Olympic National Park

Art wanted to see some alpine scenery so he'd planned to see Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

 The morning forecast on our iPad did not look promising. From 7-9 AM there was snow.

Sure enough, the road was closed to Hurricane Ridge.

We got to the Visitor Center too early so mom and I waited in the car while Art and Dennis took a walk.

Looks like they saw some trillium.

Once the Visitor Center opened, the ranger told us that Lake Crescent Road and Moments in Time Trail would have wonderful scenery so that's where we went.

We loved seeing moss on the tall trees.

It was hard to capture the ethereal, otherworldly look of this area.

But we tried anyway.

After enjoying the woodland scenery we drove on to visit our friends, Patty and Paul.  Art went to school with Paul many years ago.

Patty had prepared a scrumptious quinoa, avocado, chicken salad for lunch with strawberries for dessert.  It was really great catching up with each others' lives.

And then it was on to Seattle!

We ate at Masae's Teriyaki which was not great but close to the La Quinta Inn where we were staying.

We would be seeing Linda and Tom on the following day.

Butchart Gardens: 2nd Day

We woke up at 6:00 to bad news. Dennis said mom had been sick during the night and vomited three times. This was a shock! I've never heard of mom being sick to her stomach before.

We discussed our options for the day and decided to forgo a second day at Butchart. Instead we opted to catch an earlier ferry to Port Angeles, Washington.

When we told mom, her face drooped.

"But I feel fine now," she said.  "The fish was just too greasy for me.  I was reading the flyer (written in Japanese) and it mentioned the Himalayan blue poppy. It's supposed to be rare. I really wanted to see it again for a better look."

The rest of us looked at each other and despite our misgivings agreed to go back to Butchart.

It was pretty cold so we dressed mom with a headband, gloves and DJan's Pashmina scarf. She was very toasty warm.

We hadn't paid attention the day before and didn't notice that the other restaurant was even named for the blue poppy.

I asked the docent where the blue poppy was and she directed us to the Japanese garden. She said the Himalayan blue poppies were not scheduled to bloom until June; the earliest was mid May. Ah well... Mom got to see the bud anyway.  She'd mistaken the Pasque flower of the day before for the blue poppy.

We met a very friendly couple from China who took this photo for us at the Sunken Garden.

Art told mom and me to wait while he and Dennis sprinted over to that hill with the red arrow.

"Let's test out your new camera," he said. "See if you can take our photo."

My son-in-law and daughter had bought me a new Canon PowerShot SX50HS this past Christmas.

I took the top photo (with the red arrow) of Art and Dennis without using my telephoto.

I took the bottom photo with the telephoto. If I had a tripod, it would have been clearer. It's amazing what a point and shoot can do.

Pretty wonderful, I'd say.

I took more photos of flowers.  I couldn't help myself.

Art couldn't resist buying this mug with the Himalayan blue poppy on it for mom. He also bought her the calendar so she could have the memory of this wonderful trip whenever she goes into the kitchen next year.

On the road to the ferry, we saw several grafted trees that had both white and pink cherry blossoms. I've never seen this before.

Lunch was at Wendy's.  And no, the Free Frosty tag does not work in Canada but they did give free Senior drinks. 

Back in Victoria we bought our tickets for our ferry crossing and went through the customs questions. 

In Port Angeles we stayed at the Super 8 Motel.

Yes, there were more cherry blossoms there.

Our dinner was at Pho Saigon. We thought that would be the best thing for mom's stomach.

We always love going to Canada, but it was nice to be back in the U.S. so I could take my cellphone off the airplane mode.

On to Butchart Gardens

We had a very early 4:30 wake up because we had to leave the hotel at 5:15 to reach the ferry to Vancouver Island. It cost $101 to ferry our car across to Vancouver Island.

We ate Tim Horton muffins with coffee on the ferry.

Dennis' Garmin GPS was still working great.

Rain was expected and Butchart staff had umbrellas ready for people to borrow.

The famous Butchart boar was acquired from Florence, Italy. It greets everyone who enters the gardens.

Do you see mom briskly walking (uphill!) a teeny bit impatiently?  We had to rush to keep up with her.

The first place we needed to see was the Sunken Garden.

The lighting was not good so we resolved to return to take another photo.


The Sunken Garden was created in an exhausted limestone quarry by Jennie Butchart. Her husband, Robert Butchart owned Portland Cement.

We were so glad to see the sun come out.


We didn't need umbrellas the entire day.

Raindrops on the tulips made them extra beautiful. Dennis told me that he knew some photographers used a spray bottle to get the same effect.

Please forgive me for all these photos.


Feel free to just scroll through quickly.  I just love looking at them and remembering.

The Japanese garden was a favorite place for mom.

You can see the window here of the restaurant where we would be having our lunch. 

It started to rain pretty hard while we were having our lunch at the Dining Room Restaurant which was once the home of the Butcharts.

Mom had the crab and English pea arancine for the appetizer while we had the smoked salmon flatbread.

For the main entree we had the West Coast seafood turnover while Dennis had the AAA rib-eye burger which is not pictured.

As we left the restaurant, the rain stopped.

The sun was out and everything glistened and sparkled.

Our next stop was the warm and humid Victoria Butterfly Garden. Thank goodness the attendant told me to use the hand dryer on my camera lens because it kept getting fogged up from being outside in the cold.

What a surprise to see so many cherry trees blossoming from our Embassy Inn room.

We were pretty tired so we decided to just do a carry out of fish and chips from Barb's Place.  It advertised that it was one of the "top 10 seafood spots by the sea" by Sunset magazine.

Art and Dennis were nearly frozen standing outside waiting for the fish and chips while mom and I waited in the car.

The fish and chips were OK...  I'm sure they'd have been tastier if it was eaten right away at the dock.

It was another wonderful, beautiful day.

Granville Island

Art and I went out the night before and got more breakfast items for ourselves.

And yes, we also had Tim Horton muffins again with bananas and mango juice from a corner market.

Mom and Dennis got the breakfast buffet.

We'd been to Granville Island on our last trip and decided to go back so we could pick up Cypress Honey Lager beer for our friends, Patty and Paul in Seattle. Art had it in his notes that it was a favorite of theirs.

What a surprise to find this grove of cherry blossom trees there!

Art pressed one flower to show our granddaughter.

 Mom was in heaven!

 Mallard ducks and Canadian geese were looking for handouts.














We thought these silos were pretty impressive.

The Granville Public Market reminded me of Pike's Place Market.

The "Duke" chocolate egg was certainly eye catching.

Everybody enjoyed their lunches with a view of the waterfront.

I stopped in a candy shop to ask for directions to the Granville Island Brewing and Taproom and was told by the friendly clerk that he thought the Granville Island Lager was the best beer he'd ever tasted.

We decided to get the Cypress Honey Lager Beer for our friends, Patty and Paul because that was their favorite and the Granville Island Lager for Linda and Tom who we'd also soon be seeing.

Dennis also bought some of both so we could do a taste test ourselves.

We still had time so we decided to go to the Vancouver Art Gallery which advertised some of Cezanne's paintings.

It was really a disappointment.  The first floor had the drawings/paintings (not much) and the fourth floor had modern art which we didn't really care for. I do enjoy modern art too, but these were just uninteresting.  The other two floors were being renovated so you couldn't go there. Even at the family rate of $50 that they kindly gave us, it was not worth it.

On the other hand, our second trip to Momo Sushi was great.

We returned to the hotel and did the beer taste test.

I'm sorry Patty and Paul, but the Granville Island Lager won.

Next time we go to Granville Island, we'll bring the Granville Island Lager for you instead so you can try it out.

You could say this day ended on a definite "high" note.

Vancouver!

We were in Vancouver to see cherry blossoms. We knew there should still be a few late blooming ones.

We actually overslept a little and woke up at 7:00.  Mom and Dennis went for the breakfast buffet which came with their room, but not ours. Art and I had a Tim Horton muffin and hotel coffee which actually was just right.

Our first stop was Stanley Park where we saw so many cherry blossoms six years ago.

This year, they were all gone.

Dennis and mom were fascinated by the huge Canadian geese.

Next stop:
VanDusen Botanical Garden

The hyacinth were all blooming beautifully!

And there was this one cherry tree.

The daffodils and rhododendrons were lovely.

Mom loves camellias.

We decided to grab lunch at VanDusen.

Unfortunately, the food was so so.  Mom said her quiche was not anywhere as good as the one she'd had at Nell Thorn.

Next stop:  Queen Elizabeth Park

You could see the city of Vancouver from this high garden.

The Queen Elizabeth Park Conservatory had birds like that zebra finch and the flowers were so perfect, they looked almost plastic.

Next stop:  Capilano Suspension Bridge Park.

I have to tell you that we think it's rather overpriced.

We'd gone there the last time, but Art thought that Dennis might enjoy seeing it.

I really think mom enjoyed walking on the suspension bridge even though she was gritting her teeth while going across.

There was no way mom was going to climb the steps up to the Treetops Adventure.

She waited down below while the rest of us walked around the treetop canopy.

After that adventure, we called it a day.

We headed toward Gastown for dinner.

We saw the famous Vancouver steam clock.

Six years ago we discovered a Japanese restaurant called Momo Sushi in Gastown. Mom loved it so much we'd gone back the next day.

We found it again!

And it was still good!