Experiences

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The White Heather Tea Room

Mrs. H wanted to round out the Butchart Garden excursion with an introduction to a traditional English high tea. Neil Z commented last night that he had an amazing high tea experience at the White Heather Tea Room. A quick check of other reviews convinced me to try it out. We ordered the ‘Big Muckle Giant Tea’ and were not disappointed!

I didn’t think to bring in my camera, so here is an idea of what our spread looked like, on three plates set on a tiered stand:

we didn’t have that huge plate of shortbread in the foreground 🙂

They have a large selection of teas, including Balmoral, their version of the Earl Grey and jasmine tea I discovered in Edmonton. Yuuuuum.

The homemade fare is worth describing in detail. Let’s see if I can remember it all. 🙂

Tier One (the bottom plate):

-scone (cranberry or apricot ginger) with Devonshire (sweet whipped) cream, raspberry preserves, and/or lemon curd;

-mini quiche with sundried tomatoes;

-a bite-sized cheese thing with roasted red peppers (yuuuuuuum);

-fruit slices (apple and orange).

Tier two (middle plate):

-a mini savory scone with the most amazing smoky sweet salmon I have ever had;

-rolled sandwiches (egg (which I didn’t eat); ham with relish; and cucumber with cream cheese on marbelized rye (yuuuuuuum)).

Tier three (top plate):

Dessert!

-an incredible cranberry brownie (that had a distinct coffee aftertaste);

-lemony blueberry pound cake with icing;

-a cheesy cracker thing with a bit of apple on top (one of my favourite things today);

-delicious crispy and buttery shortbread (I’ll admit to dipping it in Devonshire cream mixed with raspberry preserves!);

-a little tart filled with lemon curd and topped with Devonshire cream.

I wound up taking most of Mrs. H’s desserts home and will enjoy them with regular tea before bed. 🙂

It didn’t seem like much food until we started on it. The portions were small, but there were a lot of them.

High tea at the White Heather Tea Room is definitely an experience I will never forget. Thank you for the recommendation, Neil!

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Hot Springs Cove

Well, I just had a completely unexpected amazing day. The wonders of this life never cease.

This morning, I slept in until 9:30 and was enjoying a leisurely breakfast when the manager of the hostel came to me and said that a tour company was trying to put together a trip to Hot Springs Cove and needed one more person to go. Would I be interested for the special rate of $84, taxes included?

Research about this day trip put the cost at close to $150, way out of my price range for this weekend. But $84? When else would I get to stay in Tofino for $20 a night and get to go to the Hot Springs for $84? Never.

So, my plans for the day changed very quickly!!! I only had a half hour to make a lunch (thankfully I had bought supplies last night) and come up with suitable attire since I hadn’t brought a bathing suit (I settled on pyjama shorts and a camisole!). I only had flip flops, which I was warned weren’t going to work out there, so I decided to just go barefoot. The hostel offered to lend me a towel so I wouldn’t have to dirty mine.

The hot springs are located on Vancouver Island, but are only accessible by boat and float plane. Here’s a map:

We went around the other side of Florence island to get to the cove, but came back on the side where you can see the arrows. (Picture from http://www.risingsunkayaks.com/images/Clayoquot/mapclayoquot.jpg)

The boat ride is one to one and a half hours each way, then there is a two kilometre walk up and down a boardwalk to get to the spring. It’s therefore a full day excursion.

We were only four today and everything was in our favour. The smaller group and time of year meant a more leisurely pace, we had the springs to ourselves, and the weather cooperated.

While whales can often be seen on these trips, this was the wrong time of year for that. All we saw were groups of sea otters bobbing on their backs waving their paws at us. Too cute!

The walk through the springs is through the rainforest. We had fun looking at the planks underfoot since they all had the names of ships (why, I didn’t quite catch). At one point, I spotted a board for the Stornoway and dryly commented that it must be the official boat of the opposition. A beat passed and then peals of laughter could be heard ahead of me. I love it when I make a funny. 🙂

The hot springs are nothing like those at Liard, where the springs are highly accessible pools. Here at Hot Springs Cove the springs are completely natural. You have to clamber down rocks and stake a claim in a comfortable spot if you can find one. I hunkered down in one ‘deep’ spot where I could at least be covered to my shoulders while the other lady on the trip preferred to stand under the ‘shower’, while the men moved around.

One really neat thing about these extremely hot springs is that sea water comes up and floods them, so you get a mix of hot and cold water. High tide was coming as we were getting comfy and the waves of cold water coming at us grew larger and larger. At one point, a monster of a wave started to bear down on us. I had no where to go, so I just sucked in a huge breath, closed my eyes, and braced myself so I wouldn’t be slammed against the slimy rocks. A crushing wall of ice-cold water covered me and I just rode it out, figuring the water would subside. It didn’t, so I started to climb to the surface before I needed air. My group was concerned, but there was no reason for that, everything was under control. I am at my best in water, even in less than ideal circumstances.

We had about an hour in the water and twenty minutes or so to have a picnic lunch before we had to head back down to the boat.

Facilities at the Hot Springs include a toilet at both the dock and the springs, as well as large changing rooms. There was no place to store valuables, which was fine today but would have sucked on a day with tons of people there. I can’t even fathom that place overrun with people; it must be so dangerous! Good, waterproof footwear would make the experience more fun, but bare feet are fine if you’re careful and not in a rush.

The weather was so warm that coming out of the springs with bare wet shoulders was no hardship. We did the trip in a covered and heated boat, but the few times I stepped onto the deck for pictures, I was struck by how comfortable we were; I’ve been colder in the middle of San Francisco Bay in late June. We had rain coming into the cove, but nearly clear weather coming out.

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that dark spot floating in the water is a sea otter paw!

that dark spot floating in the water is a sea otter paw!

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looking down at the swimming area

looking down at the swimming area

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you can really see the swimming area in this one; first stop is the 'shower' and then you can stake a claim a little lower

you can really see the swimming area in this one; first stop is the ‘shower’ and then you can stake a claim a little lower

looking down towards the swimming area

looking down towards the swimming area

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flat calm between Vancouver Island and Florence Island

flat calm between Vancouver Island and Florence Island

you can see the hostel, look for the green roof on the far right side

you can see the hostel, look for the green roof on the far right side

you can see the hostel, look for the green roof on the far right side

you can see the hostel, look for the green roof on the far right side

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You can see the hostel quite well in this one.

You can see the hostel quite well in this one.

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Travels Without Miranda, #8: Tybee Island, Georgia

I finally made it to Savannah in the spring of 2008, six months before I left Ottawa with Miranda. This harried road trip featuring bad motels and restaurant food convinced me that there had to be a better way to travel.

After spending a sticky day exploring Savannah’s historic district, I decided that the next day should be spent visiting the environs, my expedition culminating at Tybee Island, Savannah’s ocean playground.

It was the first week of April and still bitter cold back home, but on Tybee the sun was shining and it was hot. The Atlantic ocean beckoned me and I heeded its call, wading in carefully, then plunging in head first when I discovered, to my delight, that the water was warm!

Tybee Island lighthouse

Tybee Island lighthouse

view of Tybee beach from the top of the lighthouse

view of Tybee beach from the top of the lighthouse

Swimming opened up my appetite and I went off in search of lunch, finding it at a shack-type restaurant right on the beach called the North Beach Grill. I decided to take a chance on it since it was packed. It was a fantastic experience; a cruddy little restaurant open to sea breezes, salt shakers rusty from the sea air, rum flowing liberally, and Caribbean-style music booming from speakers. I ordered ‘grilled shrimp’ which was nothing like what I expected. I got whole shrimp, still in the shell with the legs on ’em, swimming in a cajunny-style sauce with a helping of freshly cut fries. It was one of the most undignified, delicious, and fun meals of my life. It took forever to peel those suckers using my fingers! It was there that I realised that coastal Georgia is a world unto itself where sweet tea runs freely, huge mountains of sweet shrimp big as a thumb cost less than a burger, and the people know how to take the time to breathe and enjoy a moment. It’s not paradise, but came pretty close to that for a sun and warmth-starved gal who had just fled winter!

That day in the water reminded me that when I am drained, water can renew me. I remembered this my first day in Edmonton.

(As a side note, that night I received an email that changed my life forever. But that’s another story, part of which you read whenever you visit this blog.)

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Travels Without Miranda, #6: Watching a Light Show in Manitoba

I can thank hurricane Katrina for my road trip around the Great Lakes in 2005. I had scheduled a tour of the southern US, including Savannah, Pensacola, and New Orleans, but two days before I was slated to depart, Katrina swept in and my plans for my first vacation in four years went down the toilet. Needless to say, I didn’t take it personally, but I could have acted like a petulant child and cancelled my vacation.

Instead, I took the few days I had to come up with another interesting road trip idea and off I went on a fantastic adventure that might not have been the one I’d planned and looked forward to, but which was special in its own way. I even managed to see in Minneapolis one thing that I had looked forward to seeing while I toured the south, the Mississippi River.

My tour around the Great Lakes was to be broken up with a several day stay in Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba. It was a city I had always wanted to visit, so ending up there instead of New Orleans wasn’t a huge disappointment even if some people proclaimed Winnipeg to be plan Q. I guess that I have a soft spot for the places that get a bum rap. 🙂

To stretch my budget, I decided to camp at Bird’s Hill provincial park, just north of the city and within easy commuting distance. When I arrived there, I had had quite a full day, waking up in Melrose, Minnesota, speeding through my first glimpse of the prairies in North Dakota, and then crossing over into Manitoba for the first time, bringing me further west in Canada than I had ever been.

sunrise at Birds Hill Provincial Park (photo by the government of Manitoba)

sunrise at Birds Hill Provincial Park (photo by the government of Manitoba)

My trip was winding down and even if I hadn’t seen anything as spectacular as Savannah’s historic district or New Orlean’s French Quarter, I was racking up a lot of memories and I was satisfied even if I hadn’t seen anything that particularly stuck out in my mind.

After dinner that night, I went for a walk on the prairie to wind down a bit and watch the sunset, then went to bed. I couldn’t sleep, so after some tossing and turning I got up and went back to the walking trail to watch the stars. Those plans changed when I found that the sky was alive with dancing green lights. It was the aurora borealis, the northern lights! I had never seen it before and it was even more beautiful than I would ever have imagined. Acid green swirled against ebony, shimmering and popping, and I could swear I heard all that energy crackling. The prairie sky is open and endless, so the dance seemed to stretch on forever, as far as I could see.

stock photo of the northern lights that quite accurate represents what I saw that night

stock photo of the northern lights that quite accurately represents what I saw that night

Had I gone south that fall, I would have missed this spectacular natural phenomenon. I believe that things happen, and plans change, for a reason. I’m not afraid of taking the unbeaten path or doing something that at first glance seems illogical. Sometimes being flexible in your travel plans pays off in big ways. This is what was going through my mind last summer when I decided on a whim to push on to Dawson City instead of settling in Whitehorse.