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 :)

Pacific NW: Victoria & Tea at The Empress

Helllloooo there!!!  I didn’t disappear I swear!  I was just on vacation, and leading up to vacation was craziness at work and getting ready for said vacation. 

Brian and I went out west to Seattle to visit my mom.  She is living there temporarily for work, so that leaves us a free place to stay right in downtown Seattle!

She also took the days off that we were there, and we had a blast exploring Seattle as well as heading to Victoria, BC for 2 days.

I’ll do part 1 of our time in Victoria :)

Thursday morning we took a ferry right from Seattle, through the Puget Sound and into Victoria, BC which is on Vancouver Island.

The ferry takes just under 3 hours, which put us in Victoria at around 10:30am!  

That’s the Empress Hotel where we would be staying that night.  One of our top activities we wanted to do while in Victoria was the well known afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel.

You already know mom and I love to go to afternoon tea, and we have been going every Mothers Day for years to various locations around Boston.  

After checking into the hotel, we set out to explore.

Victoria is a really cute city with lots of shops and very walkable as a visitor.   

Later on we went back to the hotel to change for tea!  This was Brian’s first afternoon tea.

  

We had the classic afternoon tea and each selected the type of tea we wanted to drink.  Mom and I both chose the Empress Blend.

First to come out was fresh organic blueberries with whipped cream

Tea

A classic tea service generally has finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and finally pastries and sweets.

  

The tower was served with 3 each of everything.

From left to right:  smoked salmon, egg salad, curried chicken salad, ham and cucumber, and a sun dried tomato tapenade.

I’ve never liked egg salad, but I actually tried it this time and wasn’t too bad!  Not crazy about it, but I liked it :) 

My favorite was the smoked salmon.

The best part, in my opinion,…scones

These were particularly delicious scones…light and fluffy with Devonshire cream and strawberry jam. 

For the sweets we have French macarons in the back, then a pear cheesecake, in front of that is a pistachio/chocolate checkerboard cake covered in marzipan, and little lemon tartlets up front. 

By this point I’m getting too full to finish but had to try everything.  They were all so good it’s hard to pick a favorite…although I am partial to lemon curd :)

We all had a wonderful afternoon

   

Can’t wait to share pictures from the Butchart Gardens and our Sea Plane ride back to Seattle…THAT was awesome.