Thursday, April 18, 2013

Birthday Affair Part 2: A Trip to Victoria, British Columbia

A non-food related topic for today: for Alex's 23rd birthday we decided to fly the coop and take a trip to Victoria, British Columbia! It was only about a 4 to 5 hour drive to get to the ferry, and about another 45 minutes on the ferry. We left out car in the states, and found that getting around by transit in Victoria was very easy and actually really enjoyable, since we never had to find parking or navigate unknown streets. Oddly enough too, we had AMAZING sunny weather the entire time.

The place we stayed at was called The English Inn, which we discovered by purchasing their Groupon for a two night stay.  It was just about the cutest and nicest place I've ever seen; it is a Tudor style manor house that sits on 4.5 acres of beautiful gardens, and each room has it's own name and theme. I would highly recommend this place and if, or should I say, when I go back I'll definitely be staying there!


    View from our Balcony 

Exploring the grounds
                         
      Beautiful outside gazebo

We explored lots of different places, including:

  • The Royal BC Museum: This place was amazing! The level of detail the museum puts into their exhibits was unparalleled from any other museum I've ever been too. If you go, I highly recommend a guided tour. Our tour guide was highly informative and witty, which made for a especially wonderful experience. 
Embarrassing my lovely boyfraaan, by making him take this silly picture
  • The BC Parliament Building: You can't find buildings like that in Portland! We didn't actually go inside, but exploring the outside was mesmerizing enough!
BC Parliament Building

They have emblems on their trash cans!

Queen Victoria 
  • The Empress Hotel: Again, we didn't go inside or stay there (waaay to expensive), but just exploring the outside and learning about the hotel's history at the museum was really great. 
 Photo shoot outside the Empress Hotel
  • Beacon Hill Park: When we visited this gigantic park it was just starting to have it's spring flowers bloom, which was particularly lovely to see. 
A Pond at Beacon Hill Park

Spring Flowers in the Park
  • Macaulay Point Park: This was literally three blocks from where we were staying, and it was breath taking! We visited on our last day, and by that time it was cloudy and a bit rainy, but I bet if we had gone on the sunny day before, we would have been able to see all the way across to the Olympic Mountains behind Port Angeles. I highly recommend visiting this park!
View from Macaulay Point Park
It truly was an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go back!
xoxo
Jessica

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