Saturday, June 13, 2009

Miniature World, Waterfront and Afternoon Tea
















Today Becca helped us all wake up early at 6:30. We decided to head down to the pool for a family swim. What a great surprise to find out that it has a child's wading pool, along with a full size pool and hot tub. Unfortunately the water level in the wading pool is just at Becca's mouth when she sits so she kept swallowing water - but there were steps she could sit on that were the right height. She enjoyed splashing around on my lap too. Bella had a great time in both the wading pool and in the large pool with Dean.

We headed back to our room for some quiet time and to get ready for the day. Our first stop was Breakfast at the Liberty Cafe where we had yummy smoothies and split a scone and a croissant. We ate outside at a little table where small birds ate all around us and there was a couple at the table next to us where the guy was reading a book to the girl - it was very romantic.

Next we headed to our first stop - Miniature World. It was really cool. Lots of models of things like trains, dollhouses, scenes from books etc. plus a whole section on Canadian/US history with battles displayed. You could press buttons in the displays and it would make things "go" like the trains or cars etc. We were there for about 45 minutes and it was a lot of fun.

Next we walked around outside and saw great views of our hotel (see picture) and we walked down to the waterfront where we were able to see a couple of tall ships and many personal sailboats. Dean was in his glory telling us all about them and even had Bella pose beside one.
We came back to the room to freshen up and then headed out to our noon reservation for Afternoon Tea here at the Empress Hotel. They were turning people away so we were glad we had reserved a few weeks ago. They addressed Isabella by name and she was given extra special treatment as the Princess of our tea. (We had set this up through the reservation earlier). She even tried her own cup of Orange Pineapple Tea which Dean also had. I had the traditional Empress Blend and was not disappointed. We were brought tiered trays with sandwiches on the bottom (smoked salmon, cucumber, cream cheese, curry chicken, mushroom pate) a second layer with scones served with creme frais and strawberry preserves - very authentic. And the top tier was desserts (Earl Grey shortbread, chocolate cake with vanilla cream, checkerboard sponge cake, chocolate raspberry truffle, lemon tart). No diet today!
Bella ordered an apple juice and got her own tiered tray decorated with ribbons and a jelly bean covered chocolate cupcake - along with a cookie, scones and a real flower which she wore in her hair. Her sandwich selection consisted of ham and cheese, turkey and cucumber and she had pringles on the side. Before it arrived she said she wasn't hungry, but believe me it was all gone when we left. At the end she was presented with a certificate claiming her Princess of the Afternoon Tea and Dean and I were each given tins of tea to take home - so everyone is invited to our place for a tea party!

We are now back in the room for Becca to have a nap, but we will continue our adventures and update tonight!

No comments:

Post a Comment