August 19, 2012 Victoria - Afternoon Tea at the Empress

Took the 5pm ferry to Victoria via Pacific Coach Lines depot to depot bus.  The driver Eric was born in the Yukon but his parents retired in Victoria.  He worked as a wedding photographer in Qualicum for 9 years in the 90's before becoming a driver and has been driving for the past 12 years.  I bumped into him near the end of the sailing when I was heading back to the bus so yakked with him a bit before we headed downstairs.  He said that he could see the clouds over Northwest Washington a lot when it wasn't raining in Victoria...i.e. he was poking fun of Port Angeles and Forks where I was going since Victoria is the "rain shadow" he said so it doesn't rain much there.  I sat in the front seat beside a guy who was from Vancouver but moved to Victoria 7 years ago.  He was in Vancouver for 2 weeks.  A woman brought her chihuahua onto the bus in a pet-duffle bag and the driver didn't notice but for some reason she mentioned the dog to the driver outside when we were waiting for the ferry and he told her no dogs allowed even though the dog had been on the bus since the bus depot.  So she had to walk on with the dog instead of taking the bus.  Used a newspaper to save my seat for the trip from the ferry to the Victoria bus depot.

Checked into the Rosewood Inn which is a beautiful English-style quaint place less than 10 minutes away from the bus depot.  Made it before 8pm so there was still someone at the front desk.  Used the code given to me a few days ago for late check-in to get in the door as it was locked already.  Choice of 8am or 9:15am breakfast sitting.  Signed up for 8am since N was picking me up at 9am.  There are 20 people allowed each sitting and there's afternoon tea at 3pm...darn will be gone by then on Monday!  No elevator though so had to lug my luggage up 3 flights of stairs (not long flights though).  Mostly seniors staying at this place.  Stayed in room 32 which is a studio and met the elderly couple across from me and another elderly couple down the hall.  There's a computer, couches, tv and books, DVDs etc for guests to use downstairs.  Didn't realize it was actually a bed and breakfast until I read the description of the Inn on the website just now! 

It was quite cold compared to home.  First time I had to put on my legs and wore my Canada fleecy in a few months.  Took about 6 or 7 minutes to walk from the Rosewood to the Empress.

Had delicious afternoon tea at the Empress at 8:45pm.  They replaced the salmon pinwheel with some sort of hummus sandwich which was good.  I had the orange pineapple tea...it's not really a tea but the fruit juice.  Apparently in the summer there are evening teas on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings.  They don't advertise afternoon tea for Sunday evenings as it's only on if a cruise ship(s) requests it.  So when I checked the website Sunday wasn't advertised but when I went to their online reservation system times were available tonight!  I got a free box of "Tea at The Empress" - 10 two-cup tea bags.  There were some other tables there when I first got there but by the time I finished I had the whole place to myself :)

Looked around a bit at the other dining areas and stores.  Then went down Government Street to the 7-Eleven to buy some water for Monday.  Lots of souvernir stores were still opened after 9:30pm...wandered into one that was closing just after 10:00pm.  Lots of tourists around and there were horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping.  The parliament buildings were beautiful lit up.  The Rosewood Inn is only 2 blocks away from the parliament buildings on Michigan and Government Street.