Calgary & Banff..... A Year Ago

Last year in June, I flew up to Calgary to visit a good friend of mine. We spent one day visiting the downtown area and the second day of the weekend we headed off to Banff in the lovely Canadian Rockies.

Well, I finally got the photos processed and up at my Smugmug site thanks to the wonderful efficiency of my cute little new Mac laptop.

A few sample photos ......

Olympic Fountain in downtown Calgary

Family of Man Statue in downtown CalgaryPanorama of BanffThe Banff Hot Springs

Of Memories Past

I am really, really bad at getting all the photos I take on line for firends and family to view. Now that Christmas is fast approaching and gift giving is being planned, I am trying to do a bit of catch up.

So, I recently went through my photos from July of this year when mom and I took a lone weekend and went up to Vancouver Island to visit Victoria and Butchart Gardens. Here are some photos from that trip.

And here is the entire photo album on my smugmug website.

The Cold & Rainy (& Pretty) Vancouver Island

Mom and I are on the WA State Ferry Chelan headed back to Seattle after our fun filled weekend in the wet & rainy city of Victoria, British Columbia.

So, I started this post yesterday afternoon on the ferry ride home. Unfortunately, I soon lost interenet connection and then we didnt get home until midnight (thanks to the wonderfully long US Border/Customs line and my wonderful ability to ALWAYS pick the wrong line). So, this blog entry is being finished today.

Victoria itself, although a very pretty city with incredible flowers all over the place, didn't seem to have a lot to do. The shopping was ok, but not very many unique artistic type store, which my mom and I like. We did both get some wonderful Irish wool sweaters at an Irish store. We did enjoy the cute little Victoria Harbor Water Taxis.... small little boats that took you all over the inner harbor area. Fun and a cheap way to get around if you are not staying right in the downtown area.

After a day of exploring around Victoria and a night spent in Victoria proper, we headed up to around Butchart Garden area around mid-day Saturday. We stopped at the Victoria Butterfly Garden, a great building where you can walk amoungst the butterflies. Lots of pretty flowers with butterflies flitting around you. I took lots of photos and wished I had brought my SLR camera with macro lens to get better close-up photos.

We were pretty tired after our butterfly adventure, so we headed to our hotel, the Brentwood Bay Lodge. Now this is living. What a great place. The Lodge is located a few miles north of Butchart Gardens right along the bay. Beautiful views from our room where we could sit on our patio and listen to rain. After a blissful hour long massage at the hotel's spa, we were ready for some good seafood. Unfortunately, this was the one major disappointment of the hotel. The crab cakes were mushy and gooey and the salmon was undercooked. Mom sent hers back and it came back undercooked again. At least the martinis and specialty coffees were good. It was just nice to relax a little in a wonderful setting; a nice break from the hustle and bustle of this weekend trip.

Sunday was Butchart Gardens. First, this place is stunningly beautiful. Second, it is not designed for the shear number of tourists that are there on a summer weekend day. Holy cow that place was packed.

We did arrive early and got to see most of the gardens before the big crowds showed up. The flowers were really amazing and they put all my sad little flower pots on my deck to shame. And the Bagonias were HUGE! And who knew that fuschia didn't just come in hanging baskets. The gardens had fuschia bushes all over the place. Amazing!

We headed back on the ferry, hit the duty free store on board, and then waited forever to get through customs/boarder patrol. Home at midnight and straight to bed.