First, we toured Parliament (we had not done that on our first trip to Victoria), walked to a coffee shop (and had awesome coffee), then over to Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch. I’m starting to eat fish, but the fish and chips for lunch (even though Brenda said they were good) were just “meh” for me. But we did find a street vendor selling dried, pressed seaweed and kelp art that was beautiful. Our dining room pictures from New York in 2003 had faded, so we bought some replacements.
I had made dinner reservations at an Italian restaurant (Il Terrazzo) that came highly recommended. I was glad, because they were packed. However, dinner was excellent and so was the service. There is an Il Terrazzo in Portland we liked as well, but they are not connected.
Our fourth day was all about Butchart Gardens. It had been about 40 years since we were there and it’s just as nice as we remember. Gorgeous flowers and greenery and the weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and at times a bit overcast, but in the mid 70s.
I have traditionally bought yellow roses for Brenda on our anniversary. Since we were going to be in Victoria on the actual day and since we would be leaving Victoria the day after our anniversary, I decided to have them delivered a couple of days early so she could enjoy them longer. I didn’t think they would travel well. She liked them.
We spent Day Three at the Royal Canadian Museum. We got to see John Lennon’s Rolls Royce (complete with actual record player). Very nice museum.
That evening, we walked over to Chinatown. Everything said it was phenomenal. It was nice, but VERY small. Only a couple of blocks wide and three blocks long. None of the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown looked appealing, so we ventured out a few blocks to Hope Key. It had great Yelp reviews and the owner was named Brenda. So it seemed natural.
We got into a great conversation with her and found out her husband’s name is also Bill. Wow. Such a coincidence! And yes, the food was excellent. Highly recommend!
The next morning’s breakfast was amazing. Only one other couple was staying at the B&B and we engaged in a good conversation. We then packed up, then headed up to Hurricane Ridge.
Hurricane Ridge is probably our favorite National Park hike anywhere. This was now at least our third time there. Sadly, the lodge burned down a couple of years ago during a renovation project, but we had decent weather and packed a lunch to carry in and carry out.
The weather was decent. A bit more overcast than we hoped, but very nice nonetheless. Cold (it’s almost 6,000 ft elevation), but we enjoyed a picnic lunch anyway.
I had scheduled an evening ferry to Victoria so we could arrive around dinner time.
Unlike our recent Chicago trip, this one was to be a road trip. We find we really like road trips, listening to an audio book on the long drives and just enjoying the scenery.
We left, as usual, around 10 am and headed north. This is our “normal” for a couple of reasons. First, it let’s us have a comfortable, unrushed morning, and second, it puts us at the Vancouver supercharger right around noon for lunch. You see, there’s a Thai restaurant we really like in the shopping center adajcent to the charger, so we can “fill up” while we eat. And we did just that.
Our first night was at a B&B we really enjoy in Port Angeles and we rolled in right around 4:30. This gave us time to unload the necessities from the car and head out for dinner.
We tried a new spot, the 929, A Woodfired Grill. We had heard their halibut was to die for. But the water had been too choppy that day and they didn’t have halibut. We “settled” for the smoked salmon linguini. Oh. My. Word. It was phenomenal. If you’re ever in Port Angeles, go there.
We settled in for the night and looked forward to a wonderful breakfast the next morning.
Wednesday morning, we started with breakfast at The Good Eating Company, bid farewell to our server there (who recommended a cafe in Portland for us). Then decided to just check out and head to the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until about 4:00, but we were tired and ready to go home.
We were glad we did. There was some construction going on around the Blue line and the airport was packed. We had a comfortable ride in, had lunch and bought some salads for dinner on the flight and hung out. It was comfortable timing, with just enough margin to not feel rushed.
We arrived home around 10:00 pm and Brenda’s brother shuttled us home and we could sleep in our own bed. All flights were good, connections good and a very enjoyable experience.
Tuesday we took the subway down to the Field Museum. We had walked so much and it was just a little farther than we wanted to walk this day, so we took advantage of our transit pass and took the red line down.
We had visited the Natural History Museum in New York and that still probably has to be one of our favorite museums. We had kind of expected a similar museum experience at the Field, but it’s just a “normal” museum.
Not as many pictures this day. We were winding down. Usually a good vacation for us is right at a week. And we were at a week. We finished our day off with a second dinner at Maharaj. And it was just as good as the first time. A wonderful bookend to our trip!
Monday was the Art Institute, largely because they are closed Tuesdays, the Field Museum (our other museum stop) is open every day and we were headed home Wednesday. Our breakfasts so far had been at a little spot next to our hotel. Average muffins and poor service so we went on an online search. I found the Good Eating Company a few blocks from the hotel. WAY better! And they had good Americanos. We ended up eating there Tuesday and Wednesday, our last day in Chicago.
The Art Institute had a special Freida Kahlo exhibit for an extra $5 so we opted for that. Interesting, but glad we only paid $5.
What impressed me the most was Van Gogh’s self portrait (small, about 12 x 18 inches), Wood’s American Gothic (also small), and Seurat’s La Grand Jatte. I had studied these in college, but to see them in person was awesome. La Grand Jatte is 10 x 12 FEET in size. Impressive use of the equivalent of late 1800s pixelating.
So many other things we saw there; we could have spent two or three days and not seen it all.
Sunday, the weather was much better, for which we were grateful because we had booked the architectural river boat tour. Since I’m an architect, this was especially interesting to me. But the boat tour wasn’t until late afternoon, so we wandered around in the morning.
We decided to walk down to Navy Pier and enjoyed the view from the Centennial Wheel. Had lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville (and reminisced about the one lost to the fire in Lahaina).
The we walked back along the Riverwalk, arriving at the boat tour just in time. A docent from the local Chicago Architecture Center gave an excellent summary of the architecture of Chicago and some local history. Well worth the trip!
We finished the evening with a trip to a local Taco spot that looked like it had a similar vibe to our favorite local Tacovore. It was good, but our local one is still better.
Friday and Saturday were the neighboring conference that was the spark to get us to Chicago. It was so good to reconnect with old friends from around the continent. Russell from Saskatchewan, Tim from Chicago (formerly Seattle), Dwight from Seattle. And to make new friends as well.
The church lives out the gospel in their neighborhood. Lawndale Community Church. They started asking what the neighborhood needed and now have a medical center, youth center, senior center, healthy option restaurant, and, oh yeah, a church.
Friday sessions went late and we debated whether or not to take the Pink line back into town or call an Uber. Friday night, late, on the L. We decided to go ahead and take the train.
And we were glad we did. We were the only people in our car except an older black man and a drunk man who we later found out was Argentinian. The black man was trying to convince to Argentinian to accept Jesus. It was not going well. Voices raised and we started wondering if we had made the right choice to not Uber.
Soon the black man exited at his stop and the Argentinian came over and sat across from us. We engaged in conversation (as best we could) and found out he was mourning the Pope. That time of night was just about the time the Pope’s funeral was happening. And the Pope was Argentinian. We had a bit more conversation before our stop.
Saturday at the conference was a walk around Pilsen neighborhood. A very poor neighborhood with a lot of gang activity and an extreme food desert. The only greenery/lawn area was some fake grass in front of a Taco Bell. And to top it off, it was raining. Actually it was a deluge. We were all soaked by the time we finished the neighborhood tour.
