And Victoria just finished its "official" flower count on February 28th. All over the city this week people have been tallying up the blossoms and phoning their count into "Headquarters" at the downtown Eaton's mall. And the official total is 3,000,000,000 - no, that's not a misprint - 3 billion. Seems impossible, but all those little individual flowers on the fruit trees and shrubs add up (estimated, of course), and Victoria is known as the City of Gardens, after all. It's our way of bragging to the rest of Canada that we're not buried in 3 feet of snow. Sometimes we just say we live in the "banana belt" of Canada.

If you're traveling to Victoria with kids (March is holiday time for BC schools), here are some suggestions for what you can do that won't cost a month's salary. And hopefully, the days will be sunny for outdoor activities.

For the little ones, there's Beacon Hill Park's petting zoo. The park contains the ubiquitous playground of swings, slides, and more. This one, though, is set amongst beautiful trees, flowers, and ponds. It's a wildfowl sanctuary, and feeding the birds that find their way to the park is a favorite pastime of old and young alike. Lots of room for the kids to run off those extra energy pills that someone keeps feeding them.

You can bike (check at the Tourist Information Centre for bike rental places), walk or ride a horse for nearly 60 kilometres (37 miles) on the Galloping Goose Regional Trail. This former rail line passes some of BC's best scenery. The trail starts in Victoria and travels backroads to Saanich, goes through urban settings and then past farms, hills, lakes and parks, then enters Roche Cove Regional Park. If you keep going, you'll see the ocean and the hills of East Sooke Regional Park. You may, at the very end of the trail, where it is less travelled, spot deer or cougar (very dangerous).

Depending on the shape you're in and the age of the kids, you can take in as many or as few miles of the trail as you wish. You'll see commuters using it in the early morning and evenings. It's a popular way to go.

Along the trail, take a side trip to historic Hatley Castle, located on the Royal Roads University grounds. This castle has figured prominently in quite a number of movies. It's also the former home of one of the Dunsmuir family of Craigdarroch Castle fame (See February 2000 article). Built in 1908, Hatley Castle has stained glass windows, teak, oak and solid pewter light fittings. It can only be viewed from the outside, but there are special opening days. You might be lucky.

The beautiful gardens and grounds, however, are always open to the public. The Italian gardens are a special treat. At the bottom of the grounds is Esquimalt Lagoon with a long, narrow beach-great for a picnic lunch stop or to dabble your toes in the ocean.

Another side trip (about 15 minutes off the Galloping Goose Trail and past the Castle) is Witty's Lagoon Regional Park. This rocky shore has a long beach that is part of a 160.6 acre (65 hectares) park with a nature information centre and trails among Douglas fir trees. It's great for bird watching and scrabbling in the tidal zone to see rock crabs, clams and more.

If you want to end your journey after enjoying Royal Roads gardens, head along the Esquimalt Lagoon back towards downtown, and, in a few minutes, you'll come to Fort Rodd Hill. Kids love to scramble around the old concrete batteries and buildings of this fort. There's a herd of deer and an 1860 lighthouse.

Back in Victoria, wander in another free garden on the grounds of Government House, the official residence of the Queen's representative in BC. The gardens and grounds are small but quite lovely, and you're free to walk in, look around, dawdle and pretend you're one of the rich and famous.

What if it's pouring rain, and you and the kids don't want to brave the storms? The older ones, if they're into gore, will get a charge out of the Chamber of Horrors at the London Wax Museum (not recommended for the pint size kiddies). It is expensive, but if you've never seen a wax museum, it's another experience to add to your growing list.

The Royal BC Museum has lots of kid friendly areas. There's the Natural History section with the woolly mammoth and coast forest diorama. The Modern History section, with its turn of the century street, old gold mine and family homesteads is a favorite with kids and gives an insight into the way families lived in the past. The Imax theatre, inside the museum, is always a treat, although costly. "The Amazon", filmed entirely in the Amazon River Basin, runs throughout March.

Historical architecture abounds in Victoria. Older kids might enjoy having a look at the BC Government Parliament Buildings at the Inner Harbour. In case you're wondering who that 14-carat gilded fellow standing on top of the building's dome is, it's a statue of Captain George Vancouver. He's the one who surveyed the West Coast of Canada and claimed it for Great Britain. Tours of the building are available. Quite often you'll see groups of demonstrators of one persuasion or another on the legislature lawn with signs and microphones making their views known to the government. Don't let that put you off.

Essential Information
An inexpensive way to get around the city is by bus. Click here for routes and maps you can print out to use while you're here.

If you want to use the bus to Witty's Lagoon or Fort Rodd Hill, routes and maps are at BCtransit.com. If you're traveling by car, Witty's Lagoon is off Metchosin Rd. Tel. 250-478-3344 for details about park naturalist programs.

For maps (printable) and further information on Witty's Lagoon and Galloping Goose Trail, go to www.crd.bc.ca/pdf/. These are PDF files, and you'll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader to open them. It's free and downloadable at the site. After downloading, use the Reader's toolbar to navigate the pages. Government House is located on Rockland St., a beautiful street for walking.

Events
Not a lot of special events in March, but here's what is happening:

The UNO Festival of Solo Performance takes place March 1-12 and puts the spotlight on the artistry of a single performer, whether world class or emerging in the field. Fourteen productions represent a wide variety of theatrical performance styles. Ticket prices range from $8-16 and passes are available. Contact Victoria Tourism for further information.

For sewers, knitters and quilters, there's the Victoria Sewing and Crafts show at the Victoria Conference Centre March 16-18.

Quirky Stuff
If you're a tourist planning to visit the touristy sites (Royal BC Museum, Wax Museum, Butterfly World, etc.) around town, best to avoid Victoria between March 1-5, unless you don't mind really, really long line-ups. These dates, called "Be a Tourist in Your Own Hometown", allow locals to sample all the venues for a total of $7 including special buses to all the sites, so, needless to say, they are swarming with people.

©2000 by Barbara Ballard. Reproduction of this work in whole or in part, including images, and reproduction in electronic media, without documented permission from the author is prohibited. Images by Barbara Ballard, except mammoth courtesy of Royal BC Museum.

Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our North America Insiders page.