A little something extra for you all.
When I was home for the Christmas holidays, three of my bestest girlies (Ingmarie, Tiffaney, and Charmaine) and I headed out to Butchart Gardens for the Christmas display and a lovely dinner. I recapped a bit of it at the time, but was waiting for my friend Ingmarie’s photos. She uses a Nikon D60 so we designated her our fancy photographer for the evening. It’s mainly due to Ing’s photography and new love of the hobby that I really wanted a DSLR of my own. Maybe next year I’ll be the designated photographer!
Dinner at The Dining Room Restaurant:
- shared appies…seafood trio, herb-crusted goat cheese, and braised short rib.
- main courses…seafood boulliabase, game hen & risotto, pork chops & polenta. (2 of us had the pork)
- shared desserts… chocolate trio with pot de creme, homemade donuts, pralines…and one of the best creme brulee ever…
People often look at me like I’m crazy when I recommend the Butchart Dining Room. It it perceived to be some sort of touristy place that would have mediocre food. I am here to tell you that it is a hidden gem! A little pricey because you have to pay full admission to the Gardens even to just go to the restaurant, but worth it for the great atmosphere, lovely service, and amazing local food.
The Christmas light displays are nothing short of awesome. I had lived on Vancouver Island for pretty much my entire life, specifically in Victoria for 7 years before FH and I decided to go to Butchart for a date the first Summer we were together. We had such a great time, we had to go back for Christmas. It was to be a tradition, but of course we got transferred and only managed to get there one more time right before we moved.
Last year, the girls and I had plans to carry on the tradition but that’s when Victoria got hit with a huge snow storm and we could barely get around downtown let alone all the way out to Butchart.
Needless to say I was pretty happy to get there this year!
- two turtle doves, three French hens…
- sunken garden…
- four calling birds, six geese a laying…
- fiiiiiive golden riiiiiinnngs…
They put in a crazy cool carousel this year! Tiff and I just had to ride it. :)
So glad we got to go! Thanks girls! and thanks Ingmarie for playing paparazzi for us the whole night. *hugs*
3 comments:
I went to Busch Gardens in Florida a few times as a kid and loved it. The food in your pics looks sooo good!
I've never been there before either... bad bad island girls we are!!
Beautiful pictures!
Nice shots! Beautiful lights!!
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