Fish on!

Some photos of fishing in Canada, Vancouver BC. Serengeti Fishing Tours out of Port Hardy. 

Mike's been twice before with them. This was my first time with them. Nathan was our guide. He was good and we came back with a fish box FULL of fish. We caught Halibut first. Bottom fishing, anchored in some rough water.  As I type this in the evening, my head is still swishing and bobbing around. 

I snagged the largest halibut, but Ross finished it off. Huge! It'll probably cost a bundle for "overage" commercial fees. Oh well.

Ling cod are good.  Good and ugly, too!  We caught lots (15) and our arms are tired. Sunday evening when we arrived, they fed us dinner. Fish and chips, and it was ling cod. Yummy.

Rough sea, but it could have been rougher. We all had a chance to steer the idling boat to keep it pointing the right way. 

Heading to the dock.

Nathan is trying to coach me in getting that huge Halibut off the bottom.

Jessica is looking into the head. I used it twice.

Jessica with her smaller one and the huge one.

Pulling in the monster.

The Giant Maw of a ling cod. 

Lots of Lungs.

Some of the time was spent untangling lines. One lure was lost in the bottom for good. But Nathan said that 15 ling cod for one lure was a small price to pay.

We are back at the dock in these photos ( after a fuel stop)

Our big one didn't even fit in the fish bins to be hauled off to the processing place.

Nathan could lift that monster. We could not.

Long fun, tiring cold day. Tomorrow will be colder and rainy, so we will be doing salmon fist closer in to shore. 

Spaghetti dinner tonight. Yum. Cards. Hot her al teas. Shower. Bed. We are pooped out. Oh, and ibuprofen. The miracle drug of choice in my house.

Victoria, BC, Canada

 We drove through a BUNCH  of things around Victoria. One was a mansion, but those photos are on my camera, not my phone. 

We went to Fisherman's Wharf and saw some pretty floating homes.  Kind of Like the ones that Meg Ryan lived in in " Sleepless in Seattle." 

We saw the Parliament building, lots of traffic and tourists. Lots of water. We drove along a Beach Boulevard, picked up some driftwood and we only saw a few deer in the way of wildlife. Well, we saw a lot of big birds, too. 

Our phones are having difficulties, being in another country. I think we will have surprisingly high phone bills, in spite of trying to make the right preventative arrangements.

Mike drove ALL day and is tired,  but his cold is gone!! We saw a lot of Victoria, a lot of Vancouver Island.

We also ate at a Tim Hortons restaurant for dinner. They are all over Canada. 

We are spending the night at a seaside  Ramada in Campbell River. 

The inner courtyard has a little miniature golf court.  And the Northern Lights are supposed to be visible tonight but it's cloudy.

Our bed is upstairs in a (stifling hot) loft.

From the loft, looking down at mike. We have a balcony too 

Mini golf. 

Butchart Garden , Part 2

 

The number of trees, flowers and shrubs is really quite amazing. So much beauty. So much planning. So much water! ( And beautiful, rich, black soil!) I'll bet the different seasons also offer a new variety of colors and flowers, trees, etc

The dogwood tree flowers were green, not white.

I hopped on a cute pony sculpture. Bronze. It was near a boat sculpture that was from Uffizi.ac in Italy. However, it was a replica of the Uffizi boar. Ross has a photo of it, I think.

And this is a cool bamboo water teeter-totter. It fills, then empties with a "clunk" on the rock below.

To scare the boars! 

Maple leafs! Teeny tiny ones.

Saturday June 8 at Butchart Gardens

 It was so lovely. 

But first the Cherry hill Inn.

On.  A . Hill. A cute suite. We slept well. I don't think Ross and Jessica slept as well.

The parking was teeny tiny, but adequate. I just had to wait till the truck was pulled out to get in.

The outdoor picnic table in the evening was lovely. We even turned off the AC and opened windows.

Soft towels. And only a little bug in the otherwise clean tub. 😉

Some views from my bed. There were two beds. We spent enough for the room, we figured we could dirty up two sets of sheets.

There were ( and there are ALL OVER) Such gorgeous flowers and trees. Everywhere. These lovely roses were at the hotel.

Taken from my bed, early in the morning. Mike's still snoozing away across the way. We had a little kitchenette, full bath, fridge, two queen beds. There were two steps to get into the bathroom. (!)

Looking over my sleepy toes, early morning. (Yawn!)

The pretty rose tree. 

Skinny parking spot. But it's covered. There has been NO rain since we left home. We may have some later as we fish.

The view from our balcony.

We drove down into Victoria for breakfast at a delightful Dutch Bakery. Yum. Breakfast  plus pastry. Double yum.

It was old and historic. Decorated with blue and white ceramics and painted wooden shoes.

Hi.

And across the street was a little bit of old and new, side by side. ( Plus a lot of homeless people). The architecture is really cool. Everywhere.

A few shots from Butchart Gardens.

Ross and Jessica Henshaw, our travel companions.

Little dancing fuschia ballerina flower.

A hedge. But it's from pine tree limbs that grew out and dow, then up. The were trimmed. It was big.

Funny ferns.

Layers upon layers of greens.

There were many rhododendrons.

Interesting buildings. This one is wood and rustic.

The view from the little wooden building down to the "Sunken Garden."

Even the trash cans were pretty.

There was a lovely carousel. Wooden, hand-carved. It was only $2 to ride, but we didn't bother. But we DID take photos!

Right after this, Mike and I took a break, walked back to the front area by the cages and gift shops, found a shady bench and watched Jannea's funeral which was live- streamed from Vernal. Some of our kids went to represent us. Her kids did a great job. They had a theme of, "I was her favorite." Which was so appt as SHE was everyone's favorite.

Peonies and foxglove. They were HUGE!!

A Totem Pole.

Japanese temple sculpture.

A fountain of sturgeons.

The hounds of the original owners'house.

Look closely. It's a dragon!

Monkey puzzle tree.