Hi, friends! Today I’m picking up from where we left off last time…and finishing up our day of adventures in Victoria, B.C. If you remember from the last post, the story ended with us heading back to the hotel to change for afternoon tea at the Empress hotel. So today’s post is all about our very fancy tea experience, followed directly by a long walk to Fisherman’s Wharf.
Setting up the reservation for afternoon tea at the Empress couldn’t have been easier! I simply called a few days before (from the car, in fact!) and picked from one of the available time slots. Daily tea service at the Empress runs from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm in 15 minute intervals, with a few breaks in between. We were very fortunate that tea service wasn’t booked up yet and reserved a spot at 3:15pm. Because reservations can fill up quickly, I’d recommend calling 1-2 weeks ahead of time or making your reservation online here.
At any rate, the Empress hotel is gorgeous! And I’d highly recommend walking through it even if you don’t go for tea. It was built in the early 1900s and remains one of the oldest and most famous hotels in Victoria, B.C. Over the years, the Empress has played hostess to kings, queens, and movie stars.
Afternoon tea? Right this way!
As you can tell from the picture above, even before the addition of caffeine from tea I was twirling with excitement. Seriously, this was one of the things I was most looking forward to on our entire trip!
For afternoon tea attire, I wore a simple striped dress with waterproof Chelsea boots (that were a godsend on our rainy trip). I layered up with a waterproof trench coat and warm wool scarf. It ended up being a super versatile and comfy outfit for our evening, which ended in a long walk along the water.
And Allen looking quite dapper in his classic button-up and tie.
The teawear was gorgeous and my only regret was not purchasing any to bring home with us! I loved the bright pops of pink and blue with hints of deep indigo and gold.
First up we were provided with a list of available teas. I ended up choosing Princess Diana’s favorite, the Rose Congou Emperor (smooth rose flavor), and Allen went with the Organic Kea Lani (orange with sweet pineapple highlights). Both were ah-mazing.
Every detail had been delicately planned and thought out, down to having four different types of sugars to sweeten your tea with, depending on the leaf style. And as we waited for our tea to steep, we looked through the yummy treats we would be tasting.
For preparing our teas, our server brought out individual teapots that were placed over heat. There was a little sand timer with different colored sands denoting unique steeping times depending on the type of tea (seen in the lower right corner of the photo below). That way our tea would be steeped to perfection!
Food time = favorite time! The itty bitty finger foods served at afternoon tea were to-die-for GOOD. So good!
On the top tier we had, of course, sweet treats including caramel banana cakes, lemon meringue tarts with freeze dried raspberries, vanilla bean shortbreads, champagne mousse in chocolate cups, and chocolate torte.
On the middle tier, were the most scrumptious golden raisin scones with house made clotted cream and strawberry lavender preserve (this last one was sooo good!). I’m a sucker for anything lavender.
And finally on the bottom tier were mini chicken salad sandwiches on brioche, roast beef and golden beet finger sandwiches, local shrimp with ginger marscapone in sesame baskets, and smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches on rye bread.
I had actually never tried smoked salmon like this before, but knew I had to try it. It was afternoon tea in fact! And if anyone can prepare it to perfection, it’s got to be the Empress, right? (Plus, I was determined to get our money’s worth! 😉 ) Lo and behold, I loved it!
To say we enjoyed it would be an understatement… Get it Allen! (haha…this was not staged–all natural)
Is there anything better? Amazing food, deliciously fresh tea, and the best company.
Not going to lie…taking time to slow down and smell the roses (rose tea that is 😉 ) was one of the best things I’ve done for myself in a long while. I’m starting to think we all should incorporate more of this slow living, “easy does it” philosophy into our weekly routines. Want to join me?
After tea at the Empress finished up, we hit the streets to do some more exploring around town. And for me…I needed to walk off the excess energy I had from drinking my entire pot of tea (no less than 5 cups). What can I say?! I was determined to get our money’s worth! Haha. #worthit Plus it truly had amazing flavor! The best rose tea I’ve ever had. (You can bet I bought a bag to bring home with me!)
We continued to follow the path along the harbor where we left off earlier in the day (near the British Columbia Legislative building). But this time we headed in the other direction towards Fisherman’s Wharf (near where Dallas Road and Kingston Street would intersect). You can see a rough map of where we walked here.
Loved how ornate and Victorian this renovated manor looked from the pathway.
We even spotted a heron wading into the water below us. Allen was so excited! (I have roughly 15 of the same picture on my camera. Ha!)
The paved path we walked walk on had tons of pretty flowers along the side. And you all know how much I love close-up flower pictures! So here are a few of my favorites.
If there is one thing I love more than anything else on vacation, it’s spending one-on-one time with this handsome hunk. I love just talking about anything with him and seeing where the conversation takes us. From politics, to science and everything in between. It’s just the best to challenge and be challenged by each other intellectually.
We even had a front row seat for a sea plane landing and two other sea plane take-offs!
Selfie with the sea plane, heyyy!
Without having any real plans of where we were headed, we ended up stumbling upon Fisherman’s Wharf where there are house boats and small shops to eat at, along with a dock for sail boats. And if you remember from earlier in the post, this is actually the first view of Victoria we had when the ferry docked. So it was only destiny that we find ourselves back there again later that evening.
And guess what else we saw?! Seals!!!! Lots and lots of seals! Apparently this is the it place for sea life to get spare pieces of fish from the locals.
Look at this little guy waving and showing off! So cute!
This seal is living THE life!!!
Most of the shops were closed for the day (and perhaps for the season). But we still enjoyed walking around and taking in all the sights–especially these bright, colorful buildings!
There was also an incredibly good looking fish and chips place there that I wish we would’ve tried. But at the time, we were just so full from afternoon tea. Those finger foods are deceivingly filling!
We also walked through a little neighborhood of floating homes and got to imagine what it would be like to live, quite literally, on the water. Allen was particularly taken with this forest green and natural wood home. So I snapped a few pictures to remember it by.
After roaming around Fisherman’s Wharf for a while, we decided to head back to our hotel for a little nap. We had intended on stopping by The Sticky Wicket Pub for dinner later that evening since it was on the same street corner as our hotel. But we ended up spending the entire night in the hotel watching movies, which was perfect by its own accord.
I wish we could’ve spent another 2+ days in Victoria, but I’m incredibly happy with all that we were able to see in just a short 24 hours there. Especially since we had no idea what to expect and ended up LOVING everything it! (P.S. Thank you so much Becky for the recommendation to spend time in Victoria!)
The next morning we headed to Vancouver for 2 days of adventuring in the city and I’ll cover that in the next round of travel posts, so stay tuned!
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