Tag Archives: The Penny Farthing

Flashback Friday~Butchart Gardens

In August of 2009 Greg, Katie and I managed a one day journey from Washington State to Butchart Gardens. When I had a glitch with Photobucket all my photos from early days with my blog were deleted. It’s quite a task to revive those posts. My photos have been recently recovered and I’ll share the photos I have from  our one day epic trip in 2009 here.

On Tuesday (August 4, 2009) we left our house at 6:00 am and headed north to Anacortes to catch the 8:15 ferry to Sydney, Vancouver Island, B.C. Our ferry ride through the San Juan Islands was very foggy and misty for most of the way. At first it was hard to make out the islands till you got very close. Towards the end of the trip the skies lightened up. Vancouver Island was nice and sunny. We made it to Butchart Gardens after stopping for breakfast along the way.

First things first before touring the Gardens… Katie learned that she needs sunblock or else she’ll burn like a marshmallow in a campfire.

Katie was really intrigued by the Chilean Rhubarb that grows 6-10 feet tall. I zoomed way in to try to capture it. Katie is sure you could float down a river on one of the leaves! :0)

A little blue from Butchart Gardens. It always makes me smile to see blue flowers. The stained glass window was from the Blue Poppy Restaurant in the gardens.

From the Ferry in Sydney on our way to Butchart Gardens we stopped at a restaurant called The Roost which had great freshly made food. I opted for their sandwich special with Beet Borsch on the side. The sandwich was a chicken, cheese, basil, tomato, red onion and Portobello mushroom. Dear had the same sandwich but with a Roasted Yam and cilantro soup. Katie ordered the 3 cheese quiche with a garden salad. We would go back to this spot if we ever ferry across from Anacortes to Sydney again. After we walked about Butchart Gardens and on our way into Victoria we stopped in Oak Bay and were happy to stumble upon the Penny Farthing where we enjoyed some traditional Fish & Chips and Lamb Stew.

It’s too bad we had to be in the ferry line for 90 minutes prior to our trip back to the states or we could have fit in one more good meal on the Island!

We traveled on the Black Ball ferry out of Victoria to Port Angeles to get home. From Port Angeles we had to make it to Kingston, Washington before the last ferry set sail at 11:10 pm. We were so thankful to make it on time and to be in our beds by 12:30 am!

It’s incredible to me that we managed this trip in one day back in 2009. We were still living in Camarillo, California during this time and we enjoyed coming back to our home in Washington and spending as much time as we could with our adult children.

Craigdarroch Castle or…

…heigh-ho, heigh-ho, It’s off to walk we go. On Saturday morning after a lovely breakfast we set out for our day of walking. First stop would be Craigdarroch Castle.

 

We saw things along the way that we felt were worth of some space on our memory cards.

 

 

 

 

Craigdarroch Castle was built between 1887-1890 for Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune from Vancouver Island coal. This Victorian mansion, built on a hill overlooking the City of Victoria announced to the world that Robert Dunsmuir was the richest and most important man in Western Canada. Craigdarroch means “rocky, oak place” in Gaelic.

 

 

I took this photo looking up the stairwell to the 4th floor. The interior oak panelling was pre-fabricated including the stairs, doors, window frames, and 2182 panels. They were shipped from Chicago to Victoria in five railcars in the summer of 1890 and installed in the house.

 

 

 

The castle has one of North America’s finest collection of Victorian residential stained and leaded glass windows.

 

 

 

This was the breakfast room for the family. After touring all 4 floors we headed out on foot again.

Our 2nd destination was a bust so we headed for the Oak Bay area of Victoria and found the Penny Farthing to rest our feet and get some refreshment before our 3rd destination of the day.

 

We are finally getting some sunshine today. Woohoo!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with these blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Foodie Friday ~ Eating on Vancouver Island

Welcome to Foodie Friday hosted at Designs by Gollum. Click on the logo to see more.

 

My husband, daughter and I spent Tuesday on Vancouver Island and we managed to eat well. From the Ferry in Sydney on our way to Butchart Gardens we stopped at a restaurant called The Roost which had great freshly made food. I opted for their sandwich special with Beet Borsch on the side. The sandwich was a chicken, cheese, basil, tomato, red onion and portabello mushroom. Dear had the same sandwich but with a Roasted Yam and cilantro soup. Katie ordered the 3 cheese quiche with a garden salad. We would go back to this spot if we ever ferry across from Anacortes to Sydney again. After we walked about Butchart Gardens and on our way into Victoria we stopped in Oak Bay and were happy to stumble upon the Penny Farthing where we enjoyed some traditional Fish & Chips and Lamb Stew. It’s too bad we had to be in the ferry line for 90 minutes prior to our trip back to the states or we could have fit in one more good meal on the Island!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.