West Indies 2026: St. Martin

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Philipsburg, St. Martin was our second port of call, Puerto Rico having been our first port and point of departure. St. Martin is split, with France governing half of the island and Holland the other half. Philipsburg is in the Dutch side of the island, giving rise to its alternative spelling of Sint Maarten. Historically, the island exported tobacco, salt, cotton, and sugar at one time or another, but tourism dominates today. Here are some photos from our day on St. Martin:

Early morning entry to Philipsburg, our port of call. The clear air, lush green hills, and clear blue water greeted us as we tied up to a cement pier. Even though it was getting late in the cruise ship season, two larger cruise ships followed our ship (the Viking Sea) into port and tied up at the dock to the left in this photo.
View from hillside above the shore. A brisk wind forced us to hold on to our hats, use a chin strap, or risk losing hats and caps to someone downwind. As at many other West Indies islands, a large diesel generating plant provides most of St. Martin’s electricity. You can see the exhaust stacks near the center of the photo, and a tanker delivering fuel oil anchored off shore. Tropical showers fall in the distance; these showers popped up and then dissipated at seemingly random times every day. The frequent wash-downs may be why the air is so clear despite the diesels.
Another view of the turquoise and deep blue waters around the island. Hillside vegetation was an interesting mix of cactus and lush plants, perhaps reflecting overlapping microclimates affected by elevation and the trade winds.
Banyan tree trunks near a local restaurant. Again, much of the vegetation reminded us of Hawaii’s tropical flora, but with some exceptions. Like Hawaii, much of the weather rides in on the prevailing trade winds, so each island has a wetter side and a drier side reflecting the rain shadow effects of topography. These effects are more pronounced on the larger islands.
We could often hear birds, but they were hard to spot. The islands do not have large mammals in the wild, but they do have three or four kinds of snakes and even a few kinds of lizards. Here is an iguana, perhaps three feet long from nose to tail, munching on a lettuce leaf.
Tourists near the beach on the south side of St. Martin. It was a beautiful day, but we still needed protection from sun and wind. And chin straps on those hats!
A steel drum band came on board to play for us during supper that evening. We heard a smaller group play earlier in the day while on shore, but this band was bigger and better. Here is one of their drums up close; the tones are a happy sound, although I suppose it could be overdone. Regardless, the group played for almost two hours and then quickly packed up and left before we sailed for our next stop, the islands of St. Kitts & Nevis.

West Indies 2026: Puerto Rico

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We have often heard about the beauty of the Caribbean and its tropical islands, but Hawaii is closer to California. To paraphrase a line from the movie Sabrina, Hawaii is always a good idea. However, having heard so much about the Caribbean, this year we took a Viking cruise, the West Indies Explorer, to visit nine different Caribbean islands. This post and eight following posts will share some of what we saw, island by island.

Our cruise started and ended in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It takes about five hours to fly from San Francisco to Hawaii, but we spent more than twice that amount of time to get to San Juan. No direct flights that we could find, so we took a redeye flight to the East Coast and connected from there to San Juan. Here we are shortly after embarking our ship, the Viking Sea, enjoying the coffee as we tried to overcome jetlag.
On our first full day in Puerto Rico we visited the El Yunque National Rain Forest. This is one of the national forests administered by the USDA, and the only rain forest in the system. El Yunque had a fine visitor center, trails, and an observation tower for looking out over the area. The air was warm and moist with an occasional rainshower, but this is sort of what we expected. Here are some lobster claw, a variety of heliconia (I think), confirming that we had indeed arrived in the tropics.
We hoped to see Puerto Rican parrots in the wild, but they are too scarce and hard to find among the greenery. The visitor center had a large cage with some of the parrots, though, and I was able to get a photo through the wire mesh. Beautiful birds, but I would hate to find out how hard they might be able to bite!
Here is the watchtower I mentioned. This was perched on a hill about 1700 feet above sea level, located on a very crooked road that tested your resolve to reach the site. A spiral staircase inside the tower goes up to an observation deck where a cooling breeze provides relief from the humidity.
View from atop the tower, with lush, dense vegetation in all directions. You can see the Caribbean in the distance, a few miles away.
Tourists clustered around a waterfall in the rain forest. The island gets a lot of rain during hurricane season, but this was March so we were probably in what the locals would call the dry season. Nevertheless, passing rain showers keep everything moist.
Old fortress guarding San Juan’s harbor. We had set sail and were on our way out to sea. It was late in the afternoon so the sun was at a low angle, adding some dramatic shading to the view.
Caribbean sunset as we sail away from Puerto Rico. God makes the best colors and the best scenery! Our next port of call will be Philipsburg, St. Martin.

Ties that Bind

~ Jesse Yow ~ 5 Comments

Yesterday I attended a friend’s memorial service. Many thoughts come to mind as I reflect on his life and our 45 years of friendship.

We were different in several ways. He grew up on the West Coast; I grew up in the Midwest. He was a bit of a jock; I am a bit of a nerd. He was good at sports and a big fan of baseball, basketball, and football; I was always picked last for any team (for good reason) and the professional baseball team I liked left for another city. He was a perpetual extrovert and never met a person who was a stranger for very long; I am more of an introvert but can manage brief sprints of extroversion (is there such a word?) when necessary. He battled health issues for much of his adult life; I have had it easy with relatively good health. Most of these differences were obvious to anyone who knew us. So how and why were we friends? What did we have in common?

At the most important and most fundamental level, we have one thing in common that overrides any number of differences. We both love Jesus. We both know that God saved us to be His children. God’s love for us and in us creates ties that bind, and drives a lot of other things, too. Love for God’s Word. Love for family, and in particular our wives, children, grandchildren, siblings, and parents. A strong work ethic. Speaking truth in love. Careful and yet bold use of resources God gives us. Love for our home, community, and country. Thanksgiving for God’s day to day providence of things we take for granted. Our understanding of objective truth, beauty, and the creation around us.

Was my friend, or am I, perfect in living out all of these things? Of course not! But God knew this even before we were born. As Psalm 139:16 says, “And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” In other words, God knew our lives before we were even conceived. And He sent His son Jesus to save us from our failings.

My first thought when my friend died was that he is face to face with Jesus. Like many partings, though, this one is only temporary. My turn to die will come sooner or later, and then I will join my friend and many others in God’s presence. Meanwhile, by God’s grace, I will live out the days, and run the race, that God marks out for me. I thank God for my friend, and I thank God for the ties that bind.

Finding Photos in my Picfair Gallery

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A previous post explained that I am consolidating my photo gallery on line at https://jesseyow.picfair.com/ This gallery, “Electrons are Cheap,” does not include nearly all of my photos. For example, it contains only a few of the travel photos narrated in vacation posts in this blog. On the other hand, it does show many of my best images, and I add more from time to time. Please take a look and enjoy the pictures!

Someone asked how they could obtain a photo from my Electrons are Cheap gallery. Maybe they wanted to hang it on their wall at home or at work, maybe they wanted to give it as a gift, or maybe they wanted to use it in something they were writing or posting. Regardless, Picfair makes it easy to buy my photos for a reasonable price. Here are two options:

If you want a photo printed on canvas or as a framed print, you can select it on the gallery web page, put it in your cart, and then navigate to options to have it printed and delivered into your hands. However, maybe Picfair does not offer the print options, format, size, or price you want. Or maybe you want to use the photo in some other way. In that case, go to the second option:

As an alternative to buying a finished product through Picfair, you can simply buy a licensed copy of the full-sized electronic image file. Choose the photo, put it in your cart, and navigate to the option to buy a licensed electronic copy. Picfair will deliver the file to your electronic address. Then you have the choice to use the photo as you wish under terms of the license. You can put the picture in something you are writing or creating (e.g., a publication, web page, or advertisement), or you can send it to the vendor of your choice to make it into a canvas print, metal or glass print, or a framed photo. Each format has its pros and cons; feel free to contact me for perspective on the advantages and disadvantages of each.

If you choose to buy a licensed copy of a photo, you have options for where and how to print it. If you own a really good printer that will provide high-quality color and resolution, you can print it yourself. If you want a professional-quality print, though, I suggest that you consider Shutterfly, Canvas on Demand, Walmart., or a similar vendor Each one offers somewhat different choices of format (canvas vs. metal or glass vs. framed print), size, price, and delivery options. I have used all three, and there are certainly other vendors, but I usually go back to Canvas on Demand because they offer a really large range of formats and sizes. Bear in mind that while their list prices are high, they often offer significantly lower sale prices on certain sizes and formats. If you don’t like what they offer and have time to wait, give it a couple of weeks and check back to see if they have a sale price that meets your needs.

To summarize: if you like a photo and want to use it, the best choice might be to buy a licensed file and then have it printed and mounted the way you want it. We have a selection of canvas prints, metal prints, and a few framed prints in our home, and we swap them in and out to update our decorating whenever we take the fancy. Whatever you do, please enjoy the artwork!

Christmas Readings

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The scripture passages selected for our Christmas worship service yesterday morning were some of my favorites, and worth sharing. It was difficult to read these passages straight through without pausing to marvel at their depth of content. Here they are, from the English Standard Version:

Isaiah 52:7-10, written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus:

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
the return of the LORD to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

Hebrews 1:1-12, which stretches our understanding of who Jesus is and why He came to us:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”
But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”

John 1:1-18, which reaches all the way back before the dawn of creation to speak of the eternal power of God’s Word:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

A Tale of Two Photo Galleries (Updated Below)

~ Jesse Yow ~ Leave a comment

Most readers of this blog know that I really enjoy photography. Landscapes, wildlife, closeups, travel photos, whimsical photos of clocks, artwork, or anything else that catches my interest — I enjoy trying to capture the image and the moment with a camera. I started shooting with film many years ago, learned to develop and print my own photos, and eventually took up a series of increasingly sophisticated digital cameras once the technology and price points were good enough to give film a serious run for the money.

Shooting with film always involved a lag time between triggering the shutter and when seeing the photo. Unless you used one of the so-called instant cameras, which did not give high quality images compared to a good single lens reflex camera. Digital shooting changed all that because it became easy to see the image immediately and take another shot if the first was not what you wanted. And if the subject was moving or changing too quickly for you to check your work, it was easy to take lots of shots and then delete whatever you didn’t like.

All of which leads to an old maxim: the difference between a good photographer and a bad photographer is that the good photographer does not show anyone his bad photos. A challenging photo shoot might produce one “keeper” for every 40 or 50 photos that are deleted, or, if not deleted, at least kept hidden in the archives. Digital photography makes this easier.

I like to share some of my photos with friends, family, and whomever else might be interested. Out of the thousands of photos I have taken over the years, there are a few that I like well enough to post in a gallery online. At the moment, I have two galleries:

https://jesseyow.com/electrons-are-cheap/ is the link to my gallery associated with my blog. It contains about 200 photos with high quality color and resolution, and it is easy to scroll through and pause to gaze at anything that catches your fancy. I will update it from time to time by adding or archiving a few photos. The photos are not organized in any particular order, and there is no mechanism to purchase or download any of the images, which prompted a complaint or two from viewers, and led me to restart a second, more selective gallery on Picfair. I may eventually phase out this gallery in favor of the Picfair account, but for now it is on line for you to enjoy.

https://jesseyow.picfair.com is the link to my Picfair gallery. It contains some of what I consider to be my best photos. The gallery displays them with high quality color and resolution, but also with a protective watermark. I will update it from time to time by adding or archiving a few photos., and may decide to organize the photos into albums to make it easier to find certain kinds of images. The advantage of Picfair is that it is easy to scroll through and enjoy the photos and, if one strikes your fancy as potential artwork for your home, office, or as a gift, it is easy to order it as a framed print or a canvas. Or you can download the digital file and have it printed however you like.

This blog post introduces my two online photo galleries, but I would also like to ask for feedback. If there is any way to improve the displays (e.g., by organizing albums), please let me know. And thanks in advance!

UPDATE:

After two months of maintaining both galleries, I realized that 1) two galleries are more work than my time allows, 2) more people visit my Picfair gallery than the one directly linked in my blog, and 3) the Picfair gallery is easier to manage. Therefore, I am downsizing to one gallery (the one on Picfair) as of this week. I will still post travel, contest, and other favorite photos from time to time on this blog. Enjoy!

Contest Theme: Lenses

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The Christian Photographers on Facebook weekly photo contest took a summer vacation, but resumed in September. The first contest theme after the hiatus was “Lenses,” and we were invited to submit images that showed off the capabilities of our favorite lens. Or lenses, since serious photographers often have several types of lenses on hand. I own two lenses, both of professional quality, but there is always room for one more lens in my kit, even if not in our budget! I could go on about lenses and cameras, but those are just tools for capturing an image. Good photography involves technique, creativity, and opportunity, and the equipment may actually be the least important of these.

But what about the contest? Here are some photos I shot with a Canon R7 fitted with a Canon RF 100-500mm zoom, maxed out at 500mm. All of these were handheld shots; I submitted the first two for the contest, and include the other two just for your interest.

Rufous Hummingbird winking his eye at my camera. This was a lucky shot; I did not know his eye was closed until I saw the image on my computer.
Armadillo digging up my mom’s pasture, with big black ants on his back. First time I had ever seen a live armadillo; they are usually dead on the side of the road. Beautiful or ugly, depending on your point of view.
White-tailed buck further out in my mom’s pasture. He looked long and hard at me once he realized my presence, and then took off for the tall timber.
Honeybee pollenating a blossom on our orange tree. I was maybe 20 feet away when I shot this photo; interesting that a good telephoto lens can be used for what amounts to macro photography.

Alaska Cruise 2025: Banff

~ Jesse Yow ~ 1 Comment

Banff, Alberta was the final stop on our Rocky Mountaineer journey. We had an opportunity to spend time in the town, which is certainly interesting itself, but the best scenery was Lake Louise and Moraine Lake in Banff National Park. After that, we were ready to head to Calgary for our flight home. Here are some photos:

Morning view looking north from our hotel. The Rocky Mountaineer had brought us to Banff late the day before, and after a good night’s sleep and hearty breakfast we were ready to see the sights. We found this view when we came out of the hotel to board our tour bus.
Classic view of Lake Louise in Banff National Park. We did not see any wildlife, but the combination of mountains, ice fields, and lake had no problem holding our gaze.
Here we are in front of the lake, trying to stay clear of other visitors. Lake Louise is at about 5200 ft above sea level and the weather was a little cool and breezy, so a hat and either a vest or a jacket felt good.
Shooting photos while standing on the rock wall seen in the previous image. This additional height let me shoot over the heads of the people. Dorcas was not happy with me clamoring up onto this wall, nor was she pleased when I jumped down, but you do what you have to do to get the shot! I took the first image of Lake Louise (shown above) and the image below from this spot.
Why another photo of Lake Louise? I was setting up a historical comparison, so keep reading. This image of Lake Louise looks different from the photos above because the lake area was shadowed by clouds and because I cropped the photo to come close to the view seen in the next image. Like most of my other photos, I took this shot with a Canon R7 digital mirrorless camera equipped with a Canon zoom lens.
The previous shot was taken on August 10, 2025, but I shot this rather darker photo from essentially the same spot in June, 1986 with a Nikon SLR film camera and Nikon zoom lens. I recalled this image from my personal photo library and include it here for comparison. There is more snow in this older photo, but it was taken at the start of the summer rather than towards the end of the summer. In fact, it looks like fresh snowfall up along the ridge in the back of the scene. On the other hand, as you compare the two photos, it looks like climate change over the past 39 years may have had some effect on the permanent deep snow fields, but not as much as I would have expected. What do you think?
After leaving Lake Louise we traveled to Moraine Lake, also in Banff National Park but about a thousand feet higher in elevation. The lake was ice-free, with clear, turquoise-blue water, and the skies were a little sunnier.
Looking into the sun at a rocky slope leading up to a nice overlook (not the square-topped peak in the distance) for Moraine Lake. The trail wound up the left side of the slope, but we decided not to scramble up to the overlook, partly because of time, partly because we are not used to rock-hopping at over 6000 ft elevation, and partly because we did not want to risk a fall. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.
We saved the best for last. This is my favorite view of Moraine Lake. I encourage you to double-click and enlarge it on your screen if the web page will let you do that. I shot this photo with my backup camera: the ProCamera app on my iPhone 15 Pro. The clouds, shadows, and sun work to add depth and drama to the image, and I like it so much that I ordered a metal print (metal prints make the colors pop) of this picture for our library wall. Hope you like it, too.

This is the last of our 12 blog posts sharing photos with captions from our Viking Alaska Cruise with its Rocky Mountaineer post-cruise extension. Thank you for taking the time to relive the trip with us! If you go to my blog’s home page, you can find a link to a short personal photo gallery (Electrons are Cheap) and links to a series of blog posts from our Viking Iceland & Norway’s Arctic Explorer cruise in 2024. Enjoy, and stay tuned for Viking West Indies in 2026!

Alaska Cruise 2025: Rocky Mountaineer

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We followed up our Alaska Cruise with Viking’s post-cruise extension that included time in Vancouver, two days crossing the Canadian Rockies by rail, and a day in the spectacular mountains around Banff. Our previous two posts included captioned photos from Vancouver and Victoria, both in British Columbia. This post covers our two-day trip on the Rocky Mountaineer. Here are photos:

It was an early call, but here we are preparing to board our Rocky Mountaineer car for two long days of scenic travel across the Canadian Rockies. I did not have a good way to include it in this post, but as we waited in the railway station, we noticed a man preparing to play his bagpipes for the assembled passengers. When the time came to go to our assigned passenger cars, he played “When the saints come marching in.” Funny, and a nice way to get our attention and send us on our way.
Here we are in our observation car. There were two levels to the car: this upper level was built for sight-seeing visibility, while the lower level held a kitchen, dining room, restrooms, and a small outdoor observation platform. Access between the two levels was by a tight spiral staircase, but the car also had a simple platform elevator so that people with mobility issues could move easily from one level to the other. We had breakfast, lunch, and a light supper on the train, along with drinks and snacks, and it was all wonderful!
Rafts of logs on the Fraser River. We knew of such things, and probably saw pictures at one time or another, but it was interesting to see them first hand. And there were a LOT of logs stored on the water near the sawmills we passed. I used a polarizing filter to reduce window glare in my photos, and it worked most of the time, but there was nothing I could do to avoid the blur of the bushes close to our moving train.
Looking back over our train as we roll along the Fraser River. Our car was only four or five back from the engines, so we were near the front of the train. We were in one of the taller cars, which have two levels; the other cars have only one level and large plate glass windows rather than domes. On the first day we travelled from Vancouver to Kamloops, where we spent the night in a hotel. At Kamloops this long train was split into a shorter train that we rode east the next day to go to Banff, and another train that went north to (I think) Jasper.
Hells Gate on the Fraser River. This is the narrowest and probably most turbulent point on the river. A pedestrian bridge provides a close look, although our schedule was tight and we did not have time for a stop. You can see another railroad track above the river on the far side of the canyon. The Canadian Pacific Railroad owns and maintains one track and the Canadian National Railroad owns and maintains the other.
Railroad bridge over the Fraser River. Our two locomotives are in the far right side of the photo, about to pass under the bridge.
A rugged part of the Fraser River Canyon, with the other track on the far side of the canyon, near the bottom of the slope. Steel and concrete sheds (like snow sheds in the Sierra Nevada) provide protection from recurring rockfalls. We were told that the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National share their tracks through the canyon to expedite rail traffic; eastbound trains all use one track and westbound trains use the other.
Bighorn sheep on the skyline watching our train roll by. Gray skies made the color and contrast a bit of a challenge for photography.
Nice waterfall in the canyon wall, with a hint of great scenery to come in Canada’s Banff and Yoho National Parks.

Next Post: Alaska Cruise 2025: Banff

Alaska Cruise 2025: Victoria

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We finished our cruise from Seward down the coast and through the inside passage to Vancouver. However, our itinerary after the cruise still included two full days in Vancouver, two days of travel by rail across the Canadian Rockies, and a day in the Banff area, so stay tuned for future blog posts! For our time in Vancouver, Viking surprised us with a full day excursion to see Butchart Gardens and Old Victoria. The gardens were one of the best highlights of our trip, and here are some photos:

Butchart Gardens is privately owned and operated, or we think it would become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We have been blessed to visit Shaw’s Garden in St. Louis; Filoli Gardens in California; botanical gardens in Hawaii and other states; and royal gardens at palaces in Vienna, St. Petersburg, and other parts of Europe, but Butchart Gardens in Victoria would give any of them a run for the roses (pardon the pun). It was that good!
The story goes that a man made his fortune mining limestone to make cement back East somewhere, and decided to sell out, retire, and move to Victoria. Once settled in Victoria, he was restless and decided to once again mine limestone to make cement. His wife took him to task for leaving a big, ugly hole in the ground, so he said that she should take it over and see what she could do to give it a better look. She had money and ideas, and the result was Butchart Gardens. This photo shows part of their Sunken Garden, in what used to be a limestone quarry. I think she did pretty well!
A different angle on the Sunken Garden. Note the people on the path for scale.
Yet another view of the sunken garden. Dorcas was in a wheelchair because of her knee, and I pushed her all over this place for at least two hours, up hill and down dale. Plenty to see, and we had a great time!
Closeup of Royal Lily plants. My only quibble with this garden was that none of the plants were labeled. I used the “Identify This” app on my iPhone to find out what they were. The app uses a photo of the plant to do the ID process, tells you if the plant appears healthy, and suggests what to do about it if the plant is not doing well. I am pleased to report that all of the plants we identified in Butchart Gardens were in fine shape. No surprise.
This is a Showy Lily, also known as a Japanese Lily. Guess lilies caught my eye…
A different part of the Sunken Garden, with dahlias in the foreground.
Flower basket hanging near the entrance/exit. Butchart Gardens included a rose garden, Japanese garden, and other gardens, but the Sunken Garden was the most spectacular, so it turned up the most in my photos. Needless to say, there were plenty of colors everywhere we looked. We had only 2-3 hours there, but could have easily spent all day.
Near the waterfront in Old Victoria. Think that is the Hotel Grand Pacific in the background. The weather was back to its sunny best behavior, and it was a good day to see flower gardens, sight-see, and people-watch, so we did all three.
Here is the ferry that took us back to Vancouver. It was getting late by the time we left Victoria, so we grabbed a light supper in the cafeteria on the upper deck. A good day, and not to be missed.

Next Post: Alaska Cruise 2025: Rocky Mountaineer