Hope has sprung anew

The weed that was Bush has been finally pulled and a tree of hope that is Obama has been planted.

High Tea at the Empress

After arriving in Victoria, we disembarked the clipper, went through customs, walked up to get the rental car (a small and sexy Smart car), where we deposited our luggage, and then proceeded to walk back down to the warf area and the Empress at the Fairmont.

We walked around for a while waited for 1:45 to come, which was the time we had reserved for our high tea. The last time Jenn and I came to Vancouver Island we had high tea at Buchart Gardens, which was amazing fun. At the Fairmont, high tea was more formal but just as fun. I had their Empress tea blend while Jenn went with the Earl Grey. Both teas were very good, with the Empress blend having more of an earthy/artichoke flavor.

Along with the tea you are served finger sandwiches, a scone and sweets. One of the finger sandwiches was a salmon roll that was out of this world. The salmon was so fresh I could of sworn the sandwich was trying to swim off the platter. The scone came with jam and whipped butter that was oh so good. By this time both of us were getting a little sweeted out, but we carried on and had some of the sweets. The checkered marzipan was my favorite with the cherry grand-marnier coming in at a close second.

All in all we both had a good time though I think I had more fun at the Buchart Gardens high tea, but that might be because the different setting/style. I would still highly recommend it to couples, because it is fun and the service is outstanding. And just visiting The Empress at the Fairmont is worth the trip. It is an amazing piece of architecture for downtown Victoria, BC.

The Victoria Clipper

Jennifer and I took a ride up to Vancouver Island on the Victoria Clipper ferry yesterday. And all I can say about it is, DO IT! The ferry ride was a blast. I was expecting a 3 hour boat trip reading and taking some photos. I neither took a photo or read one sentence in my book. The whole time we were have some great conversations with the people seated around us.

Chris was from Vancouver Island, returning to his professorship duties from a job he was doing in the puget sound area. Sharon was a writer who is sailing up and down the west coast with her husband. Heather was starting her vacation and so was Ben.

I wish I would of taken a couple of photos of everyone but I just got caught up in socializing. What a great way to start off a three night vacation on Vancouver Island.

The first 2009 photo blog post

Here is my first photo taken in 2009 post to my blog. The photo is just a snapshot from January 2, 2009 of a dark and ominous cloud spewing hail with some blue sky below and white clouds below that. All seen from out my apartment window. It was some weird interesting weather.

More snow in Seattle

The same day I was out taking photos of the snow geese I got some snapshots of the Seattle snow environment. My wife and I went for a walk up to 45th ave on Stoneway, because I had to get a new phone to replace the old phone I lost in the snow somewhere. After getting a new phone we walked back down through some of the Wallingford neighborhood. I took a couple of pictures of some houses that interested me.

Once we got to Gas Works Park I took the photos of the geese and some of the people in the park. I have posted those photos here along with a couple from the previous day and from my walk up Queen Anne hill the next day (December 21-23, 2008). These photos give you a hint about the snow in Seattle.