Day 4

Today we woke up to clouds! Quite a change from yesterday's sun. After eating breakfast at the hotel's continental breakfast, we drove into downtown Victoria. We took some time to stroll along the streets. Stopping in little shops and souvenir places. We took some pictures in front of the Empress Hotel, which was celebrating it's 100th birthday, and the Parliament Buildings, and the harbor.

After shopping we went to an Indian Curry Housef or Dinner. We really enjoyed the Curry Chicken and the Nan. It was delicious.

 

After dinner, we headed back to the car, which we had parked in a public parking garage (Yates and Landberg). It cost $11 for the whole day. We decided to stop at a grocery store (Save-on-foods) on the way back to the hotel to pick-up one more souvenir for Raj's Grandmother (Canadian Back Bacon). We found lots of interesting grocery products that we bought to bring home. We also bought a Garden sculpture. It's a metal bronze sun. We are hoping it will bring us sunny weather back home! We want to hang it up on the porch.

After the grocery store, we went back to the hotel to do some research on the ferry going home. We had wanted to take the Ferry from Sydney to Anacortes. It takes longer, but winds through the San Juans so you get a spectacular view. Unfortunately, we found out you have to make reservations 48 hours in advance, so that route was out of the question. We thought about driving back up to Nanaimo, but decided that was out of the way. We finally decided on the CoHo Ferry which leaves right from downtown Victoria and goes to Port Angeles. it costs more, but is less driving.

Day 3

Today was our last day at the B&B. After breakfast, and meeting two other guests, Warren took us out one more time to see the Eagles get their breakfast. It was just as amazing as it was the first time. The babies were still in the nest and hadn't attempted to take flight yet. We checked out around 11:00am and headed south towards Victoria. Warren's wife Jan, suggested we stop along the way and see the "City of Mural", Chemainus.

We could visit a tourist office, and then they could show us some great side trips to take on the way to Victoria. Raj had done some research online previously, and wanted to see some wineries, and a cidery. We had been to Chamanus one other time, but it had been dark, so it was nice to see the town in daylight. We looked around the town a bit, viewed the museum and then headed to the tourist office.

They suggested we take the scenic route down to the cidery. It was a beautiful day, and perfect for a scenic drive, so we chose that option. We got lost a couple of times, but there was such great scenery it didn't matter much.

We stopped first at the Cherry Point Winery. It is the only winery in the world run by Natives.

Then we made our way to the Merridale Cidery. We arrived around 2:30 and stayed until 6:00pm. We had a lovely time. We visited the tasting room, did a self guided tour and learned all about the process of making cider, took a walk around the Orchards, and then sat on the porch in the sun in an Adirondack chair and took a quick snooze.

 

 

At 5:00pm, the restaurant opened for dinner. The special tonight was brick oven pizza. It was delicious! Ours had chicken, mushrooms, and pesto on it. We also ordered Taziki with bread, and a fresh salad. And because we were on vacation, we ordered an apple strudel with ice cream and a maple tart. Both were delicious.

From here, we drove the rest of the way to Victoria. We had a hard time finding the highway, which took a while, but we found this gorgeous lake area called Shawnigan Lake. It would be a nice place to rent a house for a week! (We will have to keep this in mind when we plan our next trip!) We finally found the highway and made it down to Victoria.

Our hotel is about 5 miles from downtown Victoria. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites on the Gorge Waterfront. We got it free from using our Choice Rewards Points! We booked a 2 bedroom suite on the water for 12,000 points per night. We will be here 2 nights. We were amazed when we arrived and saw the room we'd be staying at. The website didn't really show any pictures of the suite. Oh my gosh, it was a little cabin right on the water, with a porch and a gorgeous view. Not bad!

 

After getting to the Hotel, we were pretty exhausted. We decided to spend the rest of the night at the hotel, and planned what were were going to do tomorrow in Victoria!