Slow January

I have been waiting to write a new post, because not much has been happening. Marlene lost her 4th tooth and is now missing all four incisors. Amelia has gotten even more stubborn, if that is possible and tries to exert her independence whenever possible. I was glad when vacation was over and school and preschool started up again. A routine is a nice thing.

So, when Jason - who is back from Egypt - proposed to take the girls for a weekend to his parents, I was very excited to have a weekend to myself. And to make the most of it, I decided to visit Victoria B.C. with a friend. We just wanted to get out of town so we were not tempted to clean or do other things that should have been doen a long time ago. So I drove Jason and the girls to the airport on Friday the 25th and enjoyed a quiet evening and an undisturbed night of sleep. (Both girls have had problems with sleeping lately, so we are usually up three or four times a night.) In the morning Jen picked me up and we took the Victoria Clipper to Viktoria. Those packages are pretty nice. They start you out with a champagne breakfast and then shuttle you with taxis to the hotel. We had decided to stay at the Empress to treat ourselves. This time of the year there is not much difference in prize between the Empress and other hotels. Our room was ready upon arrival at 11 am and so we could get our stay started very smoothly. For lunch we went to High Tea. I had researched places the night before and everyone seems to agree, that the "White Heather Tea Room" is the best. We made reservations and took a taxit to Oak Bay. We were well rewarded. The Tea Room is owned by a scottish lady who knows a bit or two about tea. As you can see from the picture above we did not leave hungry and we paid less for the two of us than we would have paid for one person at the Empress (were all the toruist busses go). We walked the three miles back to downtown and saw some nice neighborhoods. We even stumbeled upon Craidarogh Castle. That was quite a treat.

After resting in the room we went for drinks in the "Bengal Room" at the hotel. The Indian Buffet smelled great, but there was no way we could tackle that. Instead we walked around some more and ended up in a little Carrabean Restaurant. We had plans for the live Jazz at the hotel, but we were too tired and just went to bed.

The next morning we worked out in the gym and swimming pool, before we checked out and went for breakfast. Sunday was a day of beautiful sunshine, so we just walked around and exlpored more of Viktoria. In the afternoon we had more tea at the St. James Tea Room, before we boarded the Clipper to go back home.

We had a great relaxing weekend and I think we both agreed, that we will do this again.