Victoria

(Posted by Kyle)

Steph and I took a short trip to Victoria, B.C. over the Thanksgiving weekend. Here are some pictures.

This is the ferry, the Victoria Clipper, that we took from downtown Seattle to Victoria's inner harbor. It makes the run in about 3 hours, and it is a catamaran type boat so it runs on top of the water, making for a pretty smooth ride. (All info I got from the onboard announcements.) We discovered on the return trip that the captain of the ship was a guy that Steph knew back in Iowa City.

The first thing we did in Victoria was have lunch at the rebar restaurant. We have been making recipes from their cook book for the last several months and they have all been delicious, so we were excited to actually go to the restaurant itself. I sampled one of their almond burgers, which is not in the cook book and is a 'secret' recipe. It was really good.

It was a nice sunny day, so we spent much of the afternoon walking around checking out the inner harbour area. Later, when we got hungry again, we went to the bakery that is run by the rebar restaurant people. It is right next to a yarn shop, and I took this picture of Steph and a bike that was wearing a sweater.

This is the Empress hotel, which was designated a 'must-see' in all the travel guides. They suggested having high tea there, for fifty bucks. We passed. It's an impressive looking building, though.

We spent the night at the Swan's hotel, a combination hotel/brew pub/bistro/art exhibition. They have a collection of original art that rotates through the rooms.

The painting next to the bed appeared to be of two naked men in the back of a truck. Hm.

There was a loft above the kitchen, with a door, lights, carpeting, and outlets, but no way to get to it. Hm.

Steph deemed the bed the most comfortable one she'd ever slept in.

It was a very nice space, with high ceilings and a kitchen fully stocked with plates and pots. Some summer we are going to live in the hotel for a month and check out the rest of Vancouver Island.

After having dinner at the rebar restaurant (I really can't say enough nice things about it), we went back to the hotel's brew pub, which has live music every night and is a favorite bar of the locals. We had some coupons to taste the beers, so we got six samples. A taster turned out to be 8 ounces, which is a pretty good amount. Their 'pints' were 20 ounces. So we got a little buzzed and watched some very enthusiastic dancers.

To be continued . . .