Visitor, Victoria
posted at 1:32 pm
on May. 7, 2011
Previous entry:
Why You Shouldn’t Ask QE Park Medical Clinic About Your Broken Knee
Next entry:
It’s Not a Tumor!
Just got back from a weekend in Victoria with Susie. We had a wonderful, if abbreviated, trip—left Saturday morning, back Sunday evening. While there we:
* ate
That’s about it. I mean, we did other cool things, I’m sure, but, yeah, eating.
At Ferris’ Grill and Oyster Bar, we had: Fresh oysters, poutine with pulled pork, special IPA, and muscles in white wine. Everything was divine, though the patio was a little brisk—it was the first day it was open so far that year.
At Silk Road tea store and spa, we had two kinds of teas, and bought several kinds more. Also some bath salts (NOT FOR EATING).
At Cafe Brio, we had a salumi and cheese plate with some absolutely fantastic meats: sliced picnic ham to die for and superb cervelat, and chicken liver pate that Susie liked. Cheese-wise, there was belle anne raspberry port washed numbness, qualicum blue (eww) and La Baguette de Kerneval, which was like a creamy brie.
On my side of the table, there was a pork chop on risotto and spinach; this was one of the largest and most delicious pork chops my mouth has ever had the honor of masticating. Direct to the dear pig: you gave your life in a noble, honored endeavor indeed.
Breakfast was at the hotel, Abigail’s Hotel, the service at which was stellar. Everything at the hotel was “free”: wifi, breakfast, DVDs, water in the room, lots of appetizers at 5 p.m. (shall I list them? Ok… cocktail shrimp with lemon aolie, meringue cookies, hummus, brie with dried cherries, chicken salad, and cracklebread.)
But wait, I was describing breakfast: strawberry puff pastry, salmon scones, fresh orange cranberry juice, and some egg thing that was too delicious for me to describe.
As for the rest of our time, we wandered through downtown Victoria, enjoying the sun that shone for two whole days. TWO DAYS! It was really nice to just hang out and connect with each other.
Susie found a yarn store, and I looked, but I couldn’t find an Ultimate frisbee store to browse in and touch all the discs.
We watched a movie and snuggled and spent the ferry ride writing blog posts, and mused about our upcoming anniversary. On Sunday, we went to the lieutenant governor’s house and hung out in their yard. (It’s a really huge mansion on a huge piece of land with open gardens, we weren’t being creepers.)
And we did what we always do, which is imaging ourselves living wherever we happen to travel. Victoria is a sleepy, sleepy town, it seems, but a really lovely one, with the property values that match its reputation as the Florida of Canada.
And then, too soon, it was time to catch the ferry home. We had tried to squeeze every hour out of our trip, but intermission was over, and it was back to Vancouver.
I can’t believe it was my first trip to Victoria as an adult, even after living in Vancouver for 5 years. And I can’t wait to return.
Special to Mike and Julie: Next time, we’ll come knock on your door; we really wanted to see you but there just wasn’t time!
Previous entry:
Why You Shouldn’t Ask QE Park Medical Clinic About Your Broken Knee
Next entry:
It’s Not a Tumor!
