Abkhazi High Tea…

01 Thursday Oct 2026

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we arrived at the Abkhazi Tea Room just in time for our reservation… our Uber driver had a little trouble finding it, lol…

which was fair as it looked like a house on the street…

it was my favourite high tea spot… more relaxed, but also set in the garden…

I wore my fancy hat, but it caused problems with taking pictures as it put my face in the shade…

the umbrella over our table had me in shade and sun, so I ended up moving my tea items into the sun for photos…

once again we had a wasp visitor, but not quite as serious as the one at the Butchart Gardens, lol…

our server was very attentive and quick to change out one of the items that could have caused an allergic reaction for my daughter…

a delicious and very relaxing tea😊…

Beacon Hill Park…

30 Wednesday Sep 2026

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we wandered through Beacon Hill Park… it is huge…

we saw giant trees, flower beds filled with flowers, roses, numerous ponds and creeks, and lots and lots of ducks…

and, the moss lady… once we found her, I was reminded of the Earth Goddess, which we visited in Atlanta in 2016… at that time I slipped under the fence and got a close up with her…

did the same thing with the moss lady, although I did not touch her…

from the bus we saw the mile zero monument, and the Terry Fox memorial…

clearly, you could spend days wandering through this park😊…

hop on, hop off…

29 Tuesday Sep 2026

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we decided to take the hop on, hop off bus and to do the whole loop to see what we might want to do the next time we took it…

the tour started at the Empress, so while we waited to board we visited the gardens there… we stepped inside the lobby to admire the beautiful arrangements and then wandered the lawns and gardens…

we found lovely flower beds and a few giant old trees…

we decided that the next day we would visit Chinatown and Beacon Hill Park…

after we’d been around once we walked to the Parkside Hotel where we saw the koi and had a snack beside the pond…

we went back to one of the stops and hopped on, and hopped off, just a few blocks from our hotel… very handy…

the next day, after I’d put on just about all the clothes I’d brought because I’d been cold the day before, lol, we caught the bus by our hotel and hopped off at Beacon Hill Park… it is very large…

we hopped on and hopped off again at the Empress and walked up a street to check out the shops… after lunch we walked to see Trounce Alley and Fan Tan Alley, which is only 3 feet wide!!! after buying a few treats, we caught the bus and hopped off at the stop which was close to our hotel;-)…

the hop on, hop off bus was worth every penny as we used it from around 1 pm the first day until around 5 pm on the second day…

Parkside…

28 Monday Sep 2026

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we went to the Parkside Hotel to visit the koi pond, which I had seen on an Instagram post… I was not disappointed…

as you walked up to the hotel there were a number of outdoor ponds with goldfish and water lilies in them…

inside you walked across the koi pond on the way to the front desk… part of the hotel was a cafe, that opened onto the street so that the neighbourhood could stop by for goodies…

I had hummus and some lovely bread to enjoy as I sat beside the pond…

every day at a certain time, they divide the food for the fish into containers, which the hotel guests can take and feed them…

a quiet and serene place for a break from all the busyness of the city😊…

partially…

27 Sunday Sep 2026

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what a delightful day…

I spent a good part of it in the garden, moving from one area to another…

at first it was because I was trying to stay partially in the sun… then out of the sunshine as it was very bright and a bit warm…

then, later it was to get into the sunshine to keep warm again, lol…

and I had some fun taking photos of various flowers…

what a lovely treat, particularly as the weather has been dull, overcast, and rainy for the last few days…

I am blessed…

The Gardens at HCP…

26 Saturday Sep 2026

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after spending time at the Butterfly Gardens, we Ubered to the Gardens at HCP…

these gardens seemed much more relaxed than the others we’d been to and the first few spots we walked through weren’t very exciting…

but then we found the Japanese Garden which had a creek flowing through it with light, shady areas, and ponds… it was quite large and was lovely with little surprises along the way, such as the sleeping mermaid…

the Bonsai Garden had a small building to rest in and was a lovely serene place…

it had close to twenty trees that ranged in age from a few years old to over 150…

it was a quiet place to stop for a few minutes before continuing on through the Japanese Garden area…

well worth the visit 😊…

Butterfly Gardens…

25 Friday Sep 2026

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after two days at the Butchart Gardens, we visited the Butterfly Gardens which were close by…

the first thing you see is an area focussed on stick bugs and poisonous frogs… there were a lot…

then we moved into the Butterfly area… just as we arrived a keeper was letting a box of maybe 50 butterflies out… there were all types inside and one landed on my daughter and climbed up her, lol… another one, a cracker (one of my favourites) landed on the front of a man who was beside us… it stayed on him the entire time he walked through the garden…

besides butterflies, there were a few types of fish, a variety of turtles and tortoises, a flamingo, many parrots and other birds… part of their mission is to take in injured creatures…

they also have some butterflies in all their stages… from eggs, to caterpillars, to the butterflies… that was exciting to see…

the space is very large and it can be difficult to spot the butterflies, although there seem to be more in the front area… but many types and also different ways to display them…

it was fun to see so many creatures in one spot😊…

High Tea – Butchart Gardens…

24 Thursday Sep 2026

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when we first arrived at the Butchart Gardens we went to book our High Tea at the restaurant… unfortunately they weren’t open yet, but my daughter convinced them to add us to the reservation list…

when we arrived at the designated time, we were seated outdoors, overlooking the large green open area…

they had blankets at each table, which was great as it was a little cool…

because of allergies we ended up with a tower each…

one of the little cakes on my tower had jelly on the top… it became the favourite for a wasp that really enjoyed the jelly…

everything was delicious… I needed my fork to hold up many of the sandwiches, lol…

but I didn’t eat the jelly part, lol… and it was sweet that they included a happy birthday chocolate on my cupcake 😊…

the staff were excellent and we had such a fun time… first High Tea of the trip…

then, it was back to the gardens…

Vancouver…

23 Wednesday Sep 2026

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the train arrived in Vancouver on time at 8 am… after all the concern about being late, lol…

once we got off, we were able to leave our luggage with VIA as we wanted to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery before moving on to the Island… before we left we booked the bus for our trip to Vancouver Island…

a sky train ride and a short walk got us to the Gallery… I went across the street to the Fairmont and sat in the lobby reading while Cyndi began her tour of the Emily Carr exhibit…

before too long I headed to the VAG and wandered through the Gift Shop… then I went up to the restaurant on my own and ordered some tea while I continued to read my book…

we met up in the Gift Shop and stopped at an outdoor cafe for a quick meal… then a walk back to the sky train to return to Union Station to get a bus to the Island, via a BC Ferry…

practically froze to death on the bus ride, but warmed up once we made it onto the Ferry…

it seemed like a short ride and then we were there…

Butchart…

22 Tuesday Sep 2026

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we made it to the Butchart Gardens…

what an amazing place it is… the first day, we spent six and a half hours wandering the many gardens and had a delightful high tea with a wasp guest…

I was absolutely stunned (in a good way) when I stood at the top of the sunken garden… it is so beautiful it brought me to tears, and what a way to start the tour…

we saw giant trees, beautiful beds, topiaries, and rows of stunning dahlias…

we also saw beautiful Japanese Gardens where I took maybe one picture and then just absorbed the quiet beauty around us…

many water features, a carousel, and so many flowers;-)… awed by the wonderful combinations of plants that made every corner more interesting than the last…

day two, we arrived later in the day with plans to see the gardens lit up at night… we visited some of our favourite areas, especially the Japanese Gardens and took an electric boat tour… sadly, I ran out of steam and we headed back to our AirBnb just as dusk was taking over the gardens…