Alaskan Cruise day 6 and 7: Victoria and returning to Seattle

Our last port of call was Victoria, BC. We were only there for about 4 hours, but I totally, utterly love this place. After our honeymoon we spent a long weekend on the island and I just fell in love. As we took the bus from the ship pier to the Butchart gardens I stared out the window and day dreamed about getting some land and starting a bed and breakfast on the island. A place where I work all day in the garden grown fresh gorgeous food and then serve it up on a platter to my charming and interesting guests that come to visit me everyday.

When we got the garden I was pulled from a day dream into a waking dream. If you've never been to this garden you should put it on your list of things to see before you die. It used to be a gross old mine for a concrete producer. After they'd dug huge trenches out of the ground the family who owned the company, the Butcharts, covered their mining with the most stunning garden.

After touring the place by twilight we boarded the bus, drove back across the island and got on our ship for our last night at sea. In the morning we woke up to the Seattle sky line. We packed and disembarked. It was a sad parting between us and the beautiful Golden Princess!

We spent the whole day around Seattle. We went to the market and saw that both the Copper River Salmon and the gorgeous peonies were in season! Two of my favorite things in the world

My mother-in-law saw the German Chocolate doughnuts and thought they were something special.

As luck would have it, the city was hosting the Folklife Festival at the Science Center so we got to see tons of musicians getting the bluegrassy/street performing acts on.

I've never seen someone who is better at playing the washboard than this character!

All in all, a pretty perfect trip!