Nick is amazingly sleeping in, so I’m taking the chance to update the blog Misty style, so you have been warned there will be over-use of explanation points & lots of “wonderful”s!
We are having the most enchanting trip! We seem to have found a perfect balance of squeezing so much into our days, but not feeling like we are cramming and allowing ourselves some free time to just wander and come across “hidden and unexpected treasures!” I’m almost afraid to say this, in fear of jinxing us, but things have gone so smoothly, from our flight over, traveling from point to point and even the weather. We have lucked out with great fall weather pretty much every day.
Our flight was smooth without too much of a delay, which is amazing considering we came through Chicago. Then we had a great full afternoon Wednesday and all day Thursday in Vancouver, as you saw from the pictures its an absolutely gorgeous city and a beautiful mix of both sea & mountain as well as nature & metropolitan – i.e. did you see the bald eagle we so luckily encountered? And of course, you all know our “beercation” blog wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t add some commentary on beer – we found a great Vancouver brew pub that had a delish pumpkin porter and we were also directed the “beer drinkers must” by a waiter (who clearly appreciated our love for beer) where they had Driftwood Belgian styles which were excellent!
I’m quite proud of our navigational skills on Friday, as we were able to make our way from downtown Vancouver to Victoria all via public transit and the ferry. The ferry was quite an experience; it was massive & had many shops and restaurants within its 3-story ship.
Victoria was absolutely gorgeous, we first made the stop at the Butchart Gardens, and I only wish the pictures could express the breathtaking beauty of this place! It literally took my breath away! We stayed at that big mansion hotel, the Empress, and that was quite the treat because it not only was an impressive looking castle-like building, but it was right on the water and in the midst of things downtown. The great location made it easy to enjoy our quick trip in Victoria as we had just about a day & half there.
So Butchart Gardens was Friday after the ferry, then we made our way to downtown and our hotel, for dinner on the water at a great brewpub – that our bus driver recommended, the people in BC were insanely friendly and helpful! Saturday we got up and walked over to the Craigdarroch castle – where as we came around the corner I had a Christine Priante moment – “well hello there gorgeous” – as you can see it’s a gorgeous castle just up the street from downtown! We also spent a few hours in the Royal BC museum, which was quite interesting, but the best part for me was the Van Gough IMAX – that was amazing and I would highly recommend to anyone since I assume it will make its way to other IMAXs. Saturday night we caught a 2 hour and 45 minute ferry to Seattle – it was a much smaller ship and I struggled with the lovely family curse of sea sickness a little, but luckily my winning cribbage playing skills helped distract!
So, it’s the start of day 5 of our trip and we arrived by ferry into Seattle form Victoria last night at 9pm. We are using today, as a bit of a catch up day and plan to take a leisurely stroll to get our bearings and check out some of the parks & viewpoints of the city while it’s a nicer day. We also figure it would be best to save touristy spots (Space Needle, EMP, lake tour) for Monday.
Well I will wrap up this novel... We are cherishing every moment, drinking in the sights & drinking in the yummy new beers!
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