Jan 19th 2007 was mine and Rikti’s first wedding anniversary. Originally we had planned to be at the Riverwalk at San Antonio, TX followed by a drive to Austin, but we ended up cancelling those bookings in lieu of our second plan of visiting Vancouver. Then Manjul visited from Japan on 1/13 and we met up with his friends Junejas here who over dinner advised that Whistler or Victoria would be great destinations. Whistler, a world class ski resort, was classifed as an adventure destination and Victora as a romantic one. Being the kind of milestone we were going to celebrate, Victoria turned out to be the obvious choice.
Our mild celebrations started with a Chinese dinner at InChin’s in Redmond on the eve of our anniversary. Next morning we were to board the Victoria Clipper crusie ship to Victoria BC from Pier 69 at Seattle Waterfront. I already had a mulitple entry Canadian visa and we got Rikti hers just earlier in the week. On the day of the trip we reached Seattle downtown at 7 AM and it was raining. After parking the car in the lot recommended by the Victoria Clipper website, we started to head towards the pier with a suitcase and an umbrella that sadly could not withstand the downtown winds long enough. Finally we checked in the luggage and were the first passengers to get aboard the majestic Victoria Clipper IV. The ship had free seating and we changed our seats 2 times before settling down peacefully on the upper deck.
The journey started dot on time at 8 AM, and soon we were served the Champagne Breakfast which was part of our tour package. Wow what fun! A Friday mini cruise from Seattle through Puget Sound into the strait of Juan de Fuca, and finally arriving at the Victoria Inner Harbour. And a bottle of Champagne to top it all along with decent breakfast portions. The ship showed the GPS route on monitors and that taught me a bit of Puget Sound geography. Olympic mountains stretched on our west right up to the northwest end of WA. There was a small town called Port Townsend which its founders had ambitioulsy desired to be the main port of this area, but since railroad companies decided to set up shop near Seattle, Port Townsend has remained just that – a small town. On the east we sailed by Whidbey Island. The ship covered 71 miles in a little over 2 hours, averaging 35mph on a very comfortable and smooth ride over the ocean waters.
After going through the Canada immigration formalities at Victoria port, we were out in the streets with our suitcase that has now since long had squeaky wheels. The sky was overcast and it indeed looked like a nice small town – a perfect getaway for a relaxing weekend. Instead of taking a cab, we walked towards the Empress Hotel as it was pretty close by, and checked into a suite on the 5th floor. Our plan was to stretch a little, and then go out for lunch, which is precisely what we did. On Fort St, we found an Indian restaurant by the name of Indian Curry House, which served us decent Shahi Paneer and Nans.
While strolling the downtown streets, we landed up in a shop called Tony’s Photo Studio that had a lot of different props and dresses in which you could get your picture clicked. To capture our first anniversary into a special photograph, we got ourselves into Victorian outfits for a very Victorian wedding picture! Mr. Tony clicked around 20 pictures and we finally selected one in which both of us looked fab. Tony was an old man in his 50s, and he had this sticker put up on his shop – "Get even – live long enough to become a problem for your kid." Tony and his wife wanted repeat business and they said that they hoped we will be back next year with our little one! 🙂
We then headed back for the streets and spotted Miniature World, which was actually housed in our hotel building itself. There were lot of different miniature exhibits showcased, but the one that awed me the most was the very first exhibit of space in Future World. It showed a view of the solar system from Jupiter in 2035 or so. As it is I am a little inclined towards space and aliens these days, and that particular exhibit appealed a lot to me. Other exhibits were kind of mundane showcasing different cities, wars, events, or tales. After this, we spent another hour or so in the streets clicking pictures of ourselves with backdrops of Empress, the coveted Legislative Building that glows with 3,333 bulbs, the harbour, and so on. Then we attempted to retire into the hotel room with tired feet, but they were inspiration enough to again walk down to the spa and immerse ourselves into the heavenly jacuzzi of the Empress Hotel. I am still not sure how, but the hotel somehow knew it was our anniversary and upon our return, we found in our room a beautiful greeting card along with chocolates and a box of famous Empress tea. In the evening, we dined at the same lunch restaurant, took a late night stroll back to the hotel with some more pictures on the way.
Our plan for the next morning was to visit Butchart Gardens. So we rented a car, got a free upgrade since we had stayed at the Empress, and drove northwards on the freeway till we reached the gardens. Being winter season, it was obviously not the best time to visit this place as there were no flowers but only greenery, which was also not too bad. The gardens had 5-6 different sections including the Sunken Garden, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, Italian Garden etc where we strolled around and snapped a few pictures but all without flowers. 🙁 So as to not disappoint the few ignorant visitors like us who had little sense of best seasons to visit the gardens, they even had an indoor display of flowers known as Spring Prelude. Anyways, I guess our next trip to Victoria wont be in winters and the Butchart Gardens will deserve another trip from us when there is bloom. In the afternoon we drove further up north to the small touristy town of Sidney from where we grabbed some fruits (for me) and donuts (for Rikti, hehe) at Safeway. Drove around a bit and on the way back to Victoria downtown, Rikti made me park the car in a public parking for an afternoon car nap in the sun – pure bliss! Our last stop in Victoria would be the Craigdarroch Castle, which at 4 storeys was the tallest building in Victoria a hundred years ago. For the first time in my life, I saw what a castle can be like from the inside, and it certainly was a delightful and a little enriching experience, if you will.
Finally we returned the rental car, got back on the Victoria Clipper IV, and upon reaching Seattle we had the pleasure of having dinner with Arun, Jagat, Sonia and Ashish at Inchin’s, and completed the whole round trip with the Chinese meal and fortune cookie.