Jay and I had the chance to go to Victoria this past weekend. He had some Northwestern committee meetings and they invited the spouses to come with them on this trip. Neither of us had ever been to this part of the Northwest and we loved having a new place to explore and some time together.
We stayed at The Empress Hotel, which was built in 1908. It reminded me a cross between the Biltmore and the Homestead--very elaborate rooms, intricate woodwork, luxurious decorations. It was a great place to stay and within walking distance of pretty much everything we did.
One of the main traditions at the Empress is High Tea. So on Friday, all the ladies had tea in this beautiful room while the guys finished their meetings. (After I told Catherine about my tea party, she's thinking of having one for her birthday party.)
This was the view from our hotel room. What a great view of the harbor. We watched lots of boats and seaplanes coming and going each day. And it was gorgeous to watch the sunset there.
Jay and I both took time to explore a little while we went for our morning runs. Actually, he did the exploring and then came back and told me where I should run! This was our favorite place--a lighthouse. You can actually run along the wall out to the lighthouse. I also ran in a beautiful park one morning. It's a 55 acre park right in the middle of the city. I saw a peacock, 2 raccoons, and a couple of people camping out.
On Friday afternoon, we headed over to the Butchart Gardens. It was about 30 mins from our hotel but definitely worth it. It has over 150 acres of beautiful gardens. This section was my favorite in the Sunken Garden. There were also rose gardens, Italian gardens, Japanese gardens, and more. I'll probably post some more pics of it because I loved it so much. I kept walking around thinking of all the things I want to plant in our yard. And Jay was gracious enough to walk around for 2 hours and look at plants with me. Thanks, honey!
Right across from our street was Victoria's government building.
At night it's all lit up. So pretty! Across the street from this is the BC Royal Museum, where we had dinner on Friday night. After the museum was closed our group rented out one floor and they had our dinner tables set up right in the middle of the exhibits. Pretty neat!
Victoria has a lot of Asian influences. We went to their Chinatown on Saturday for lunch. And this is apparently the most narrow street in North America. Yep, that's a street with shops on it.
We really did have a great time and both said that we would go back. We'd love to take the kids when they're older. There's lots more there to do that we just didn't have time for in our short weekend (whale watching, castles and museums to visit, hiking, zip lines, etc). It was a very comfortable and clean city with a neat mixture of tradition/BC royalty combined with outdoors/hippiness and some Asian influences. I'm so glad we got to go on a quick, fun trip together.
One of the main traditions at the Empress is High Tea. So on Friday, all the ladies had tea in this beautiful room while the guys finished their meetings. (After I told Catherine about my tea party, she's thinking of having one for her birthday party.)
This was the view from our hotel room. What a great view of the harbor. We watched lots of boats and seaplanes coming and going each day. And it was gorgeous to watch the sunset there.
Jay and I both took time to explore a little while we went for our morning runs. Actually, he did the exploring and then came back and told me where I should run! This was our favorite place--a lighthouse. You can actually run along the wall out to the lighthouse. I also ran in a beautiful park one morning. It's a 55 acre park right in the middle of the city. I saw a peacock, 2 raccoons, and a couple of people camping out.
On Friday afternoon, we headed over to the Butchart Gardens. It was about 30 mins from our hotel but definitely worth it. It has over 150 acres of beautiful gardens. This section was my favorite in the Sunken Garden. There were also rose gardens, Italian gardens, Japanese gardens, and more. I'll probably post some more pics of it because I loved it so much. I kept walking around thinking of all the things I want to plant in our yard. And Jay was gracious enough to walk around for 2 hours and look at plants with me. Thanks, honey!
At night it's all lit up. So pretty! Across the street from this is the BC Royal Museum, where we had dinner on Friday night. After the museum was closed our group rented out one floor and they had our dinner tables set up right in the middle of the exhibits. Pretty neat!
Victoria has a lot of Asian influences. We went to their Chinatown on Saturday for lunch. And this is apparently the most narrow street in North America. Yep, that's a street with shops on it.
We really did have a great time and both said that we would go back. We'd love to take the kids when they're older. There's lots more there to do that we just didn't have time for in our short weekend (whale watching, castles and museums to visit, hiking, zip lines, etc). It was a very comfortable and clean city with a neat mixture of tradition/BC royalty combined with outdoors/hippiness and some Asian influences. I'm so glad we got to go on a quick, fun trip together. 
