Rving Vancouver Island | Butchart Gardens & Tofino BC

They have ice cream here. They have gelato down here. I'm not having any, but Tori has had some. Is it good? I don't know what it tastes like, but it looks good. So we're in front of what I think is the Parliament Building and on top of this building is Captain Vancouver. It does have a good ring to it, doesn't it? Yeah, it really does and guess what? He's made out of real gold. That's true, that's true. So he was the captain that explored all of, I guess, British Columbia and really was kind of like responsible for cultivating this area. Yes, the beginnings. He founded these paths, these seaways. And then right here, this is kind of like the, this is the Capitol Building for British Columbia, which was kind of a question that I had. How did Vancouver Island become the capital of British Columbia? It's because they wanted to make the 49th parallel. There was a war over who got the territory. So Canada decided to make the Capitol on Vancouver Island, which is down here to ensure that the border went below Vancouver Island. Anyway, we learned all this wonderful information from Mark, who's sitting up there guarding the joint. We tried to distract him to slip in the door. While you were talking to her, you had no idea what I was doing. No idea. That could have been, that fuzzy thing could have been anything. It could have been anything. I think it's a from Star Trek. I think this is only here to distract you. It's working. We had a whole plan and then it turned out he was a nice guy and he shared all this information. So we just thought, we'll just do this. Another nice Canadian. Another nice Canadian. We're standing out on the lawn of this building where there used to be three, I guess, state buildings, so to speak. Yes, they called them the bird cages. That's right. Maybe province buildings. I'm not sure. I don't know the lingo, but I think you get the gist. And instead, they created this building right behind us, which is absolutely gorgeous. But they've created this building in four years, which is like pretty much a complete phenomenal feat. It does look complicated. I think it's a modular design. That's why. Yes. Prefab. Prefab. It's like a prefab modular. We're just kidding. I know. Absolutely gorgeous. We're talking behind the Queen's back. Oh my gosh. Queen and country, and for a smashing good evening, come to the Empress for drinks. I have water. Well, we are in British Columbia, so I think for the rest of the episode, I will be talking like this. And I will be drinking like this. That doesn't bother anyone, does it? We still have not had a proper cup of tea. That needs to change before we leave. Oh, Victoria, what are you ever doing here? This is my hotel. We just waited in a line at this taco place down by, right across the street from the Empress. It's called Red Fish, Blue Fish. How is it? I have to learn how to make this. That's really, really good. It must be good. Is it good? Can I have some? No. Okay. Good morning. Good morning from the Bouchard Gardens. And when you're in the Bouchard Gardens, you don't just paint any old flowers on your sign. No. You put a three dimensional floating flower pot inside your sign. Okay. You are in for a treat this morning because we were so fortunate and so grateful to have been paired up with Laura, who is with the Bouchard Gardens to give us a tour really kind of before everybody got here. And we have some tips for you. But before we get into those tips, we have to give you a glimpse of this amazing property. So join us right now as we show you around. And then after we'll share some insights with you that we learned about how to best come and visit the Bouchard Gardens. Wow. Did everything just change? Yes. This is considered the palette cleanser so that you can get ready. You just clear the senses and then you go into the sunken garden. Where is she? Okay. Let's talk a little bit about this carousel because what we learned about the Bouchard family is that all the family members have one thing that they kind of put their fingerprint. Yes. In essence, their fingerprints. Currently, the great granddaughter Robin has left her fingerprint in this gorgeous carousel that has beautiful animals totally outside the box. And Tori, as you see, is having an absolute blast. All right. So are you going to go ride? Oh, I'm definitely riding. All right. There is a giraffe with my name on it. Really? Yes. And you? I don't know. I think a cannon has my name on it. I'll ride the cannon. You ride the giraffe. It's almost like a dragon flower, but it's like covered. This is like serious infrastructure for fireworks. I can only imagine what this show must look like. And then there's these massive green lawns to come out here. So this is every Saturday during the summer is this fireworks show. And here's a little insider tip that we learned from Laura. If you come in the summer, anytime after three, you kind of get a twofer on your ticket. Oh, wow. Because you can be here during the day and during the daylight to look at the garden. And then you can go into the evening and there's places to eat. You can pack your own picnic. You can do fine dining. Or if you're with a family, there's another area that you can eat during the summer. Every night of the week at eight p.m., there's a concert tonight. There's the Navy marching band. Yes. Or Navy band. The Navy band. And then on Saturdays, not only is there a concert at eight o'clock, but then at dusk, there's this fireworks show. Oh, my gosh, you guys, you know that I'm a big fan of picnics. So and for this is such an open and friendly atmosphere of gardens. You're allowed to bring your dogs. You can bring your own food in and have a picnic. You can rest and relax on the garden grass with your own blanket. I mean, so bring your RV, park it. There's plenty of RV parking. Yeah. Pack your picnic up there. Come in. Enjoy the gardens and then enjoy a show. That's crazy. That's really neat. Yeah. All in the price of your admission ticket. Yes. Victoria is considered a garden city. And so there is also a garden city in China. And so they consider each other the sister city. So the fountain behind us is a gift from that sister city in China. And it is spelled S-U-Z-H-O-U. We're not quite sure how to pronounce it. But this gorgeous fountain is from there. One of these several pictures will be posted to the Instagram. OK, so although summer is the peak season, every season has something to offer, especially in October when everything starts changing. You're going to see a firework display of color. Orange, green, yellow. Phenomenal. What was your favorite part? You know what one of my favorite parts was? Was that little hole in the Japanese garden where you could look out and see the boats. I mean, talk about planned out. I like that. That's your favorite. I think I like that you made boating your favorite thing about the gardens. It really was so neat. Here was my favorite part. My favorite part was all the contrasting colors. You would be in these bright, bright colors from the flowers. And then you would go on your way into the sunken gardens. And then it was like you were immediately transported. That's what it felt like into the redwood forest. Well, now we need to get those two teenage boys up. I think I think Caleb would appreciate that I'm calling him a teenager early. Yeah. Yeah. He's a little preteen. Yes. Preteen. We're going to make the most of today because tomorrow we're headed to Tofino. Oh my gosh. I can't wait. Okay. Awesome. Uh, by the way, in case we didn't mention, there is a link to the gardens down below so you can go check it out. Um, I absolutely must do when you come to Victoria. Yes. All right, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. So what kind of drive are we looking at? We're looking at a well, I know everyone's saying six hours, but it's, uh, now it says four hours and 31 minutes. I would add an hour to that. And, uh, and then we also want to go to the grocery store. We need to go to the grocery store. Oh, and I need gas. So, but you know, it doesn't get dark till about midnight. So I've got plenty of light. So there's that fuel is a dollar 21 per liter. Fool me once. If you guys remember the first time we got fuel, when we entered Canada near Toronto, we were all excited about 98 cents per gallon. I missed the fact that it was in liters. So it was more like $3 a gallon, but the U S dollar is about a buck 25 per thing. So this is about a dollar per liter. And then there's three point something liters per gallon. I think 3.8 or something. I can't remember. So, so it's about, this is about three 50 a gallon, which is expensive. Even after that, even after the exchange, that's at least a dollar more per gallon. So this fill up will be $34 more than it would be in the United States. And all the Canadians are like, Oh, your dollar is so strong. Your dollar is so strong. You got to come here now. Well, that's probably true. It is, but everything's more expensive here. So it's still costing us more to be here than it would be to be in our States. Even though we're getting a 25% discount, what are you going to do? It's pretty just pull over to stop it. What's it called? It's in Canada. It's called save on foods. I'm on Trish and her little grocery shopping now. So when she goes in the grocery store, I go behind the grocery store, turn off the car, get in the RV and start to work or take a nap, which is what we found him doing at the end. I started taking a nap because we still have a three hour drive ahead of us. And I wanted to be well rested. That was the safe thing to do. And I appreciate that. Look at this girl. He is bugging out. Oh boy. That's a long backup. Let me flip this around. Well done. We didn't even yell at each other because we had these. It's so great. You know, I mean, a lot of people use their cell phones for backing up and that's good too. But the nice thing about these walkie talkies is they're loud and immediate. They don't need a cell phone coverage, but I can just leave it in the cup holder and just rely on Trish telling me how many more feet I have. I don't have to pick it up and talk. I can just listen. And it's nice and loud. Everyone be quiet back there. All right. I finally rounded up the boys so we can head into Euclid and then to Fino. They were working, uh, as you know, they've, uh, made good friends with the golf shop up front. The owner, the owner and they're busy stacking or, and separating. No, no, no. Supplying the root beer. You know what that means boys. Tons of benefits. They say tons of benefits. They get free drinks. No money, but tens. They get free drinks. They get unlimited mini golf. Golf cart driving. They get golf cart driving. Oh, and he ranked us up. We get to do normal golf now. Oh yeah. And they get the hook up on the home golf. But more importantly, you know, um, the boys are busy and having a good time. So that's, that's good. Trish, Trish is like, don't tell him that I'll pay the boys if they go over there and work. Quick update on to Fino. So this is a serious surfing town. All right. When I look around, everyone has hair down below their ears with like a flat bill surfer cap on. And like, it's literally like, what's up bro? And it's like Northern California and Australia collided. Collided. Yes. But I couldn't tell the difference between like this and North shore Oahu. It is a surfing town, laid back surfing town. The difference is it's the middle of summer and it's 69 degrees outside. And that water out there has got to be in the forties. Yeah. We need to go dip our toe in it and figure it out. Yeah. We should, we need to go over there. We're going to pop over to the beach and go swim. You know what? I commit to swim. What? I commit to swim. We have to swim. We can't go all the way. I promise. Dad, come here. Give me a handshake. Pinky. Pinky. I put spit on it. That's how you know it's good. Eww. So disgusting. All right. Good morning mates. Can you tell I've been hanging out with a Kiwi? Here's the deal. We're about to head over to long beach, which is basically across the street. It's kind of like, it's kind of like down and across the street. So give you the inside scoop here. You can go into Tofino or Euclid and you can rent gear to go surfing from the surf shops in those towns or you can come to probably where you're going to end up going surfing anyway, which is near long beach and pop right in here to the long beach golf course slash RV park slash restaurant. And one of the stores in Euclid put up a, uh, like a, like a reefer, basically a container and they call it the surf can. It's pretty cute. The dude's so, so nice. It's $35 for six hours, or you can be like the boys and you can, uh, separate all their recycling and like clean all the wetsuits and work your tail off to work out a little, a little deal. A little discount. A little discount. Quite nice there. So if there's nothing at long, you can go check Cox and Cox a little more consistent. I started talking to him. He says, Oh man, are you from New Zealand? I said, no mate. He says, man, your accent's really good. I said, I said, I know I've been working on it for five minutes. He says, I can tell. I look in the way distance. The boys actually helped each other carry their surfboards to the beach and now they're helping each other put their wetsuits on. Look at this. Actually, were you guys actually working together? Yeah, it was great. Yeah, but I think it's because the work, work is bonding us. What do you mean? You mean like work at the RV park? Yeah. Yeah. You guys are coming together. Oh, look at this mate. That's good. You got to pop up like this mate. And the next thing you know, you're shredding the gnar. Time mate. The surfing's only amplified my accent. We're out here shredding the gnar and you're over here on the phone. You're on the phone and we're out here shredding the gnar. What's going on? Turning around to get bear spray. We'll tell you where we're going in just a second. Headed to the world war two bomber hike. It's an unofficial British Colombian hike. Some people have spent the night out here because they get lost. It's important to stay, uh, keep your eye out for the, I guess, yellow ribbons in the trees and wear shoes that potentially can get ruined because it's a muddy hike. We're RVers. Everything we have, we like, we enjoy. It's important. When you only have one pair of sneakers, those are the pair of sneakers you like. So I'm wearing my Keens and I love my Keens. So my fingers are crossed that I'm able to, I think we'll just be able to hose everything down. There's a wolf advisory. This is the first time ever. Okay. I've ever seen this. Do not run. Do not crouch down. Pick up your small children. Stay together. Back away slowly. Maintain eye contact. I'm looking at you wolf. Okay. Yell, wave your arms. Look large. Tail can do that. And kill them with the hatchet. Okay. It's been five minutes and the boys have turned into their normal, overly hyper selves when we hike and their hatchets have been taken away. You're probably like, why do the boys have hatchets anyway? And we came up to the creepy house and I agree. That's a creepy house. Well, we are really lucky that we got here when it's not muddy because it's, it's pretty extreme. It actually would probably be pretty fun if you were slopping around here, but it's, I can't imagine that people got that people like crash landed here. What would you be thinking? What is going on? I just fell in the mud into a knee deep mud. Oh my gosh. I totally see it. It's right there. It's right up there. You can see the vertical stabilizer. Wow. They lost their wing as they were coming in, lost their wing. And then they just lodged themselves into the trees. I can't believe this hasn't slid down the mountain with all the rain. It's amazing. Definitely recognize this plane. It's what I think it is. It lands on its belly. It has two huge turbine engines on each side of the top of the wing. And then it has these floats that have been ripped off. It has these floats that hang down. So that way it kind of balances. And then these right here, I'm pretty sure is the gear is the wheel well for the gear to come down. Wait, no. Yeah. Cause it still lands. It can still land on the ground. Yeah. So it was kind of that, I think that was kind of the claim to fame is that it could land on land and on water because those gears go up like that. But it was really hard to maintain these things with the, uh, the saltwater and everything. And you look at this wing like that. It's just crazy. The whole hike is super interesting and a little eerie. The whole thing from that little creepy house that we went in to get here and then through like the muddy floors and then to get up here and see this is crazy. Okay. That was a super cool hike. Trish reactions to the hike. Well, at first my stomach kind of dropped. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause like it's a little eerie. So thankfully everybody lived. Yeah. Then it would be like a gravesite and I don't know if I'd be like, it would definitely not be. That would not be as fun. It was amazing. I can't believe that it's been up there for 70 years. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. It crashed in 1941. Caleb, how do you do that? Uh, teleport thing so that we don't have to hike all the way back. I feel you. All right. You ready? Yeah. So we're going to jump on three. Okay. Even the camera. Okay. All right. Ready? Yeah. Okay. All right. Ready guys? Yeah. We're ready. Three, two, one. That worked Caleb. Oh yeah. I know. I told you dude. Wow. That worked, man. That was, that was a big time savings. Cause I think that, I think that hike was about five miles around trip, including the little bit on the thing, but it was only two and a half for us, but it might be five for you. Yeah. Sorry about that. Kidless, you know, we get a lot of questions about how do we get alone time away from the kids? Short answer is we ditch them. The long answer is we have a teenager. Caleb's working. Caleb's working for long beach. Carson's doing his computer stuff. Cause he's been away from the computer for so long and Tori is hanging out in the restaurant with the screaming fast wifi catching up with everyone. Yes. And writing a blog. She said, ah, yes. So anyway, that's what they're doing. And what we're doing is we're preparing for some super clean margaritas. I pre-made some margarita juice with this straight lime honey and straight lime honey and a shot of tequila. And we're going to make them and then go walk out to the beach. Yeah. Where we went surfing a couple of days ago. We have a couple of little chairs. We're going to go down there. We're going to bring the drone and we're going to go shoot awesome drone footage and go figure out what the plan is for the next either a couple of days, one year or five years. We really do have these conversations all the time, all the time. That is one of the things about full-time living is you're constantly thinking about what's the next move. What happens when we get here? When do we go to Alaska? What are we doing for my birthday in September? There's all sorts of topics, all sorts of topics. Yes. All right. So come with us. We invite you to come with us because you don't complain.