Victoria on Vancouver Island. My wife and I stayed at the Empress Hotel there. We flew in on a sea plane from Vancouver and landed on the water in front of the hotel. It was a fun short trip, not much to do there. Did you enjoy?
We went visited the gardens as that is what they are known for.
For our honeymoon, we rented a car and drove from the Bay Area up through Idaho, Glacier Natl Park, via Calgary to Banff/Yoho/Jasper, then over to Vancouver. We took the ferry to Victoria, did Butchert Gardens, the Empress, then drove up to Nanaimo and took the ferry back to Horseshoe Bay on the mainland. Then down the coast through Seattle, Oregon coast, and back to the Bay Area.
I'd been to Victoria before that. In grad school, I was invited to a summer conference at UBC in Vancouver and drove there. After the conference, I took the ferry to Victoria, but as a poor grad student I could not afford the hotels - not even the cheapies - and I slept on a park bench in front of the Empress overlooking the harbor. So returning again years later on the honeymoon with money for the best lodging was one of those strange circles of life. Honestly, the first time there as a poor student sleeping on a park bench was more memorable. During that poor grad student trip, I also was stopped and detained for 4 hours by Canadian customs/border patrol driving into Canada by Cardston, Alberta, as my car had boxes of canned food and a blanket and pillow (as I could not afford motels on the way except every third day or so). They thought I was an itinerant illegal immigrant seeking an oil field job up in Edmonton, and they held me until they could confirm from UBC that I was indeed a legit conference participant the following week. They searched my entire car and questioned me.
If only the US Border Patrol was that aggressive!
