Grandpa's 85th - Butchart Gardens

Monday, June 29

Monday was Butchart Garden Day. We didn’t originally have it on the schedule because it was a total of over three hours of driving and would take an entire day but almost every child wanted to go see it. It really is worth it if you haven’t been there before. I have been there before, and it was still worth it.

Alycia flew into Victoria Monday morning, so we had a relaxed morning, ate breakfast at the Shaw house and then headed south.

One car went and picked up Alycia and the other car headed straight to the Gardens. We met up and ate lunch in the parking lot.

Robert Butchart owned and operated a limestone quarry on this site to manufacture cement. When the quarry was exhausted, his wife took over the big hole in the ground and turned it into this beautiful garden.

There isn’t much to talk about so I will just share some pictures with a few random comments.

They had this little corner that was filled with flowers. Mom insisted that we go into it and it turned out to be an amazing backdrop for pictures. Each of us got our pictures taken here.

Sadly, Mom and I didn’t get a picture together.

It was a long day.

But the day wasn’t over. We drove straight to Montana’s. Montana’s is a BBQ and steak restaurant, and we were there to celebrate Nana’s 80^th birthday. Grandpa’s birthday isn’t until July 29 and Carols birthday isn’t until October, but this was the week that worked out for most of the kids, so we celebrated them now.

Justin and his boys met us there and Sarah and Sam came a little bit later and we were finally all together in Nanaimo. Lisa and I shared a meal, and it was delicious.

From Montana’s we all went to the Shaw house, visited until late and then we all went back to our various beds.

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Africa is the only world region where fertility remains above the replacement level.

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