I am so thankful for my two months off school. For twelve years, it used to be a two weeks or one month holiday in the summer. We ended up spending most of our time doing house repairing, painting and other urgent things. If we had a weekend to relax, we are pretty lucky.

Twelve years after living in BC, I visited Victoria two times briefly plus a couple of days around Parksville one summer with Aunt Loretta and Kathy. I beat the record this summer. Went over to the island a total of three times. Once for the tall ships, once for Long Beach and the last one to the gardens with YJ.

Driving with the help of GPS makes life so much easier. We went to the Butterfly garden first. We spent more time admiring the tropical plants than the butteries. But it is a sensation to have those beautiful things flying all around us. We were happy of the display. It was the first time I saw butterfly eggs laid on banana leaves. (Yesterday, I picked up a banana tree at Potter because it is half price, but I don't think it will do well in my yard. Hope they can take it back).

Then we went to Abkhazi Garden. Doesn't sound like a lot in the discription. But it was very interesting. The whole garden was grown on ignesous rocks and they have the most interesting verieties of plants. We had so much fun among the shrubs.

Then we met up with Regina at the wharf and she took us to a resturant at the gorgue with a beautiful flower garden. Price was good and food was good. Then we went back to her new home. A very nice bungalow which needs a lot of yard work. That evening, a fawn hop out from the bush in her back yard. But the poor thing had an injured leg. Regina tried to call the wildlife
rescue centre but the fawn disappeard later. I hope other neighbors spot it and send for help.

The next day, we went to the wharf to watch Regina took part in the dragon boat race. We were
on the opposite side of the wharf. There were 90 teams from all over the country, we couldn't pick her out from the crowd. But it was fun watching.

In the afternoon, we drove to Hatley Castle, it is so much advertised, so I expect a lot. But it turned out to be mostly greens except in spring time, there will be lots of rhodos. We didn't even venture into any part because the sun was beating down mercilessly and there was not any shade.

Then we drove to the Pacific Horticulture Centre. It works in conjunction with U Vic.'s horticulture program. The interesting thing is, they group all the plants to the same species. So it is more systematic than astactic. The day was so hot, even though there were a lot of shades, we were still panting. So we just quickly ran through the place and exited in a hurry.

We rushed out of the house early next morning because Regina had to paddle again for the final round and then she is leaving for England for a month to sail the tall ship. Return journey was smooth and uneventful. We were pretty lucky. A week later, one big ferry was pulled out from the schedule because something broke down. People had to line up overnight or 6 to 7 hours at the dock. Thanks to YJ who drove and kept me on track.