We’ve been all over the U.S. and Canada both before and during our RV journeys. Now that things are settling down in our life I think I’ll post memories from some of those trips.
Butchart Gardens is a place I’d heard about time and time again from my parents. We had opportunity to do this particular roadtrip before we retired taking in Jasper, Banff, and Victoria Island among other places.
Victoria Island is in a particularly special place on this planet. On the Japan Current it benefits from an outstanding climate for a lush and pristine botanical garden.
The reason I heard so much about Butchart Gardens was that my dad was stationed in Port Angeles during WWII on a coastal defense station. Mom, who had been proposed to on Pearl Harbor Day — the original one — and married to my dad that very Christmas Day followed my dad around the country as the U.S. Army moved him from place to place during the war. But, among the places he was stationed and they lived Port Angeles was the fondest memory they had. And somehow they managed to visit the gardens whilst there. For them it was rather like a honeymoon trip — a few years late.
For Peggy and I, we’d been married 30 some years before we had a chance to take in the gardens. I’d been to the West Coast numerous times but never with her on a pleasure trip. It was a special trip for us as well. How can that be, that it should become a special place for us because my parents liked it? I don’t know, but it happened that way.
When I think of a “garden” — this is what comes to mind. And it’s without apology that I admit South Texas gardens leave a lot to be desired (in my ‘umble opinion). I miss the GREEN of the Northern Climes. 😀 We are a few months into our S. Texas experiment and as yet I have no idea how successful it is. There are some things we love, and some things we don’t — just like any life experiment. We know there is no Utopia; we aren’t searching for the one perfect place. And we don’t yet know if Texas will be long term or not. What we do know however, is that we still love green!
From the Far Side of '70 
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