Victoria Trip

While Allie and Macey were in town for spring break, we decided to take a little trip across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, BC. We took a passenger ferry there on Monday morning. It's a three-hour trip to Vancouver Island and so much better than taking Claire on an equivalently long plane ride. She could crawl around a bit and when she got tired, I just strapped her in the Ergo and walked around the boat until she fell asleep.



Once our ferry pulled into the harbor, we went through customs and were free to explore! Side note: Claire took three trips to Canada before turning one and she doesn't have a passport. As long as you aren't flying into the country, kids only need their birth certificates. Since Adam wasn't able to accompany us this time, I had to bring a notarized letter in which he gave his permission for me to take our daughter out of the country.

Victoria is a really walkable city, so we didn't miss having a car one bit. We stayed in the Fairmont Empress, a really fun Victorian hotel that made us want to pretend we were Downton Abbey characters.

Since the hotel really is more than a hundred years old, the rooms don't have all the swanky features you might expect from a more modern hotel of the same "star rating." But we thought their attention to period detail really added to the charm!



Our first stop was afternoon tea at the Empress! Judging by the fact that it took our waiter fifteen minutes to procure that highchair and that it was just one you can find at Target instead of the normal wooden restaurant kind, I'd say that babies don't come to high tea very often.



We made our reservation for right around lunch time, which worked out really well. This was more than enough food for the three of us. Tea sandwiches, tiny pastries, scones with jam and clotted cream. Does it get any better?



We sipped tea from cups that were designed in honor of King George and his family's tour across Canada and visit to Victoria {where they stayed at Empress, of course} in 1939.



Although it's inconveniently located on an island, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, so after lunch we walked across the street to check out the parliament buildings.



Just in case you had any doubts as to who the city is named for.



The interior was just as pretty as the exterior. We couldn't get enough of the beautiful rotunda!



Claire was awesome about catching naps on the go in her stroller. Everywhere we go, people stop and admire our cute baby, but mostly her very cute hat. Including some very official-looking people who I'm pretty sure were members of parliament.





We spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping and then had dinner at a really neat pizza place,  Famoso Neapolitan. I let myself off the hook for my Lenten resolutions on our trip {and for Claire's birthday the next day, of course} so we indulged in that ridiculous Nutella banana calzone for dessert. The Italian manager was sweetly obsessed with Claire and brought her some gelato. She was over the moon!









The last time we stayed in a hotel with Claire she got so upset about sleeping in the pack-n-play that she literally threw up and pooped at the same time. I really, really didn't want to repeat that experience! After lots of pacing the hotel hallways wearing her in the Ergo, she finally conked out and magically stayed asleep as I transferred her into the crib. She woke up at 3:00 am very upset and confused, so she "slept" in my bed for the rest of the night. I don't know how co-sleepers do it! Claire is not a cuddly at all when she's tired, so she wanted to sleep as far away from me as possible, preferably with at least half her body hanging off the bed. I spent the rest of the night holding onto her ankle and hoping that she wouldn't tumble onto the floor.

Weirdly enough, I don't have any pictures from our second day in Victoria. It was raining pretty hard all day {surprise, surprise} so we hung out in our room watching the opening of the conclave, had a delicious brunch at Jam Cafe, and then wandered around the Royal BC Museum until it was time to board the ferry back to Seattle. Claire was more than a little cranky on the ride home {pacing the aisles of a boat for two hours is a great way to meet people!} and was so, so, so excited to be reunited with her dad, the much more fun parent.