Day 7 - Victoria, BC and Butchart Gardens

     After leaving Skagway we had 1.5 days at sea as we cruised towards British Columbia.  I have been the Victoria before and found the city to be amazing.  The weather is great; the city is clean; crime is nearly non-existent.  The ship was scheduled to arrive around 1900 and leave at 2300.  Because of this tight time line we opted for a Princess excursion to Butchart Gardens which would prevent the ship from leaving us if something went wrong with the tour.  The naturalist on board told us that there would be an opportunity to see whales between 1600 and 1800 as we cruised into Victoria.  We sat on our balcony for nearly two hours and saw nothing.  Jennie decided to grab some food and drink from the bar while I kept watch for whales.  Wouldn't you know it, I saw the water moving and up came the tale of an orca whale.  I grabbed a few pictures of it.  With that sighting we saw all the wildlife we wanted to see during the trip.

    After this ship docked in Victoria, we hopped on a tour bus for a 45 minute drive to the gardens.  We arrived around 2000 and had nearly two hours for touring.  In 1904, Robert Butchart moved to Victoria from Ontario to start a cement business on the island.  The land he purchased for his business was rich in limestone.  In 1909, the limestone was exhausted and Butchart abandoned the pit but not the home he and his wife Jennie lived in.  Jennie decided to make a sunken garden in the abandoned limestone quarry and sought the help of professional Gardners to make this happen.  Along the way, one garden turned into five gardens:  Sunken, Italian, Mediterranean, Japanese and Rose.  The Butcharts traveled the world and brought plants and flowers with them to place in the gardens.

    The tour bus driver told us an interesting story about how the gardens existed thanks to two dead ducks.  One year, while traveling in Europe, the Butcharts received word that both of their Woodland Ducks had died after an eagle attack.  Since they were already mostly there, Robert insisted on going to Germany to purchase new ducks.  Jennie would hear nothing of this, insisting that if they went to Germany they would miss their steamship home.  Robert insisted they go to Germany and that they did.  After making his purchase and arranging for the ducks to be sent back to British Columbia, the family rushed to England to find that they missed their ship by two days.  Jennie was not very happy about this, and certainly let Robert know about it.  They were forced to make alternative travel arrangements.  The ship they missed by two days was the RMS Titanic.  As the bus driver told the story he said, any time Jennie got in a mood, Robert would remind her of the Titanic.  

    We returned to the ship right at 2300 and we underway for Seattle 20 minutes later.

Alaska 2023 - Day 5 - Skagway On A Rail

     We woke up at 0600 and our ship had already docked in Skagway.  Our weather was perfect with sunny skies and 70 degree temperatures.  We got dressed, grabbed some breakfast and were off the ship by 0700.  Our booked excursion was for the afternoon, so we decided to walk the mean streets of Skagway.  They have done a great job of keeping the town like it was during the gold rush.  We did some shopping for souvenirs, had some coffee and made our way back to the port to catch the ship.

    The line to board the train stretched all the way back to Juneau.  We were hoping they did not oversell the train.  We ended up in a car that was right behind the engine.  The route we took started in Skagway and climbs more than 3,500 feet into the Yukon.  There is a track that had the train doing a reversal and heading back down to Skagway.  Along the way we saw three brown bears, more waterfalls than we could count and jaw dropping scenery at every turn.

    We returned to the port with 15 minutes left until the last water shuttle departed for the ship.  We watched the sail away, grabbed some dinner and went to bed.