Butchart Gardens is located 20 miles or so north of Victoria. It’s kind of out in the sticks. Its origin is interesting – Mrs. Butchart wanted to DO something with the land her husband had used as a quarry, so she decided to make it into a garden. She collected plants, shrubs, flowers and trees from all over the world and spent years creating the gardens. The deepest part of the quarry is the “Sunken Garden” in the park. Mrs. Butchart’s husband thought she was nuts! I would assume he changed his mind by the time she finished. It lives on, still owned and managed by the family.

It’s a beautiful place. Takes about 2 hours to do it all. There are several restaurants, from order-at-the-counter, to more formal sit-down types. There are lots of places to just sit and admire the beauty. There is a gorgeous fountain, a Japanese garden with streams, an ornate Italian garden with ponds, a rose garden that usually has something in bloom too. There’s a life-sized chess board (see it below) and flowers from every color in the rainbow. Here’s a collage of what we saw.

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There isn’t much else that could make that view any more beautiful. I stepped out onto our deck, used my new 12 megapixel point and shoot camera and bingo. The far mountain range is Washington State, the Olympic mountains, the very mountains we’d visited the day before.

Some years ago (probably about 10), before I started writing a blog, we flew to British Columbia (one of many similar driving or flying trips we’ve done over the years with BC in the plans) and stayed at Sooke Harbour House. An absolutely stunning inn, along the southern coast of Vancouver Island (not Vancouver the city, but the island that is the home to Victoria and Nanaimo). We were enchanted with the place. So, some months ago when Dave said to me, “I’d like to go back to Sooke Harbour House again” I was on it, and had begun planning a trip. The stay here was the anchor of our trip plans, and all the other places we visited were just part of the grand circle we did, starting and ending in Seattle.

We came across the ferry from Port Angeles (just below the dip in the far mountain range) and drove about 30 miles or so north and then west of Victoria. We’ve stayed in Victoria before, and didn’t think we needed to stay there again, so we headed directly to the inn. The roads are a bit windy and narrow, so it takes awhile to get there – an hour at the most. Sooke is the town itself, Sooke Harbour is, of course, the marina, and the Inn is situated on a promontory overlooking the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and also one of the major shipping lanes in and out of Seattle. Sometimes you’ll see ships, sometimes not. We didn’t this time. But small fishing vessels were going in/out of Sooke morning, noon and night.

There’s another view from our deck, at early morning.

Secondly, a photo of our spacious room with a living room on the left, a soaking tub on the right and the bedroom part where I stood to take the picture. A double-sided fireplace separated the two. We didn’t use it as it was such pleasant weather both days.

We had dinner at the Inn both nights. They do a set menu, excellent food, lots of fish and shellfish on the menu. They only serve wines from British Columbia. I didn’t have any – Dave ordered the wine pairing to go with the meal. He’s not particularly fond of BC wines – they’re too soft for his liking, but it was all they had.

The Inn provides a nice breakfast tray (bottom picture) to each room – pastries, hard or soft boiled eggs, yogurt, fruit, coffee or tea. The croissants were fabulous. Loved it all. We sat outside on our deck both mornings to enjoy the meal.

We enjoyed reading as we watched the view from our deck. Even the evenings were warm and comfortable. During the in between day, we drove over to Butchart Gardens. We’d been there before too, but it’s always beautiful. I’ll give a synopsis of that in a couple of days.

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A few photos from the Dungeness Barn B&B near Sequim, Washington.

Whenever we plan a trip, I frequent Trip Advisor. It’s my favorite trip planning site, no matter where I’m going. I scour their site for ideas about places to go, things to do, and mostly for places to stay. Then once the plan is in place I research restaurants. After Dave and I more-or-less decided our destinations (British Columbia and specifically Vancouver Island – near Victoria) I started plotting the trip on a physical map, finally deciding we’d go to the Olympic Peninsula area first, since Dave had never been to the Park there. We thought about driving the whole way from So. California to British Columbia (I do 99% of the driving), but with us still in full summer temps, it would have been several days of fairly uncomfortable heat. So, we flew into Seattle, rented a car and drove about 3 hours or so out onto the Olympic Peninsula. My parents actually lived in Port Townsend, WA for a few years before they returned to Southern California their last 10 years (mid-80s to mid-90s).

We stayed at a B&B in Sequim (pronounced skwim), a little town in between Port Townsend and Port Angeles. An adorable place called the Dungeness Barn Bed & Breakfast, a few miles outside of the Sequim village, right on the ocean. We loved our room (on the ground floor), loved the inn itself (used to be a dairy barn back in the day, now converted to a B&B), loved the owner(s), and thought the breakfasts were off the charts.

We spent 2 days and nights there, and on the in between day we drove up to the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. It was a clear day – the sun shone brightly most of the day – and it was well worth the drive. Pictures below are ones I took in the park. The deer (protected, obviously), were quite tame, although once you got within about 10 feet of them, they’d skitter away. Prior to our trip, I visited the webcams up on the mountaintop several times, to get an idea about the weather. In case you’re interested, here’s a website that provides lots of info about the Park – called 10Adventures.

A very small aside piece of trivia – the green plant you see just above – the leaves are shaped the way they are because often the summers are dry, so the leaves provide a trough for any dew or raindrops to nourish the bush so it can stay alive during the short, but hot summer.

We had dinner one night at the Alder Wood Bistro. A great choice. We went early, as it’s one of the most popular restaurants in the region. Had a super dinner including some fried calamari that was as good as any I’ve ever eaten.

After we spent part of the day at the top of Hurricane Ridge, we drove back down to nearly sea level and drove 20-30 miles further west to Lake Crescent. It’s also part of the park, and has one of those old, clapboard wood lodges and cabins that are such nice summertime retreats for families. We didn’t stay there (it’s somewhat pricey, but all the rooms are for a small group, starting at about $200+ per night), but we sat out on the lake edge, in comfy (but hard) Adirondack chairs looking out on the shimmering lake and watching people dive into the lake from the small pier. We had our Kindles with us, so we just sat and enjoyed the tranquility for an hour or so. The place is the Lake Crescent Lodge, if you’re interested. Our dinner in the Lodge was not memorable. In fact I returned my pork loin dinner because it had been brined and it was too salty for me to eat. Ordered salmon instead. It was okay; not great. But the scenery was beautiful.

The next morning we drove to Port Angeles and lined up at the ferry dock to board the car ferry to Victoria. After an uneventful and pleasant ferry ride, we disembarked in downtown Victoria and headed out. I’ll tell you about the next segment of the trip in a couple of days.

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Can you believe that’s real? This photo (yes, I took it) has not been photo-enhanced – not one single bit. That’s the straight picture right out of my camera. It was taken a few nights ago when we were having dinner on Lummi Island, Washington. The sun is setting over the hills on Orcas Island. Obviously, we’ve been on a trip. You’ll see more about this in coming days. I’ve sorted the photos, re-sized most of them for including in posts here on the blog. Now I just need to write up the stories. This will do for today. The temperature that evening was about 65° F after a mostly cloudy/rainy/misty/foggy day so typical of the Pacific Northwest.

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Our visit to Temple Square, in downtown Salt Lake, was a real treat. We stayed at a hotel a few blocks away and walked to the Square itself, in time to attend their Sunday morning TV broadcast, with hundreds of people in the audience. The photo above I took before the broadcast started as the choir was practicing. As singers ourselves, we can’t begin to put ourselves on the same level as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They were nothing short of magnificent. Of course, the acoustics in this building were also unbelievable.

Here is one of the buildings in Temple Square. I don’t recall which one it was. And on the right, another view of the same building. The grounds were gorgeous with blooming flowers everywhere, ponds here and there.

I think I mentioned in my previous post that we visited the Mormon history museum, which was fascinating, telling the stories of the many families who wagon-trained west as part of the migration of Mormons from the Midwest.

One of the highlights of our visit to SLC was being able, finally, to meet Kalyn (that’s kay-lynn) Denny. When I first started my blog I wrote Kalyn and asked her a few questions, which she graciously answered. If you’ve never visited her blog, you should – Kalyn’s Kitchen. She’s a proponent of the South Beach Diet. Kalyn picked us up at our hotel, drove us around downtown and the lovely homes that overlook downtown, and took us to her house. I got to see the addition she built on her adorable home where she does all of her blogging – she has a real studio and an impressive array of plates, bowls, platters, silverware, napkins, placemats and other props.

We had a lovely dinner together. My hubby had to just sit and listen as Kalyn and I talked blogging from every dimension. It was such a thrill to meet her – she’s been blogging many more years than I have. Thank you, Kalyn, for our fun afternoon and evening together. I can’t recall the name of the restaurant we went to with Kalyn, but we stayed at the Hotel Monaco, and one night we had a fabulous dinner a block away from the hotel at Eva, a quirky little restaurant that’s well worth going to. They call it a tapas place, but I’d say the portions are more like appetizers for sharing. The warm gooey bread and cheese plate was exceptional. Our hotel room was gorgeous – a real find, I think. I’d definitely stay there again, AND I’d go back to Eva again too. It’s a pet-friendly hotel, so we saw many animals going in and out for walks with their owners.

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That’s the Ben Cook cabin we stayed in, at the Chief Joseph Ranch, just south of Darby, Montana. In case you don’t know, Darby is in SW Montana, quite near the Idaho border, south of Missoula. I’d been to this neck of the woods once before – about 50 years ago – wow, does that make me feel old! – and remembered it’s pretty rolling hills and rushing rivers (the Bitterroot). The cabin had 2 bedrooms and 2 baths; a really large fireplace-centric living room, a spacious kitchen, a table for 4 people, and a small deck.

Some of the time we were there it was chilly. We didn’t use the fireplace as it wasn’t cold enough for that, but we relaxed in the living room, enjoyed the peaceful view outside and my DH read an hour or two out on the deck.

We opted to have breakfast at the main lodge (for an extra charge) and even talked about trying to get our whole family to vacation there next year, but schedules just won’t jibe; we’ll need to find some place closer to home that’s easier for Southern Californians to get to. But if you’ve ever wanted to vacation in Montana, and not at a full service dude ranch, this lovely place might be just the ticket. I loved it here. The owners, Bob and Janet, were very warm and welcoming. They spent ample time suggesting things to do and places to see.

That’s the living room in the main lodge (built about 100 years ago). It’s a gorgeous log cabin – 2 stories high – and full of artifacts of the ranch life from long ago. One morning we had breakfast right there in front of the fireplace; the other morning the owners joined us as we ate in the formal dining room at the other end of the lodge. There are rooms (3) in the lodge too. Our cabin would sleep 4; the other cabin will sleep 10.

There’s another view of the main room in the lodge – through the door at the end is the large dining room. Rooms are upstairs.

I can imagine, in the winter, with snow swirling around, sitting near the huge fireplace would be something very special.

Well, the elk really weren’t “playing,” but they looked like they might. Just after I took that photo they began scattering for the trees. You can hunt elk in Montana, but not at Chief Joseph. Over the years the elk must have discovered this land (where the owners raise hay) is a safe haven for them. They don’t allow hunting on their land. You can see the smoke in the air there, too.

One afternoon, down to the Bitterroot River we went, just across the main entrance of the ranch and set up our folding chairs. This was something I really wanted to do – to be right by the river, to hear the water as it dipped and crackled over the rocks, while I sat peacefully at water’s edge reading a book. I turned our chairs around just to take the picture – there’s my jacket and my trusty Kindle. If you go to my blog’s home page, you can read about the 6 books I read on this trip, and the 2 books we “read” by CD in the car during those long desert driving days from Darby to Reno, Nevada.

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This bruiser was snuffling alongside the highway, about 30 feet away from our car. He was all by himself. And there must have been at least 300 people outside their cars, with and without tripods lined up along the highway taking pictures of him. I should have taken a picture of THEM!There was also a bear way off in the distance. We have a picture of him too, but he’s SO far away I decided it wasn’t worth even showing it to you! We did see moose, elk and deer too.

And here are some more pictures of Old Faithful. It’s an amazing sight, really. Most of the smoke was further south (from the forest fires) and these don’t show any smoke at all. We drove on every highway but one within Yellowstone National Park. A kind gentleman at one of the restaurants we visited told us we needed to go to the NE corner of Yellowstone (Lamar Valley); he thinks it’s some of the most beautiful scenery in the Park. We just didn’t have time. We spent 8 hours driving that day as it was! We spent the night in West Yellowstone (a small touristy town just outside the northwestern edge of the park, in Montana, actually). It’s not a memorable town. Just a place to spend the night after driving all day.

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We’re home from our 2 1/2 week trip, but I have a lot of categorizing and photo cropping and other stuff to do before I bring you the best of the best photos. The above was a small, nearly stagnant river in the Tetons somewhere. You can barely discern the smoke if you look at the furthest trees – there’s a blanket of smoke setting in.

At the Jenny Lake Lodge (cabins) we had these cute (?) bent twig rockers outside the front door. Making those have to be a lost art. When we did sit outside, just before I took this photo, there was a cute little chipmunk who noisily chattered at us from the pine tree just behind the rockers, there, so I took out a few cashews and with great fanfare (so he’d see me) I tossed them out in front of those chairs. It took him about a minute before he ventured near and went to town. Then he walked right up to us and sat on his haunches with his tail quaking and looked at us like “I want more, please.” We didn’t have any more, sadly! He even walked right up to Dave’s shoe and sniffed his shoelaces. Funny! We weren’t as impressed with the Jenny Lake cabins as we’d expected (I was the one who wanted to go there). Dinner and breakfast at the lodge are included in the $625/night fee. The food wasn’t that good, and at that price I expected far better. For dinner I ordered pheasant (there were very few options on the menu and since pheasant isn’t something I get or see much, I decided I should try it). It was tough and dry and at least half of it was inedible. They also served green beans that were so undercooked they could almost have qualified as raw. I like al dente green beans, but not that firm! I complained to the waiter about the pheasant, who took my plate to the chef. She agreed with my analysis, apologized, but still, it was a big let-down. Had we stayed a 2nd night they would have done something to compensate, but I guess there’s not much they can do with one-nighters. ??? So, one more destination scratched off my bucket list. My only other bucket list item is to stay at the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

At one of the turnouts in the Tetons, we stopped and walked up the river (the Snake) a ways. It was so beautiful. I love – love the rushing water as it crackles over the rocks. We were at about 8,000 feet altitude, so even a little walk seems almost strenuous!

At several other places I popped out of the car and took photos. Mostly of them were cloudy with smoke and not worth showing you. But this one with a slow-moving stream was pretty. Ethereal, almost.

More photos tomorrow or the next day with some from other places we stayed.

I need to catch up on some things here at home!

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While we were in Maine, we spent a half day at a beautiful gardens, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens located just out of Boothbay. It’s a really spectacular setting with lovely walking trails clear to the water’s edge (down a couple hundred feet in elevation), and even though we visited it at the cusp of winter, it was still beautiful.

There’s a photo of our group of friends. Jackie (far left) and Don (far right) are good friends from here in
California, where we live. We found out they were going to be in Maine at the same time, so we agreed to meet at the Gardens for lunch and a walk through it. In the middle are Lynn and Sue, from Denver way now (used to live here, but they moved last year and we visited them in June). They were with us for 2-3 days of our trip. My DH, Dave is 2nd from left, and Dinny, our dear friend from England, is 2nd from the right.

Oh, and last but not least, here was a really lovely home with some red foliage out front. That was taken near East Boothbay.

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If you’ve never been to Newport, Rhode Island, you’re missing a real treat. In nice weather, it’s gorgeous. A small town, really, right on the Atlantic Ocean. And many sailors claim it’s the most beautiful sailing harbor in the world. Perhaps so. It can get wickedly cold and it snows some there in winter (I wouldn’t advise going there in the winter months), but in the shoulder seasons it’s really beautiful. I used to live there when I was 14-17. I wrote up  a post about this some time back. If you’d like to read that part, click HERE. It’s about cranberries, but it’s also about Newport.

I was surprised how much I remembered about the town, about how to get around it. I drove right to the first house (apartment) my parents and I lived in. Back in 1955, the day after moving in, we had a gigantic snowstorm that brought 5 feet of snow and we were snowed-in for 4 days. Everything shut down. As a kid, it was all very exciting. We didn’t have hardly any winter clothes, so we bundled up in layers until we were able to buy some during our 2nd week living there. I built a snowman, and we drank many cups of tea and cocoa trying to keep warm.

Here are the photos I took last week when we were there – top photo is the Chastellux estate, owned by a wealthy family. When we lived there it was owned by Mrs. Lorillard Spencer. I don’t know about now . . . The bottom photo is the former stables, converted into two apartments (we lived upstairs, entered through the door just to the left of the garage door).

It looked just like it did when I lived there. Fortunately, after raining all day getting to Newport, it cleared up (albeit very gusty winds both days) enough for us to enjoy the sunshine. Dave just loved looking out at the big sailboats anchored all over the harbor. We drove around Ocean Drive, the beautiful 2-lane meandering road that goes all around the southern curve of the island. I took just one picture along the drive, as there are almost no places to pull over or stop.

We also stopped to visit The Breakers, the fantastically ornate Vanderbilt mansion (a summer residence). I remembered visiting it when I was a teen, but Dave had never been to Newport, so it was all new to him. He was quite impressed.

No picture taking allowed inside, so these were the few I took outside. It was blowing like crazy out there, but beautiful nonetheless. We drove up and down lots of the gorgeous country lanes in Newport, looking at the homes there. And I managed to drive right to the second house my parents and I lived in there. We had two delicious dinners in Newport. One of the nights I ordered a lobster roll. Oh my goodness, was it good. So I had lobster twice on our trip. Altogether delicious.

Then, on one of the days I drove right to the Newport Creamery (actually we ate breakfast there as well). It was and is an institution in Newport. When I lived there in the 50’s it was the teenage hangout, and their reputation was all about ice cream, particularly the “Awful Awful.” Can you imagine a name like that for a milkshake kind of thing? Crazy. Coffee was the most popular flavor back then (now it’s available in many flavors). So I did have to order one – a small one, and with Dave and me sharing it, it didn’t last long. But it brought back lots of nostalgic memories.

And lastly, Dave just had to walk out to the famous local yacht club, the Ida Lewis (named for a lighthouse) Yacht Club. (There is also a branch of the New York Yacht Club there, but it’s all very highbrow and we knew we wouldn’t be invited to enter, even though we’re members of a yacht club in San Diego.)

There’s a photo of the long, long walking ramp going out to the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. Dave wanted to buy a baseball cap from there, but alas, the yacht club had closed up for the season the day before. Too bad.

That ends my travel and photo diary for this trip. The next day we flew home. So here’s one more fall leaves photo. Not a very good one, but we didn’t see many good ones.

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