Day 2: Birds and Bees
Today we went to the Butchart Gardens which are apparently famous and quite rightfully so. The area was once a time quarry that fed the neighboring cement factory. Now the entire quarry has been transformed into a sunken garden and the flowers continue to spread out beyond it to something like 50 acres. My favorite was the Japanese gardens. Shawn spent many gleeful hours taking pictures of flowers and bees and I, in turn, took pictures of him taking pictures, though I don't think he got any pictures of me taking pictures of him taking pictures, which is good because otherwise this sentence might go on forever.
Lunch at the gardens was a little expensive but we had brought our own. We jerry-rigged a cooler out of the hotel ice bucket and so when lunch time came around we found a picnic table and had our salami and cheese and naan bread and hummus. It was quite yummy.
From the gardens, we went to the butterfly habitat. A mocker swallowtail butterfly landed on Shawn and crawled up his camera strap and I met the cutest bird I've ever seen in my life. I'll post a picture when I get my act together. I then sat in smelly bird poop belonging to a particularly ornery south american water fowl named Spike.
We finished up the evening sharing a fresh cracked crab and a bottle of Canadian wine in our hotel room, looking out at the harbor lights reflecting off the water. Not bad.