Anyone who tried to travel by air in the summer of 2022 in Canada will have some sort of horror story to tell. The day before our planned trip to Vancouver Island I received the dreaded text message from Air Canada with a flight cancelation for our flight the next day. In the end, we lost the first day we were scheduled to spend in Victoria, but on the positive side, we at least arrived just in advance of the airport’s rental car location closing so we could snag our car for an extra late night drive to our downtown hotel.

We woke up fresh the next morning, but quite hungry as the previous day’s delays and flight changes left us woefully little time to actually eat en route to Victoria. My wife had picked out John’s Place, a diner a block from our hotel that had an extensive list of gluten-free goodies (waffles!) and while she had done significant research on this place, I knew nothing about it…. until we walked in and I was greeted by this sign. Instantly, I knew this was a good omen for a great day ahead.

My wife’s waffle turned out to be delicious, I enjoyed a “too large but I ate it all anyway” plate of bacon, eggs, toast and hash browns and we both got ourselves over caffeinated drinking bottomless mugs of coffee. We left there in a great mood and drove out to Butchart Gardens north of Victoria in Brentwood Bay. I hadn’t made it out here on my one previous visit to the city and I’m glad I got to take in all this beauty with my wife on what was an amazing early summer day. The gardens were well into bloom, and even the dedicated gardens for a wide assortment of rose varieties were well on they way to their full beauty.

Idyllic might be the best word to describe Butchart Gardens and my feelings for this day we had going so far. Everywhere I turned there were beautiful views. I was especially enamoured with this kind of peek-a-boo portal that was cut into some shrubs to show off Butchart Cove and Daphne Inlet.

We sat for a while on a bench surrounded by lush gardens and may have asked ourselves why we don’t choose to live in a more temperate climate like Victoria. Everything really is better on vacation. I think this picture best captures the vibe we had going this day.

The rest of this day was completely unplanned. On the drive to the gardens we spotted a few stops we wanted to make. First was Category 12 Brewing for a bite to eat and so I could do a beer tasting. I have always enjoyed Category 12 beers and it was nice to taste four new ones right from the source.

Our next stop was for some more tastings, this time of the wine variety. Church and State Wines had a lovely patio overlooking some of their vineyards.

Once we saw oysters on the menu, we decided to have a second lunch…. I mean, this was a vacation after all! A selection of their wines paired perfectly. Before we left, we picked up a bottle of their sparking pinot gris which we got around to enjoying later on our vacation while spending a few days staying at a place overlooking the Georgia Strait. We realized later that this wine was one we had enjoyed immensely when we attended the Vancouver International Wine Festival a month earlier.

Now well into late afternoon, we headed back to our hotel in downtown Victoria. While my wife elected for a rejuvenating nap, I headed to Herald Street Brew Works to try a few of their beers before I made my way back to the hotel to partake in a short nap of my own. Loved their Vista Pop! double IPA (pictured below) and the amazingly named Miami Weisse rosehip and hibiscus sour.

With no set dinner plans for this first night and craving comfort food and a relaxed atmosphere, we ended up at Jones Bar-B-Que for a feed of meat, hushpuppies and cornbread (all gluten free!) while sitting at a patio table in their parking lot.

It wasn’t glamorous, but it was exactly what we wanted to cap an amazing day hanging out together as we glued some ad hoc plans together given our travel woes the day before. It was also a great start to what continued to be a fun and relaxed vacation over the ten days to come.