Gardens and shopping

The first part of the week was rainy and cold. I'm glad I had packed along all those winter clothes. Monday was odd as it was actually "Victoria Day" so there was a big parade that we didn't see, but we saw plenty of the marching bands as they were waiting their turn at the mall we were trying to shop at. But everything was closed. We next tried to go to Antique Row to do a little antique shopping, but everything was closed. We headed to the aquarium next. It was small and had quite a bit less than our aquarium here in SLC, but we needed somewhere dry to go while it was rainy and cold so it had to do. We had lunch at a Swiss bistro nearby, did a little shopping on the way home (I had to pick up a rain coat) and day one was a wrap.

On day two, we went to Butchart Gardens. I'd seen pictures of this amazing place and it really was quite stunning. Even despite the rain. They had complimentary umbrellas there, which the girls had a lot of fun with.

Because our kids are such good sports and don't complain about my unwillingness to take them on vacations with theme parks and rides (what I call "manufactured fun"), we let them have one ride on the rose carousel.

We did a lot of walking that day.

We even had high tea for lunch.

On our way home, we tried Antique Row again and were able to successfully go in some of the antique shops. I really wanted to bring home an antique relic from our trip to Victoria. There was a drop-leaf table that would have been perfect in my new house, but I knew there was no way we'd have the room in our car. I'd have to think about this.