Butchart Gardens

 The first thing we did on our second day in Canada was go to visit Butchart Gardens which were beautiful even though we were there in the early spring.  We had a great time walking through all of the gardens and looking at all the plants and flowers.  It took us a few hours to walk through all the gardens and we got really lucky because it didn't start raining until after we left.  I really love visiting gardens and both Drew and I left these gardens wanting to go back someday.

It was cool to see some flowers just starting to bloom.

The sunken garden is so beautiful and it so impressive that it was created where there used to be a quarry.

Alden got really excited every time we found more of the "animals" that were in the gardens.

So beautiful! I loved seeing the flowers that had already bloomed and all the little buds that were appearing.

This was a really neat fountain and Alden loved it because it was water.

They had a carousel there that Alden wanted to ride but then once we got on it he only wanted to ride in one of the cars, instead of on one of the animals.

There was this woodpecker on the totem pole and you could see other holes that the woodpecker had made in it.

Alden loved running around and looking at everything.

Alden is so much fun! I loved watching him and Drew walking around together!

Alden found the ocean!

Drew and Alden had fun walking and hopping over these stones.

This is the Italian garden that is right behind the main house.

We got to go inside a part of the house and see a display they had on the family and the creation of the Butchart gardens. That exhibit isn't open year round and it was really neat to see pictures of the sights of the gardens before they were built.

They had a hot house open with lots of beautiful flowers that were in bloom.

I love tulips!

We had a great time at the gardens and I really hope that we have a chance to go back to them someday.  It was a great start to the day and I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to go.