| Upon arriving in Victoria, one of the first things we did was visit the Butchart Gardens | The Sunken Garden (in the site of an old quarry) is one of Pete’s favorite parts | The the most prominent remains of the old cement factory that was on the site is this kiln chimney | The Sunken Garden lake, beautiful even in the winter | Fountains | The nymph of the Sunken Garden |
| Looking from above | The Rose Carousel is every bit as well-maintained as the rest of the gardens | And lots of fun to ride too! | Even Innaias had his own seat | The lucky brass boar (Flynn’s taking notes for his quest) | Not far from Butchart Gardens, we had lunch at a restaurant next to this marina |
| It’s a New Orleans-style restaurant recommended by our Victoria friends, that red building on the right | After the gardens, we headed back to the hotel. The afternoon ferry back to Port Angeles was just leaving. | Guinness just before nap time | The nighttime view from our hotel window | While in Victoria, we met up with our friends Dal and Michelle (here with us at the Old Spaghetti Factory) | The Parliament Buildings, which were on the walk between our hotel and the restaurant, were all lit up |
| Some of the waterfront at night, including the famous Empress Hotel | Right next to our hotel was this fountain representing the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada | It’s never too late in the day for a little home-school lesson ☺ | Debra took Flynn and Innaias to the Royal British Columbia Museum | They have galleries for natural history, modern history, and Native Americans | Innaias peruses the egg collection in the natural history gallery |
| Touching the skulls | Innaias studies wolverine facts | They also had bats | But the favorite was the poop! | The hotel encourages the ducks to hang around their pond | We also visited the very awesome Victoria Bug Zoo |
| Many of the insects were large varieties of ones we’re familiar with, such as this grasshopper | Innaias looks at the beetles | A hercules beetle pupa | Centipede (they had a millipede too, but apparently those can bite) | Our guide, showing a tarantula here, reminded me a lot of Ken Stringfellow of The Posies | The tarantula is apparently quite fragile, so only the adults are permitted to hold them |
| Explaining the “urticating” hairs on the abdomen (almost like a porcupine!) | Debra and the spider | We also got to handle one of the scorpions. Again, being so fragile, only adults were allowed to. | This particular species is apparently not very aggressive (or so we were led to believe ☺ ) | The cockroaches are old hat for Guinness and Flynn | Guinness, don’t let the cockroach get away! ☺ |
| Even Innaias got to hold the cockroach | Flynn and the walking stick | Closeup | A very large katydid | Innaias holds the dead-leaf mantis | Another dead-leaf mantis, I think (but a different age from the brown one) |
