Victoria - 242/365

It was our final full day on the ship.

We were all starting to get a little bummed, but we still had an excursion to look forward to at least. We were visiting Victoria, British Columbia today! Jim and I were super excited to visit here, since it's one of the places the Canada movie at Epcot covers. That's one of our favorite attractions in Epcot, so we've seen it a million times!

We weren't docking until 2:00pm, so we had some time on the ship in the morning to chill out. We slept in again, which was nice.
This morning, they were having the final Nicktoons Dance Party of our trip. They let the kids get up close this time. It was like a free for all, it was fun! Papa even hit the dance floor with Reagan and some Nicktoons! Ray and Jenny came, too, and got in on the action. We had a good time!

After the party, we all went up and grabbed a snack. Then everyone went back to their rooms to start the packing up process. You had to have your bags out by midnight tonight, or you had to carry them yourself. We had so much crap, we didn't want to be involved with all that. HA! Since we weren't getting back on the ship from Victoria until 9:00 tonight, we wanted to be ready, so we could do something fun when re-boarded.
While I packed up most of our stuff, Jim took Reagan swimming. We were so lucky with the weather. Reagan got to swim everyday on the ship! She loved it!

Getting off the ship today was CRAZY, they only had one gangway and everyone met on the ship for their excursions, then headed out at the same time. Once we got through the madness and found our bus, it was much better.

Our excursion today was Victoria Highlights and Butchart Gardens. Jim and I were pumped to see the gardens, since they are also in the Epcot movie. Our bus driver had a hell of a time getting situated. His microphone wasn't working at all! He had to tried for at least five minutes to get it going. You could tell he was just mortified!

The first part of the ride was interesting. We drove along the water, and got to see some amazing homes and scenery.  We went through a couple little towns and saw some cool stuff.

The ride just kept getting longer and longer though. At one point, he said, "We could take the highway, but we're going to go a more scenic back road that's 35miles." We all looked at each other like, "NO!" We just wanted to get to the garden. Some of the people on the bus, started to nod off, including Nana and Aunt Pam. LOL!

We finally arrived at the gardens and were so excited!

The enterence itself was just gorgeous, you could tell the whole thing was going to be beautiful! It covered 55 acres. It was amazing! Jim and I could not believe we were there, we were pumped.

Our first stop was the sunken garden. It was a garden, essentially down in a hole! It was an old abandoned quarry, that the founder envisioned as a garden. It was spectacular!

They had this amazing fountain, too! It shot water up so high, then the spouts would rotate to create different effects. It was stunning!

Next, we walked over to the Carousel, where Reagan and Jim took a ride. It was in this beautiful building with huge windows. Reagan just loved it.

From there, we went through the totem pole garden and headed toward the Japanese garden. That was pretty cool! We found this cool little red bridge where we all took pictures. We did just Reagan, couples, girls and then all the guys. Reagan was so funny. We tried to take just the guys and she kept jumping in the picture! It was a hoot! I've trained her well!
After that, we went over to the rose garden. Just beautiful! The whole place was stunning. Some of the flower plants were taller than me. They have such a mild climate in Victoria, that it's perfect for gardens. It never really snows and barely ever even frosts! Sounds perfect to me!
Our ride back to the ship was way quicker than the ride there. This time we took a spin through downtown Victoria. Talk about amazing! The buildings looked like old castles. It definitely shows it's British heritage.
When we got back to the ship, there was a beautiful walkway out into the water, that went right next to the ship. We had a little time, so Nana, Ray, Jenny, Jim, Reagan and I, decided to take a walk. We got some really cool pictures of the ship from over there.
Once we got back on, we dropped our stuff off and went for some dinner at the Blue Lagoon. We were all starving!
After dinner, we tried to find some dancing but it was a no go. We went to the karaoke lounge and Reagan was upset she couldn't go on stage. She really wanted to sing. It was already 10:00, at that time the kids can be there but it's "adult sing" only. Jennifer was so sweet, she was willing to sing a song, so Reagan could go up on stage with her. It was so sweet and Reagan was THRILLED! She could not have been happier!
It was a great way to end our last night on the ship.
The photo of the day is our little family at the gardens...

The next is Papa and Reagan dancing with Sandy the Squirrel at the party...

The last is Jenn and Reagan singing karaoke...