is why I took so many pics of them. They had the perfect plain back drop to display their beauty.

This was a window in the trees that gave us a view of the boat dock. 

It was a perfect frame for a picture. 

Cool, weird trees, limbs every which way, shaped like hundreds of elephant trunks. 

The boat dock where the Bucharts greeted many of their guests that came to the gardens when they resided there.

Beautiful squiggle trees. 

One of the fountains.

This rose was named after Jennie Buchart, the one who started this garden.

These hydrangeas are bigger than my head!

Their size as compared to Michael's hand. 

A wall of dahlias!

Where they start new plants. 

This tree reminded me of reindeer horns in their velvet. I loved its shape.

They even had a carousel house. 

We stopped at the carousel house for an ice cream cone break and was entertained by a small little bird. 

You got any crumbs?

Beautiful wall art!

Lovely, simple, elegant cone flowers.

 Well, right about this time was when my camera battery died and I discovered that the shutter was not opening without manually opening it every time you turned it on. I still had much more of the gardens to show, but you will have to plan a trip for yourself to see the rest.

Our next stop was our hotel in Victoria. Very nice digs, almost too nice. I felt slightly out of place, almost like Ma & and Pa Kettle go to town!

We had a corner room with a grand view!

Very elegant decor, too.

The bathroom.

The view from one window.

The view from the other window. 

We looked up the local yarn store in Victoria. It is called the Beehive Wool Shop. What a wonderful yarn store! They have been in business for over 100 years!
They had a place for Michael to sit while I petted all the yarn options. He visited with a young employee who gave him the coffee place scoop and restaurant scoop for Victoria. Every once in a while, he would throw me an encouraging word to find a yarn that I could not get in the US. I did not think there was anything that I could not get back home, but.......

Just as we were about to leave, I commented on a shop model of a shawl that they had made up. It was the Stripe Study Shawl by Veera Valimaki. It was done in a lovely pistachio green and grey. Michael commented that he really liked that shawl. The shop owner said that it was knitted in a lace weight 100% cashmere yarn that was not available in the US and that they had it on sale for 1/2 price. 100% cashmere, not available in the US, 1/2 price, and I had the hook in my mouth and she reeled me in! I chose a lovely orange/rust and  cast iron/gray combination. Of course, now you can get it here, but mine was a lovely reminder of Victoria! I just love yarn souvenirs. Here I am holding it at our next stop, a coffee place!

This is 2% Jazz. 

Michael had one for now and some to take home.

And then we were off to find a camera to replace the one that was failing on us. Wasn't what I wanted to do, but still had more days of the trip to capture.

This is a Walmart in Victoria. Escalator, two floors, underground parking. We wanted to go a cashier and say, "Greeting from the mother land!"

We ended up finding a replacement at Best Buy. It was a newer version of the one that I had and was used to.

Victoria at night is a glorious sight! But we had gotten up so early that morning to catch the ferry at Anacortes, done all of Buchart, yarn shopped, coffee shopped, camera shopped, that I was literally dragging!

See, I am exhausted. We finally decided on Pescatores for dinner. We had a long wait, but boy am I glad that we waited. This place was so good, probably my favorite food on the whole trip. I came home wanting to replicate the dish that I had.   

I am perking up from the delicious meal. 

I ordered a scallop/shrimp pasta dish that was wonderful.
Prawn and Scallop Arrabiata ~ 
Italian fettucini tossed with brown butter, garlic, tomato, fresh basil and crushed chilis. The pasta tasted as if it were fresh made. I am not a scallop fan, but the scallop was huge and seared to perfection. My dish was the most perfect dish that I have ever had the joy of eating. It was that good!
Michael ordered the Scallop Carbonara 
Skillet seared scallops tossed with thick sliced bacon in a traditional Italian cream sauce.

And that was the end of the 5th day of our Seattle trip.