Vacation in Victoria
Cristina and I spent a few days in Victoria, BC in the beginning of May. I had some stuff to do for work, but we came in early and were able to relax and see the sights a bit. It was so mellow and fantastic - we are definitely going to go back.
View of the sunrise from the plane
We got in on Tuesday and mostly just stayed in at Brentwood Bay - it's a long flight, so we ate dinner and just relaxed.
View of the Bay off our balcony
Art in the room
The bed and bathroom
The shower was cool
The TV and minibar
View into the bathroom
The fireplace - not much warmth, but tons of ambiance
Wednesday morning we got up fairly early and headed down to Victoria. It's a very walkable city, so we had the taxi drop us off at the Empress Hotel and we were able to strike out from a place of strength. We wandered around the Bastion Square Festival of the Arts and made mental notes of things to buy. Coincidentally, May's featured artist is Those Great Little Books - we bought more than a few things there!
Us setting out for Victoria
The Empress Hotel
We wandered up the street and found Artina's, a jewelry store that features native and local artists. We saw a couple of necklaces we liked but decided we didn't really need them. (I ended up going back and buying them, but that's later.)
Necklaces I got at Artina's
My necklace, on
Next we visited Starfish Glassworks. You could go upstairs and watch them making the glass pieces. There were quite a few egg-shaped things, so Cristina was happy. There were some beautiful pieces, but all pretty expensive, so we managed not to buy anything there. We also found a LUSH store! Spent about half an hour in there but decided we'd come back at the end of the day so we didn't have to lug anything around.
Glass egg
Another glass egg
By this time it was about time for tea at the Empress - our reservation was at 1:45, so we hoofed it on over for our taste of the Empire. It was fantastic. Their Empress Blend tea is AMAZING. They give you a little tin to take with you when you go - we're about to order more.
Me waiting for tea
A teacup
A history of tea
Ah, the goodness of tea
On the way out we took some pictures at the arbutus tree on the grounds.
Pretty tree
Me at the tree
Me again
Cristina at the tree
Cristina leaving the tree
We couldn't decide exactly what these were - so I call them watch-trees
We walked around a bit more and got some quite interesting pictures. We also went back and made our purchases at Lush and the artists' festival.
Map of Victoria Island
Sidewalk artist
Disney-centric Cristina saw a hidden mickey...
Palm Beach has alligators. Victoria has bears.
By this time we were tired, so we decided to head back.
In the taxi on the way back
Cristina was obsessed with taking pictures of me in the taxi
We managed to see the sunset that day.
Next day got up fairly early and had breakfast, then went over to Butchart Gardens. It was tulip season, so we got some good pictures. However, disaster struck that day - we asked a passing man to take a picture of us in front of the peace doves. He did, and then handed us back the camera...and dropped it. From his hand. Onto the concrete. The LCD screen was cracked and the lens makes funny little pathetic sounds when you push the power off and on. He said he was really sorry again and again, and then offered to take a picture with my film camera. Um, no, thanks. The thing was, he didn't offer to pay for it. If he had, I'm sure we would have said no anyway - but still, it would have been a nice gesture. He did take a picture with his camera and offer to email it to me, which he did. That was good.
So...we spent the next hour or so at the gardens, Cristina feeling bad because it was her camera, me feeling bad because I asked the guy to take the picture. We had to go back to the hotel because we had a massage scheduled at 1:00...thank God. It was awesome and got us feeling all better, we realized that although it sucked, what was important is that we are together and healthy and all that. Luckily, I got some other people's pictures of the gardens.
It was tulip season, in case you couldn't tell.
Had an amazing dinner at this place called Cafe Brio. Greg and Silvia are the owners and they are FANTASTIC. I highly recommend it if you're in Victoria. There were these asparagus spears wrapped in bacon...I still dream about them. And little lamb chops.
Those yummy lamb chops
Me after many drinks
The rest of the week was work stuff, but we did have a fantastic dinner at Dock 503 on Friday night. They had a jasmine creme brulee that I could have eaten gallons of. Cristina left on Friday night and I left on Saturday night.
More beautiful pictures can be seen at Flickr. Here's a few:
Brentwood Bay proper
Brentwood Bay in the negative
Another picture of the Bay
Bald Eagle's Nest
Victoria's Purple Starfish
Arbutus Tree
More Bay
Calmish water
Prawns. Yum.
A little starfish
That's all, folks!
View of the sunrise from the plane
We got in on Tuesday and mostly just stayed in at Brentwood Bay - it's a long flight, so we ate dinner and just relaxed.
View of the Bay off our balcony
Art in the room
The bed and bathroom
The shower was cool
The TV and minibar
View into the bathroom
The fireplace - not much warmth, but tons of ambiance
Wednesday morning we got up fairly early and headed down to Victoria. It's a very walkable city, so we had the taxi drop us off at the Empress Hotel and we were able to strike out from a place of strength. We wandered around the Bastion Square Festival of the Arts and made mental notes of things to buy. Coincidentally, May's featured artist is Those Great Little Books - we bought more than a few things there!
Us setting out for Victoria
The Empress Hotel
We wandered up the street and found Artina's, a jewelry store that features native and local artists. We saw a couple of necklaces we liked but decided we didn't really need them. (I ended up going back and buying them, but that's later.)
Necklaces I got at Artina's
My necklace, on
Next we visited Starfish Glassworks. You could go upstairs and watch them making the glass pieces. There were quite a few egg-shaped things, so Cristina was happy. There were some beautiful pieces, but all pretty expensive, so we managed not to buy anything there. We also found a LUSH store! Spent about half an hour in there but decided we'd come back at the end of the day so we didn't have to lug anything around.
Glass egg
Another glass egg
By this time it was about time for tea at the Empress - our reservation was at 1:45, so we hoofed it on over for our taste of the Empire. It was fantastic. Their Empress Blend tea is AMAZING. They give you a little tin to take with you when you go - we're about to order more.
Me waiting for tea
A teacup
A history of tea
Ah, the goodness of tea
On the way out we took some pictures at the arbutus tree on the grounds.
Pretty tree
Me at the tree
Me again
Cristina at the tree
Cristina leaving the tree
We couldn't decide exactly what these were - so I call them watch-trees
We walked around a bit more and got some quite interesting pictures. We also went back and made our purchases at Lush and the artists' festival.
Map of Victoria Island
Sidewalk artist
Disney-centric Cristina saw a hidden mickey...
Palm Beach has alligators. Victoria has bears.
By this time we were tired, so we decided to head back.
In the taxi on the way back
Cristina was obsessed with taking pictures of me in the taxi
We managed to see the sunset that day.
Next day got up fairly early and had breakfast, then went over to Butchart Gardens. It was tulip season, so we got some good pictures. However, disaster struck that day - we asked a passing man to take a picture of us in front of the peace doves. He did, and then handed us back the camera...and dropped it. From his hand. Onto the concrete. The LCD screen was cracked and the lens makes funny little pathetic sounds when you push the power off and on. He said he was really sorry again and again, and then offered to take a picture with my film camera. Um, no, thanks. The thing was, he didn't offer to pay for it. If he had, I'm sure we would have said no anyway - but still, it would have been a nice gesture. He did take a picture with his camera and offer to email it to me, which he did. That was good.
So...we spent the next hour or so at the gardens, Cristina feeling bad because it was her camera, me feeling bad because I asked the guy to take the picture. We had to go back to the hotel because we had a massage scheduled at 1:00...thank God. It was awesome and got us feeling all better, we realized that although it sucked, what was important is that we are together and healthy and all that. Luckily, I got some other people's pictures of the gardens.
It was tulip season, in case you couldn't tell.
Had an amazing dinner at this place called Cafe Brio. Greg and Silvia are the owners and they are FANTASTIC. I highly recommend it if you're in Victoria. There were these asparagus spears wrapped in bacon...I still dream about them. And little lamb chops.
Those yummy lamb chops
Me after many drinks
The rest of the week was work stuff, but we did have a fantastic dinner at Dock 503 on Friday night. They had a jasmine creme brulee that I could have eaten gallons of. Cristina left on Friday night and I left on Saturday night.
More beautiful pictures can be seen at Flickr. Here's a few:
Brentwood Bay proper
Brentwood Bay in the negative
Another picture of the Bay
Bald Eagle's Nest
Victoria's Purple Starfish
Arbutus Tree
More Bay
Calmish water
Prawns. Yum.
A little starfish
That's all, folks!
posted by Bunny | 20:42
1 Comments:
Those tulips are beautiful, I love tulips, they're gorgeous at every stage of their cycle. The shape of the flower as it begins to open, all the way through to the individual petals when they fall. And the colours, oh...And don't forget those lovely squeaky waxy leaves, so childish to have fun rubbing and squeaking them.
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