Before we reached Victoria, the Narges', Oberlanders, and Newells all participated in Holland America's "On Deck for the Cure" fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen foundation. All of us walked in honor of Barbara Narges, Eric's mom, who's strength and determination recently helped her beat breast cancer. Originally, Eric's parents were both booked to join us all on this cruise, but late last year, Barbara was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. The treatment was going to leave her too weak for the trip, so Mike and Barbara had to cancel their vacation. We all missed them on the trip.

We only got to spend one short evening in Victoria. A shame because this city is really beautiful and charming. Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia. Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is a major tourism destination seeing more than 3.65 million visitors a year who inject more than one billion dollars into the local economy.

The Butchart Gardens, where we decided to spend our short time in Victoria, is located 21 km from Victoria and covers 55 acres. The Gardens began as an idea by Jennie Butchart to beautify a worked-out limestone quarry which had supplied her husband Robert Pim Butchart's nearby Portland cement plant.

The mixture of rare and exotic shrubs, trees, and flowers which the Butcharts had collected over the course of their worldly travels, created the famous Sunken Garden . The gardens, started as a hobby, spilled into the Japanese, followed by the Rose, and Italian Gardens. In 2004, in bloom for 100 years, the Gardens was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

This garden was captivating and getting to stroll on the grounds of this magnificent place with my family and friends was really a perfect end to the cruise.

Pictures from today can be found on Fotki.