This morning started early for us. We were up and ready to leave the motorhome at 7am as we had a 40 mile drive to Port Angeles to catch a ferry. We were to be at the terminal by 8am to get our tickets and then get on board for the 8:20am departure time. Tom had made reservation last night for the ferry and for tickets to Buchart Gardens which was all handled at the terminal. The ferry left promptly to cross the Strait of Juan De Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia, a hour and half trip. Once on the ferry we grabbed cups of coffee and a couple bagels for breakfast- we were hoping for a different breakfast but this was what was offered. We talked to a young lady that had the job on the ferry of arranging tickets for tours and such. We were concerned about getting bus transportation to the Gardens and she was able to arrange for us to get on a bus at the terminal to go directly to the Gardens and then return back to the terminal.
Everything fell into place. We got on the bus and after 40 minutes we were at Buchart Gardens. These gardens are just beautiful and we enjoyed walking on the paths to the various gardens- Sunken, Japanese, Italian. There were workers busily replanting some gardens for the changing seasons. We had lunch in the cafeteria. At 1:35pm we had to be at the bus to return to the terminal. Once back there we walked along the harbor passing time until 3:30 to be ready to depart on the ferry by 4pm. The harbor is quite a busy place. Water taxis flit from site to site around the harbor. Numerous seaplanes were taking off or landing in the harbor. And other boats, including the ferry we would be on, coming into the harbor.
Our return trip on the ferry was a time to relax. It was cool today but it was not until we were getting on board that it started to rain. Light rain continued most of the travel across the water. We had no problems going through Immigration or Customs on either side.
On our return to the campground we stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Port Angeles. We finally got home at 7:45pm- an enjoyable day.
