Long Beach vacation day 2
Sunday October 11, 2009.
Today I tried to catch up with some of the Victoria tourism I had planned. The two main items on my itinerary for today were the Butchart Gardens and the Butterfly Gardens right next door.
Butchart Gardens was smaller than I remember, but then I was a lot smaller last time I was there. Rewarding though, and I got some good pictures, but too many to upload over the wireless from where I am right now; I’ll post them to the gallery after I return home.
Butterfly Gardens was a bit of a disappointment, but only because I’ve recently been to the Vancouver Aquarium, which also has butterflies on exhibit. Butterfly Garden had two or three species not represented at VanAqua, but that’s not enough to get me excited about it.
After that I went to Russell Books; I missed them yesterday, but luckily they were also open today. Got there about an hour before closing, but they’ve got so much stuff I could spend a whole afternoon browsing. Did come away with:
- “The Art of Science Fiction” by Frank Kelly Freas
- “Revolutionary” by S. Andrew Swann
- “Engines of Creation” by K. Eric Drexler
- “The Singularity is Near” by Ray Kurzweil
- “The Demon-Haunted World” by Carl Sagan
That last is a second copy; I’m currently reading this book, and it has a sufficient combination of rarity and value that I picked up a second copy to give to someone. I don’t know who I’m going to give it to yet (speak up if you want it), but I think it’s a must-read for anyone who has trouble drawing the line between fact and fiction or between science and faith, or for anyone who interacts with people who have those troubles.
By then it was supper time so I met up with Mike and we went out to a local color joint called John’s Place and had a good meal and chat, then went to look at a few nighttime sights before calling it a day.
Today’s GPS track, with internal foot-tour detail of the Butchart Gardens:
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