Victoria - Butchart and Butterfly Gardens

The Butcharts' home now houses restaurants, the gift shop and info center.

The view looking down into the Sunken Garden, once a limestone quarry.

This pond with water lilies is in the Sunken Garden

 Because if was a short day in Victoria we decided to go on another cruise ship tour and the only one with seats available was the Butchart Gardens and Butterfly Gardens. I really wanted just the former having seen many butterfly gardens in the past but our experience in San Francisco cutting it too close on boarding taught us to be careful. And it was a very good tour due to an excellent guide who drove us two different directions through Victoria so we saw a lot of the city. 

This waterfall was at the end of the quarry. Those are forget-me-nots in blue with wine dark tulips.

Scott in the Japanese Garden

I found this peep hole in the Japanese Garden that showed a glimpse of the lake and their boats.

Butchart Gardens is a marvel - one of the prettiest ones I've ever seen - especially the sunken garden which is built in the old lime quarry. Robert and Jennie Butchart bought land on Vancouver island in 1904 with limestone deposits for his Portland Cement Company. In 1909 when the quarry was exhausted Jennie began a life long job of turning it into a garden. It's still owned by the family and run by their great-granddaughter. 

I can't resist including tons of photos - there were many more of course.

The Italian Garden, built on the old tennis courts

The tulip colors were so gorgeous - looking from the Italian garden to the Rose Garden, which was due to the time of year, flowerless. 

As you can see from the photos, we had a beautiful day. We walked all around the property. The main areas are: the Sunken garden, Rose garden, Japanese garden and Italian garden. The displays are changed for each of the four seasons. We wish we could be there to view the other 3 seasons!!!

More tulips in the Italian Garden

The Greenhouse with orchids and blue poppies

A view into the Greenhouse

Just love these!

Then we moved to the Butterfly garden, a private enterprise and quite nice really. Scott particularly loved the flamingo and parrots. They had some lovely flowers as well. The drive back went right through the historic waterfront area and really made us wish we had a lot more time there. Oh well, another time maybe. But our last night on ship was very pleasant with a good evening show featuring the Princess singers and dancers. We said good-bye to our wonderful Stewart Paolo and packed our suitcases to leave outside our door. More on our trip to Vancouver in my next posts.

Blue Poppies are ethereal 

This insect is well camouflaged. 

Scott was good at catching these butterflies
at their brief rest.

And the parrots as well.

Only one flamingo!

Those are U.S. mountains across the bay from Victoria

San Diego and San Francisco

 

Sandra, Scott, Heather, Brian, Pat and David

Our Uber driver dropped off at the wrong end of
the park so we walked the length of it to meet 
Pat and Brian. 

There are 16 museums in the Park which is on
1,200 acres.

We were excited to see our old friends in San Diego and it was all too short a visit. But we really had a chance to catch up on our lives and reminisce about our history together. Sandra Francour and I met in  the Philippines while we served in the Peace Corps. We were stationed not far apart from 1966 - 67 and have remained good friends since. David Wood and Brian & Pat Armstrong are all friends from 1969 onwards and were part of the infamous "ski group".  We've been out to San Diego several times to visit them and get to see David more often at his second home in Kingston, MA. 

We met at this fountain in front of the San Diego Museum of
Art.

The Botanical Building was recently
renovated.

The entrance to the Prado

We took an Uber up to Balboa Park to meet Pat and Brian and toured the Botanical Garden and San Diego Museum of Art together. We met the others for dinner at the elegant Prado Restaurant. But the fun was being with them and it was hard to say good-bye after only a few hours. 

We had spots on the top of the bus - lovely in the
city but freezing over the Golden Gate Bridge!!!

Union Park had a fun festival going on but we had
not time to get off and enjoy it. 

It was a short cruise from there to San Francisco and we woke the next morning tied to the dock. Our daughter Zoë and son-in-law George planned to meet us for lunch at 1:30 PM after their morning run. They meet every Saturday morning with a running group - both are long distance runners. So we took a Hop On Hop Off bus that was supposed to be 2.5 hours and we started at 11 AM. The bus broke down and we had to wait for a substitute and it ended up 3.5 hours long - very late for our lunch!

Haight Ashbury is another area we'd love to
explore. 

A damsel in distress?

But it was fun seeing them and we enjoyed a meal overlooking the bay. The time went by so quickly and suddenly it was 4 PM. And the all aboard time was 4:30!!! As always with Murphy's law one problem after another resulted in our running for the gangway and arriving just at 4:30 - pretty scared. It turns out they don't cut off entry right away and we watched at least 20 people board after us. But we'll never cut it that close again! And in the rush to make it to the boat - we forgot to get a picture of them!!!

Our bus crossed the Golden Gate bridge and 
here's a shot just before we got on to return.

A view of the city as our ship departed.

Our trip was coming to a close. We had one sea day left before our arrival in Victoria and the next day was our departure in Vancouver. More on that in my next post.

Crossing under the bridge - it looks like a close
call!

And farewell San Francisco!

L.A. Briefly

 

Our favorite shows in the evenings were  the Princess Dancers, Singers and Band. And one afternoon one of the featured soloists was given an opportunity to put on a Main Stage Show on his own. It was fantastic - he got a standing ovation and hopefully the chance to do it for Princess as a main stage artist. 

The head chef on my left is from my own
 Province in the Philippines! 

The five sea days from Honolulu went much faster and were more fun. We met two women from Vancouver who were bridge players and had regular games.  Another fun event was a presentation by  the Head Chef and Head Restaurant Manager that was really fun and interesting. It was followed by a tour of the kitchens - amazing! The weather was pretty good - we were able to sun bathe (not for long) on our balcony. And maybe we're just getting used to the routine! 

One of only 11 copies known of the Guttenberg
Bible

Blue Boy by Gainsborough

A modern version by Kehinde Wiley that 
was commissioned by the Library and 
hangs across from it. Such fun!

We didn't have much time in L.A. so we booked a cruise ship tour - the Huntington Library and Griffith Observatory.  Due to the limited time in port, our stays there were much too short. The Huntington Library is a complex including an extensive art collection, amazing rare books, and a botanical garden. We managed to see all of the European collection in the Mansion, which include "Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough and "Pinkie" by Thomas Lawrence. 

The Mansion from the Library

Rows of Camillias and marble statues lined this
grassy avenue

The library contains some amazing books - just a few: a vellum copy of the Guttenberg Bible, Isaac Newton's personal copy of Mathematical Principals of Natural Philosophy with annotations in Newton's own hand and the first seven drafts of Thoreau's Walden. I loved the one page open in Audubon's Birds of America. We were only able to see a small amount of the extensive gardens, alas!

The view from the Griffith over the park to the Hollywood sign

And down through the park to the city

Our second stop was the Griffith Observatory. It is inside a beautiful park on the slope of Mount Hollywood. The land and money to build the observatory was donated by Griffith J. Griffith in 1896. The observatory's objective was to be accessible to the public, not restricted to scientists. It's a wonderful building with lots of exhibits and the great Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, which we were unable to use. 

Scott on the walkway around the Observatory

Our next stop is San Diego and we're going to see our old friends: Pat & Brian Armstrong, David Wood and Sandra Francoeur. More on that in my next post.

The Observatory from the front.

Honolulu Visit

Arriving in Honolulu on our Royal Princess.

We've found using the Hop On Hop Off buses
or trolleys a good way to get to know the cities.

We arrived early Thursday April 30th in Honolulu. It was a beautiful day. Scott went down at 8 AM (as requested) to pick up our numbered departure. It was 25! The morning dragged on and on. It was 11 AM before the first number was called! Before that it was people disembarking for good. Customs/Immigration was on the boat in the Vista Lounge. Finally we went up for some lunch. Then we were fed up - only on number 20 but we went down anyway. Had to walk all around the outside of the boat and when we finally got to the immigration, there was a huge line. But because we were U.S. citizens we got to walk right past everyone and were finished in just a few minutes! We could have done that ages ago but no one told us. We talked to people from the US and other countries later and many people didn't get out until late afternoon! 

Washington Place where Queen Liliuokalani
was arrested during the overthrow of the 
Hawaiian Kingdom.

The "Punchbowl" is the site of the National 
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and had 
beautiful views of the city.

The beautiful statue of King Kamehameha in front
of the Hawaiian Supreme Court - the former seat of
government of the Kingdom of Hawaii

We made it out around 12:30 PM and got a free Hilo Hattie shuttle to the Ala Moana Mall. We had purchased a two day pass to the Hop On Hop Off Trolley which has four routes: Pink, Red, Blue and Green. We caught a pink one over to the Waikiki Mall where we found long lines for the other routes. We decided to do the red route but it was 40 minutes away so had a cup of coffee in the mall. We finally got on the trolly and enjoyed the guide and trip - Waikiki beach, Iolani Palace, and the Punchbowl War Memorial. He dropped us off near the boat. 

Iolani Palace - the only Royal Palace in the U.S.
It was completed in 1882.

We were very lucky we had canceled our original plans for a Luau at 12:30PM. It was over an hour away so we would have never made it! Instead we booked a dinner Luau. By the time we got back from our trolley tour, I was exhausted so waited down at the shuttle stop while Scott went up to change and bring me a dry top. We were supposed to be picked up at 4:25PM. Scott had several frustrating conversations with them while we were on the bus but it seemed OK. But when the shuttle arrived our names weren't on it. The fellow in charge said he'd come back if necessary and Scott called and they sent an Uber! We got there at 6 PM. But then all was great. Flower leis, lots of drink tickets and seats right up front. We downed a bunch of Mai Tais and all was well. The show was terrific. The buffet fine, not outstanding. Fun night. Scott volunteered for the hula lesson on stage and I got a great photo. We went back on the bus.

Scott gets a hula lesson up on the stage during our Luau. He's right in the center!

Our show highlighted the music and stories of all 
the Polynesian islands

It was called the Warrior Luau so lots of male 
dancers for a change.

Fires were everywhere during the final segment,
including fire walking!

Friday it was easy to leave the boat and we walked up to the public bus which took us down to the Waikiki Mall. The Green Line brought us up to the Diamond Head National Park. We transferred to the Blue Line and this was terrific with gorgeous scenery and lasted almost 2 hours. At the end the Pink bus took us back to the Ala Moana Mall where we had lunch at the Food Court, did some errands and bought lots of gifts. This was a lovely day! But now 5 more sea days before we get to Los Angeles! 

Waikiki Beach and the statue of Duke Kahanamoku , the father of modern surfing and a five time
Olympic metal holder in swimming.

We saw one fabulous beach after another on our Blue Line trolley tour

This spot was the only one on the tour where we
were able to get off and take photos

Otherwise I just snapped them from the trolley. We
really were sorry we weren't able to enjoy these
gorgeous beaches and have a swim!