Trip to Victoria

Boarding the ferry for Victoria!

Melissa posing in front of our beautiful Parliament Building... 

(or beautiful castle for those more into princesses)

Exploring...

Our first night's dinner was at The Spaghetti Factory, which had no a/c... brutally hot!

After dinner we returned to our hotel to cool in the pool... 

(which became a nightly event) 


The following day we ventured to Beacon Hill Park for a picnic. As we were sitting eating, this peacock came over to check out what we had to offer...

One things I loved about Victoria, was the flowers which were everywhere! This was one of the many garden displays in this park... 

Melissa enjoyed the playground...

Just down the street from our hotel was where the horse carriage tours were located...

We ventured out to enjoy the very vibrant night-life on our second night... (Melissa dressed herself, and I couldn't sway her)

The Parliament Building at night... 

Along the harbor there were various entertainers. This gentleman played several instruments simultaneously and sang...

Melissa dropping coins in his guitar case...

A pic of the harbor at night...

My favorite were these acts which were scheduled every night. They were basically stand-up comedians with a circus act...

Melissa enjoying the show. At times she was quite concerned about their safety when they were juggling fire or large knives high up on a unicycle! 

Another pic of the harbor at night...

Taking in the sights at night...

Butterfly Gardens - Victoria

The main reason we decided upon this trip to Victoria, was to take Melissa to the Butterfly Gardens. Melissa has a love for butterflies, and a desire to have one land on her hand. 

The excitement was mounting... we were finally here!

We entered a small slice of paradise... beautiful plants with butterflies flying everywhere around us, large coy in the pond, flamingos, and waterfalls...

The rules were that we weren't allowed to pick up any of the butterflies. We were only allowed to hold them if they landed on us... so Melissa got right to it trying to get one to land on her!

Lucky Daddy had the most butterflies land on him. Probably because he wasn't as desperate and stood still more than Melissa & I. He even had the most beautiful blue butterfly (which was near impossible to get to sit at all) land on him...

Checking out one of the many feeding stations, which consisted of rotting fruit, that attracted many of the butterflies...

Behind glass in the exhibit was a large collection of chrysalis'. Most were already empty, but there were several very new butterflies letting their wings dry out...

The Atlas Moth Caterpillars which were on display... (I wouldn't want to run into these guys in my garden)

Trying a new method of trying to attract butterflies, flowers in the hair!

A silly bird which roamed the garden, he loved nipping feet...

I believe this counted as a landing... she slid her hand under this one!

I found this blue butterfly, which I had a stand-off with. I was really eager to get a picture of him with his wings open. But no matter what I did, he kept them tight together...

The ugliest butterfly/moth I have ever seen. I believe it was called something like a Mammoth. The size was incredible. 

Undersea Gardens - Victoria

Another tourist attraction that we visited on our stay in Victoria was the Undersea Gardens situated in this boat right off the main waterfront. 

After descending 15 feet below the water's surface, we were able to view various forms of sea-life... 

The biggest hit for Melissa was this under-sea petting zoo where she could touch starfish, tube-worms and all sorts of other stationary sea life...

We enjoyed a live show where scuba diver Matt, went into the tank which this theatre faced and he showed us various interesting sea creatures...

Here is a clip of Matt showing us this friendly octopus. The octopus seemed eager to do his thing with Matt, as he came charging up from some back hidden corner when he saw Matt in the water! (quite surprising as they do this show every hour!)

Fisherman's Warf - Victoria

On our last afternoon in Victoria we went for a walk, to the left of our hotel as we hadn't headed that way yet.

As we were walking down the sea-wall, 4 or 5 of these water planes landed right beside us! 

Thrilling as it was, Melissa was running around covering her ears...

We ended up walking to the Fisherman's Warf where there were over a dozen merchants based out of little shops that were floating along the boardwalk...

We met a local celebrity/seal who knew very well what she wanted. She lingered near the boardwalk waiting for someone to feed her fish...

She was certainly well fed... the picture doesn't do her size justice!

Melissa looking into her big eyes...

Who could resist :)

A "street" of floating houses...

Melissa & I needed some fuel for the walk back to our hotel, so we snacked on some ice cream. Melissa's ice cream was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and I had the Moose Tracks (which was vanilla ice cream & peanut butter cups & nuts... yum!)