Victoria Part 2: Butchart Gardens & Sea Plane

Monday is done and over with.  The first full week back at work after 2 short vacation weeks is going to be rough.

Although the nice cool weather today made it a bit more pleasant.  Feels like Fall around here and that makes me happy :)  Hopefully that will kick my butt in gear to start cooking and baking more!! 

Good thing I still have more to share from my trip.  Lets finish my time in Victoria, BC.  I’ve got a few more notable things to tell you about.

I don’t have pics from this dinner, but I have to tell you about it because it may have been the BEST meal of the whole trip.  It was a slightly chilly night in Victoria and none of us were in the mood for a huge meal after our afternoon tea.

We ended up at this French restaurant: Brasserie L’ecole mainly because I decided I wanted French Onion Soup :)  Which I had, but first we shared some mussels.  They were cooked in a tomato, pancetta, rosemary sauce with garlic bread crumbs.

I wanted to pick up the bowl and just drink that broth.  Best mussels I’ve EVER had.  The soup was also delicious, but I just had to tell you about this place and those mussels. 

Ok, so the next morning after breakfast we headed on a bus to a popular tourist destination:  The Butchart Gardens.

The Butchart Gardens was a private estate turned public site and now a National Historic Site of Canada.  Basically 55 acres of gorgeous gardens.

Gorgeous right?  They even sell the seeds of most of their flowers in case you see something you want to plant at home.

The most exciting part of the trip?  Our flight back to Seattle in a Sea Plane!!  SO happy we did that instead of the ferry again!!!

Oh and guess who got to sit in the co-pilot seat?????

Very cool.

The engine was a bit smelly and the sun was beating down on me before we took off, but then it was amazing.

I could see Mt. Rainier in the distance throughout most of the 40min flight.

As we got closer to Seattle the view got even better!

The space needle!

See Mt Rainier above the buildings??

Landing was crazy…it looked like we were headed straight for those buildings, but then he turned and we descended down to a lake in the city.

The next series of pictures are a bunch I snapped on the way down…

    Made it!

Such a cool experience!!  You need to try this if you ever get the chance!!

   

Have you ever taken a sea plane or small plane like that?  Did you like it or was it scary???  Brian was a little nervous at first, but he thought it was awesome as well :)

Winter Weekend in Maine

It’s not news to tell you that I love Maine…especially Portland.  It’s one of my absolute places to go in New England. 

The bonus is that now I have a friend who lives a short 10 minute drive from the Old Port!!  One of my good friends/former co-workers moved back to her home state of Maine about a year and a half ago and I am just now getting up to visit her!! 

We had a relaxing, fun, and delicious weekend with our dogs :)

Bromley had a great time playing with Molly! 

First thing we did when I arrived was to head into downtown Portland to hit up a local winter Farmer’s Market and then walk around the Old Port. 

I picked up some local cheese to try

We dove into the cheese later on

Beautiful little spice shop on Commercial Street

Finally tried a cappuccino from Bard Coffee

   
It was very good, but I still think that Thinking Cup wins. 

Lots of cute shops, lunch, more walking and then I decided I needed a sweet treat

I can’t believe how many places I had never visited in Portland before!!  Including Two Fat Cats!

Everything is made from scratch and it just looks that way.  The cookies aren’t perfect round circles, and the cupcakes are just frosted by hand with a knife…no fancy piping.  I LOVE that.

I couldn’t decide so I bought 2 cookies to nosh on…a little then & a little later.

I’m STILL thinking about these cookies and wish I could have one RIGHT NOW!  The one above was an Almond Shortbread….so soft, buttery, almond-ey…perfection in my opinion.

Also a pecan chocolate chip.  Again, soft, buttery…all the things I love in a chocolate chip cookie.  

As I was eating them I couldn’t stop saying how good they were…that’s when you know you found something special.

After that, we went back to her house, grabbed the dogs and headed to a local beach for an afternoon walk!

Bromley had a blast!!

He wants to live near the ocean now.

From there, we headed home and started thinking about how we wanted to tackle the evening to be sure to hit up lots of delicious spots.

But first some wine and cheese

I probably over-did it a smidge on the cheese, but it was good stuff and I was hungry.

Our first stop was my friend, Jen’s, favorite Mexican place…El Rayo!

Inexpensive, fresh, flavorful food, with a great drink list!

Since we had more food in our future, we only split 2 small tacos and 1 hibiscus margarita ;)

Next, we headed to Walters for drinks and some appetizers. 

Since my cocktail on Valentine’s Day was such a success I decided to go the “ask the bartender” route.  I ended up with one of their cocktails on the menu but minus the syrup.  This one had rum, grapefruit juice, and lime juice.   

We also ordered a Brussel Sprout Salad that was divine… shaved brussel sprouts, red onion, cob smoked bacon, marcona almonds, dried cranberries in a lemon honey mustard vinaigrette with pecorino

And also some Cracklin’ Calamari and Salt & Pepper Shrimp.  Both really good.  This was just enough food after all the cheese, wine, tacos…etc. 

We had hoped to stay for dessert but they had run out of what I really wanted so we figured we’d hit up another spot for a sweet close to the night.  Unfortunately most places were closed, or at least their kitchen’s were and we were out of luck!

In the end it was fine…we were full and I still had some of my Two Fat Cats cookies left.

Sunday morning we were both woken up around 6:30 by our lovely pups…thanks guys.

Sunday involved picking up pastries from Standard Baking…my request.

Coffee from Coffee By Design, and then heading to another state park/beach with the pups.

Flaky fresh Pan au Chocolat and an Ocean View.

A little later we said our goodbyes, and I packed myself and Bromley into the car to head home. 

I was trying to be a good wife and find Brian a bottle or two of a certain beer he really likes (its from Maine and hard to find…Lunch IPA in case anyone sees it and wants to let me know where!)

I tried 3 places with no luck so I gave up.

But then I got a FANTASTIC idea.

Lobster > Beer.  I stopped by a fish market in York on my way home and grabbed 3 lobsters.

I made Brian do the dirty work. 

I’d say it’s a fair trade ;)

Oh I had also picked up some crab cakes that were on sale at Whole Foods

Took our “Feast” to the next level.

Quick potatoes

(cooked 1large potato in the microwave, then just sliced it and browned it in the pan I cooked the crab cakes in, sprinkled with a little Old Bay)

Steamed Asparagus

Notice I just put down an old towel on the table instead of place mats…things get messy when we eat Lobster.

Apparently February is a great time for Lobster…these were some of the BEST lobsters we’ve had in recent memory!!  The meat was so flavorful!!  I wish I got 6 of them!!  We each had 1 and split the 3rd. 

Couldn’t even finish the crab cakes, but no worries those made a delicious lunch today. 

What an fabulous way to end a great weekend.  It almost ALMOST felt like summer for a minute.

Can’t wait to go back and visit Jen when it’s warmer out!  So many things to do and still SO many restaurants to try!!  I was notorious for always eating at Fore Street whenever we are in Portland, but she is breaking me out of that habit…although I do miss it.  Next time ;)

Hope you all had a great (long?) weekend!  Brian and I both worked today, so not so long here, but still nice as you can see.