Butterfly Gardens

On our way to Butchart Gardens, we drove past the Victoria Butterfly Gardens, so on Sunday, we decided to head back and check it out. For breakfast, we decided to try out John's Place, a popular breakfast joint. However, the TC10k running race had just completed, and many runners were out searching for real food. When we got to John's place, they told us it would be a 45 minute wait. Rather than wait the 45 minutes, we wandered back towards the city center and happened across another breakfast place called Cabin 12. There were people inside eating, but the place was maybe only half full, so we decided to give it a chance.

The food came quickly enough, and we were all very satisfied. Well cooked eggs, potatoes, toast, etc. And for a better price than most in the area. We were near the Chinatown area, and there is a weekly market there on Sundays, so before we headed out, we walked through the booths to check things out. Misty and Aarthi picked up some lovely jewelry from a local artist.

The butterfly gardens boasts 12,000 square feet of enclosure, full of butterflies. Their marquee boasts, "more than you'd expect" and I couldn't help but laugh at that. The place was well worth the visit, it is much like other butterfly gardens, but had a few key additions that I don't think we'd seen anywhere else. There were a couple of pink flamingos wandering the place, both in good color. There was a duck who we saw feeding fish, quite amazing. He plopped in the water on one side of the small pond, and headed toward the food outpost on the other side. As soon as he got in, he had fish tailing him. When he reached the food area, he stood on the food bowl and started eating, but also flinging the food out into the water, which drove the fish wild. Many of the fish were quite large, and they were all competing for space. Very interesting to see.

Another strange animal they had is a Peruvian Puna Ibis called Spike. Spike is about 15 years old, and for all her life, she has been obsessed with people's shoes. Until we knew what she would do, we were a bit afraid that she would puncture us with her long beak, but once we saw an employee talking with a visitor about her, we saw what she does. She'll just walk over to your feet and start bouncing her beak all over your shoes, like she's trying to tickle your feet. It's really quite strange.

They have a good variety of butterflies, lots of different kinds, colors, etc. The have a large enclosure of Atlas moth caterpillars, and a box where the wait for them to emerge. A couple of Atlas moths were out sleeping on a branch, wings out for all to see. They sleep during the day and are only active at night. They have no mouths, don't eat, and live only 3-5 days after emerging into their final stage. Very amazing to see in person.

After returning from the butterfly garden, we decided to stop in at True North Gelato. What a mistake that was! Apart from being slow, expensive, and not that great, it was just a negative experience to watch the staff work. With only 4 out of 25 tables occupied, the lone cook was having a fit. Maybe he didn't get any sleep last night, or who knows what, but he was slamming doors, cursing, burning himself, and just generally screwing things up left and right. He screwed up several of our items, and the waitress knocked off one of them and then gave 10% off of another, but still the bill made our eyes wide. We definitely won't go back there.

Misty and I had to catch the clipper heading back at 5pm, but our friends were staying on the island for a few more days. They had a 4-5 hour drive ahead of them, so we bid them adieu, and wandered the shops on our way to the pier.

The return clipper ride was again, completely packed, but went pretty smoothly. Customs was extremely slow, and we were stuck with the same school groups that we went to Victoria with on Friday morning. Lisa and Nick were gracious enough to meet us at the port and we all went for fries and sundaes at Dick's.

Thanks to all for an excellent trip!