2017 - Day 6

Now that we had some groceries at the house we were able to make breakfast here, which was nice instead of having to go somewhere to eat in the morning. It feels more relaxed to do it this way, kind of the comforts of home while on the road. Barry & Erika, our hosts here, have a great place and it's been a pleasure to stay at their place. They are friendly, always willing to chat, which makes it feel like we are staying with friends. 

Today we decided to head south and see some of Victoria, and I had to stop in on the way to buy a shirts at the Harley shop. They were pretty keen on selling me a new bike, but I told them they probably wouldn't want to pay me what I'd want for my bike, and they wouldn't want to sell a new one for the price I'd want to pay. 

Once we done there, we headed right through downtown Victoria and to the coast. It was really windy out by the straight, but the views were awesome. If it wasn't for cloud cover, we would have had a great look at the mountains across the water in Washington state. We rode along the shoreline for a while, stopping eventually for a late lunch at the Oak Bay Marina.

We rode through a ritzy neighbourhood as we left the coast line, making our way through Victoria again, headed for Butchart Gardens. Traffic was quite bad, but thankfully it didn't last too long. The day was getting away from us, as it was already 4:30 by the time we stopped at the gardens.

As a kid our family took a vacation to the island, though I barely remember any of it. I know we stopped at Butchart Gardens then, but it was all new to me now. I'm not really a green thumb, though it is neat to see the sheer volume of flowers and different plants and trees. Leona loved it, so that was good enough for me to enjoy it too.

We stopped for a late, light dinner on the ride back to our place in Nanaimo, and the ride back was awesome. Traffic was light, the weather was nice, just a very relaxing evening ride. It was right around 10pm when we finally got in, with almost 300km just cruising around and seeing/doing things. Tomorrow will be another long day, full of more amazing scenery, and more miles than today.

On the coast, Beacon Hill Park in Victoria

Oak Bay Marina

Sunken Garden

This sphere was more interesting that flowers

The Butchart residence

Italian Garden

Looking into Brentwood Bay

At the summit of the Malhat

Had to feature at least one of these

It's hard to see, but in the middle of the picture is the peak of Mount Baker in Washington state. Looks almost like a cloud in the picture, but was much easier to see in person