The Most Beautiful Gardens I’ve Ever Seen: Butchart Gardens
Touring Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia
This is the second part of my post describing my favorite vacation of all time. As a reminder, a few years ago I was trying to decide where to go for vacation. One of my favorite magazines, Victoria, had just arrived in my mailbox.
The travel feature that month happened to be the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state. Orcas Island is part of the San Juan Islands. The pictures were beautiful, so on a whim I booked a flight to Seattle.
I spent several days on Orcas Island which you can read about in my post One of the Most Beautiful Places I’ve Visited: Orcas Island. I concluded my vacation by returning to Seattle for a day and then taking a ferry to Victoria, British Columbia.
Spending a full day exploring the highlights of downtown Seattle was a must. Of course I visited the Pike Place Market and witnessed the famous fish throwing. I also enjoyed eating a smoked salmon crepe at the market. And I ordered some fresh salmon to be shipped home and checked out other fun stalls like Johnson Farms jams.
Then I finished the day with the best restaurant meal I’ve ever had. Nothing to this day has topped it. It was a restaurant recommended to me by a friend. The Metropolitan Grille provided me with a delicious meal of lobster bisque and Copper River salmon.
Victoria Harbor and Butchart Gardens are Simply Stunning
After my full day in Seattle, I woke up early the next day to catch a ferry over to Victoria, B.C. As a lover of afternoon tea, I was inspired to go to Victoria and take afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel (pictured above). It was as magical as I had hoped it would be. From the beautiful setting to the dainty tea sandwiches and pastries, it was exactly what an afternoon tea experience should be. You can read more about it here. I also spent time just walking around the downtown area and taking photographs. Every lamppost contained gorgeous hanging baskets of summer flowers at their peak. This was only a small taste of the floral beauty to come from my visit to Butchart Gardens.
Highlights of Butchart Gardens
Stepping onto the grounds of Butchart Gardens, my mind was blown away by the variety of stunning landscapes. It is hard to believe this used to be an ugly quarry which was transformed into beautiful gardens by Jennie Butchart. To read more of the details about the garden, visit their website here.
I’m the kind of person who wants very much to be a gardener, but I tend to lose interest rapidly the higher the temperatures climb during our Georgia summers. It was wonderful to walk around and enjoy the fruits of labor so many others have put into maintaining these gardens. I will let the pictures above speak for themselves.
Whether you are an avid gardener or just an admirer like me, you will not be disappointed in a visit to Butchart Gardens. Nor will you be disappointed by a visit to the San Juan Islands. I hope that you have enjoyed walking down memory lane with me on my favorite vacation. Writing this post brings back so many fond memories of my trip to the Pacific Northwest.
You also don’t want to miss some of our other travel related posts. Be sure and check them out!
Five Simple Tips for Amazing Summer Road Trips!
Even Your Kids Can Be Great Travelers!
Experience the Great Outdoors Through These Awesome Books
Have a good day –
Kristin
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