caroline and i left for canada very early the next day. the night before, i stayed up late catching up with fred, her husband. he and i have very similar taste in music so we had a lot to talk about. our ferry was leaving seattle at 730a but we had to get there by 6a. on the ferry, there were four older women sitting next to us in a section of six seats. they told us they were childhood friends from missouri and in their retirement days, they take an annual trip with just the ladies. they asked if we were still in college! they were super nice.
the woman sitting directly next to me kept staring at caroline as she read her
us weekly magazine. caroline looks up at her and smiles. she tells caroline,
you know everything in that magazine is untrue, right? we agreed that it was trashy. then she continues to say,
i know, my son is an actor. caroline proceeds to ask,
is your son famous? the woman looks to her friends and they all give each other knowing looks. caroline then asks,
can you please tell us who your son is? she answers,
my son has six children with angelina jolie. her friend sitting next to caroline says,
i changed his diapers. omg! it turns out that i am sitting next to brad pitt's mother!!
after we arrived, we checked into hotel oswego just down the street from the ferry terminal. it was very conveniently located. plus, we were able to check in early.
we were then off to make the most of our overnight stay and see as much as we could before our afternoon tea reservations at the
empress hotel. we shopped, bought candy and fashion jewelry from a street vendor. we also came upon a street fair of chalk artists. finally, we arrived at the empress hotel for afternoon tea. our spread was lovely. it was a good thing that caroline thought ahead and made us reservations!
clockwise: they start you off with fresh strawberries and cream when you are seated. the top tier included french macaroons dipped in chocolate imported from paris, pink princess cake among other delightful desserts. the middle tier had scones with jam and butter. the bottom tier was the first one we worked on with a variety of five different tea sandwiches. the very best was the egg salad on croissant sandwich (the second to the last on the right in the image). mmm goodness.
for dinner, we intended to go to the
brasserie l'ecole but got there 10 minutes after they opened and no tables were available for another two hours. we were too hungry to wait and looked for another place. the one thing i really wanted to try was
poutine, which is a canadian specialty. i had poutine in a san francisco restaurant but it is nowhere near what it was supposed to be. we ended up at the
local kitchen off of wharf street. they had
poutine and there wasn't much of a wait. in the top right image, it's a close up of the poutine which is french fries smothered in cheese curds, bacon and gravy. it is extremely rich. that is why i ordered a salad for dinner but the poutine was too much. i barely touched my salad.
i was hoping to catch the ghost tour they offered after dinner but i didn't think i could walk for another 90 minutes, despite my comfortable shoes. on the way back to our hotel, the house of parliament is lit up. it was a beautiful end to a full day.
on the ferry ride back to seattle, guess who tapped me on the shoulder? that's right, mrs. pitt. turns out, she and her girlfriends sat right behind us so we hung out with them for the 2-hour ride sharing what we did in victoria and seattle. fun fun fun.
