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…
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…
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…
we booked a train trip from Winnipeg to Vancouver on VIA rail… these trips are so popular, you have to book (and pay for the entire trip) nine months ahead…
the start of the trip was a bit stressful as we were expecting to leave at 9:30 pm and ended up leaving the city at 5:11 am…
it was amazing to see how every inch of space was used… during the day we had two chairs to look out the window and at night the space turned into an upper and lower berth… I got the bottom one, lol…
we found guests from all over and loved hearing laughter and voices speaking numerous languages throughout the days…
we’ve discovered that train travel is completely different here than across Europe, for example… and not necessarily to the good🤪…
the food was delicious and we enjoyed meeting new friends at mealtimes…
we spent a lot of time in the observation car and the morning the mountains came into view, I took two pictures and then just sat and soaked up the beauty😊…
and then we were there😳…
it has been a fun learning opportunity for me, and I see my beloved more and more every day in my daughter, who makes friends wherever she sits, or stands, or, just is🤗… what a delight…
