Don’t Pick the Flowers!

Note: This post is going to blow your mind with the amount of pictures.  But how can I narrow it down. I can’t. Accept it.

When you think of Victoria surely one of the first things you think of is the Butchart Gardens.  Well, perhaps if it wasn’t before, now it will be.  My wonderful sister-in-law, Jolayne, sent us two tickets to go see the flowers at the Butchart Gardens. Thank you Jo! We snuck the kids in under our coats.  It was on our to-do list for sure, but with tickets in our hands we made it a have-to-do and went out on a journey. 

Being so enamoured with the sea, we tend to take the beautiful winding roads along the coast wherever we got. This time, however, we decided to discover what all that land between the sea holds, and we weren’t disappointed.  We got to see farms, and horses, and beautiful homes, and did I mention horses?  I guess it’s official: I could live here. We stopped at a great country market on the side of the road that actually turned out just to be a façade for a pretty conventional grocery store (they sold Grapples -- genetically modified apples that taste like grapes... or is it grapes that taste like apples???)  Then we pulled over at a farm advertising that they sold organic eggs and bread. When we went in there was no one there, just a room full of goods with prices on them.  By the door was a note book and some money.  As far as I could tell, protocol was just to write down what you took, and leave your money.  I wrote: a half dozen duck eggs - $2.50.  It was awesome!

We pulled into Butchart Gardens and it felt like we were driving into Disney Land. It was so beautiful, perfectly clean, and there were people every 10 feet wearing white gloves directing us to where we should park. 

It may not surprise you to know that I tend to like the wild kind of beauty a lot more than the manicured kind.  Yet, I can’t even describe to you the beauty of this place.  It was like walking through a painting of the most vivid colours. There were thousands and thousands of flowers, perfectly planted and so amazing.  My favourite part was the Sunken Garden.  Pictures won’t do it justice, but I’ll post them anyway. You walk into it from above and look down into an old limestone mine that is now the most vibrant garden you have ever seen!

We were little out of place, not being in our Golden Years, wearing attire better suited for golfing, with cameras worth more than our car, but enjoyed it just the same.  Next time, and for any of you who might venture here, if you bring your littles, bring a stroller and treats.  Eli was really, really good, but he never understood why he couldn’t pick the flowers, and he did get a little restless by the end.  But, it wasn’t all for naught for the little ones.  They did have a carousel that went surprisingly fast (and I’ve stood next to many a carousel horse to make such a claim!)

And some pretty cool totems.

And then there were the frog fountains. 

Let’s not leave out the stepping stones.

Or the many statues.

Okay, I take it back, it was even more awesome for Eli than it was for us. What was he complaining about?!

Because I can’t explain it any better than the pictures, here’s our attempts at National Geographic.

And finally, we cajoled a nice stranger to take a picture of the four of us, a rarity. 

We went home, cooked up some duck eggs for the boys and fell asleep very easily.  Right before Eli dozed off he did sit up and exclaim, "I didn’t have any fun. All I saw was a lot of flowers!!!"  Sleep well my little one.