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Victoria Canada Exploring with FitFlop
I can’t wait to show you Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve visited Victoria, BC, Canada – located on the southern end of Vancouver Island, you can take a ferry from Seattle that’s a few hours long, maybe under two. It’s also funny how many people mentioned they love Victoria when I mentioned I was out there – lots of California natives (like me) and west coasters are regular visitors of the PNW and Canada like Vancouver and Victoria. My dad is a UW alum so we visited Seattle often and my parents took my brother and I on a fantastic trip every summer and those were times I went to Canada. But of course now as an adult you experience things differently with new eyes!
When we planned on heading to Victoria there were two spots I wanted to see – Chinatown and Butchart Gardens! With 55 acres of gardens, I mean of course we had to go! Butchart Gardens hosts over 1 million visitors a year and as soon as we landed in Victoria we went straight to our hotel, I changed, and then we headed to the gardens to end the day there. Oh and the weather was 65 and sunny, perfection for me.
When I travel I’m always packing comfortable shoes. You may have seen me wear FitFlop high tops in Switzerland and Prague. I own three pairs of FitFlops and now I own 5! They are so lightweight, like you are on literally floating on air which is great for packing for weight too.
Featuring Ergonomic sandals: FitFlop / Dress: Tahari ASL / Hat: Cuyana / Bag: Ellen & James / Cut out Disc Earrings: J.Crew (similar) / Jade bracelet
When traveling and knowing I’m going to walk a lot, the last thing I want are my feet to hurt, that’s the absolute worst! I don’t want anything to hold me back and ergonomic shoes that are also stylish are so perfect.
Sizing tip: I’m wearing the leather toe-post sandals and they felt like I was walking on a cloud as all their shoes do. For sizing I’m usually an 8 in pumps and 8.5 in boots and opened toed shoes, and I am size 8 in FitFlop all around works for sandals and their closed toed shoes – they have measurement sizes on the site that really help.
Isn’t this dreamy?
Like every part of the gardens it was like inspiration for our own garden! Here is the sunken garden, so gorgeous. We took a private boat tour through the harbor (private because we got it at the end of the day and it was just the two of us which was perfect!) and was told by our captain the history of Victoria and Butchart Gardens was actually a private family owned garden, but guess what it was before it turned into a garden?
The area was limestone quarry and in 1909 when it was exhausted, they turned it into this sunken garden you see now.
The garden was given to their grandson and he operated it until his death. You will never find a single weed in the garden they have gardeners going out early morning checking and I heard they make their own soil.
I bought some seeds, well a lot of seeds of course from the gift shop. I have to wait until next spring to plant them, oh patience! But it’s OK, it’ll be something to look forward to.
Every corner we turned was just out dreamy, we kept pointing at different plants and I loved seeing peonies in bloom, as bush opposed to Trader Joe’s :) There are so many beautiful plants other zones have it kinda makes me jelly but then I remember we also get bougainvillea here and I love bougainvillea! So I guess I’ll just appreciate other plants when I travel.
I walked all day, all weekend actually in these sandals. One of my best friends loves FitFlops and she’s super fashionable so when I showed her the three I was debating getting for the trip she was like, oh my this is hard to narrow them down to two!
I wore these suede closed-toed sandals in dusty pink on the plane ride, blush is a neutral color and went with pretty much anything I wanted to wear on the trip. I packed a pair of leather toe-post sandals in metallic and just wore those two pairs of shoes as we explored around town, unless I had to wear heels for the wedding we attended.
Here I am in Canada’s oldest Chinatown in Fan Tan Alley, it’s the narrowest street in the country! It’s just like this magical passageway and we walked through it a few times as we explored Victoria over the past few days.
Even though I’m a great travel packer I am still learning that I need to pack for colder weather, like night time weather. Sometimes I think I pack for what I want the weather to be and I freeze – so now I need to make sure I pack a little warmer just in case, like at least at least a scarf.
But at least I pack comfortable shoes! I never regret the shoes I pack, thank goodness. Here are a few samples of what I’m loving on FitFlop right now, they are not just stylish but they are the most comfortable shoes in the world, I swear! If I own five pairs and I take them traveling, you know they are solid!
Hope you get to visit or re-visit Victoria soon!
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Have you ever been to Victoria Canada? What did you enjoy there? Share in the comments!
Thank you FitFlop for sponsoring this post.
