Our last day on the cruise ship started off as another Sea Day, making our way back down towards Seattle – for the most part. At 7pm we made an evening stop in Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. We actually only had less than 5 hours to spend on land, and because our time was so brief, we decided to do the cruise-sanctioned excursion to guarantee we’d get back in time. The trip we took was to Butchart Gardens (pronounced “Butch-art”), which was a botanical garden that featured fireworks. This 100-year-old gardens used to be a limestone quarry that was running dry, when the owner’s wife started planting flowers to make it look better. The gardens came about from this.
There were a lot of beautiful flowers on display, and while these can be seen in other places, there were a few of note that caught my eye.
While the flowers were all really beautiful, the special attraction was the fireworks that they feature on Saturday nights. From what we were told, the pyro-technicians at Disney consulted on the design of this fireworks show. These fireworks were not only impressive, but arguably bests any that I’ve ever seen – including those at Disney World. Have you ever seen the fountains at Bellagio in Las Vegas? Imagine that water show, but instead of water, they used fireworks – this is what was featured at Butchart Gardens. The opening scene hit a little close to home for those of us in Colorado:
While the photos depict this show as a normal fireworks exhibition, check out these videos below to see how they used pyro-technics to accomplish what Bellagio does with the fountains.
My personal favorite was during “Begin the Beguine” (a song I play in jazz band, which I didn’t realize had words), and how they used fireworks to depict a waterfall.
After a the fireworks, we were taken on a brief tour of downtown Victoria, before heading back to our cruise ship. We stood on this balcony to watch the ship leave port at midnight.
From the brief time we spent in Victoria, I loved our time there – so much that I wish we would have spent the day there and done a four-hour stop in Skagway. I’m sure this wouldn’t be practical, being only 80 miles from Seattle. However, I’d definitely like to spend a long weekend in Victoria sometime in the future.
We went to bed right after the ship left port, awakening to our arrival in Seattle. I’m currently writing this last post from our trip as we wait to board our plane to Denver. After being on the road for three weeks, along with the tragic news regarding Bethany’s brother, we are definitely ready to be home.