The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, a golden way to spend a Silver Anniversary

Returning to the magical place where we honeymooned 25 years ago

VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA

When my Sweetheart, Shelley, and I discussed where we might slip away for a long weekend to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, the vote was unanimous in favor of revisiting the place where it started, the magnificent Empress Hotel in Victoria, where we honeymooned in the Year 2000.

It is now the Fairmont Empress, which brings a new level of elegance to a hotel known for its magnificence from the day it opened its doors on Victoria’s Inner Harbour in 1908. It was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway specifically to bring tourists to Victoria so they could experience this emerging city and all that Vancouver Island had to offer.

The locals, of course, still simply call it The Empress, with a reverence for its history and what it has meant to the growth and prosperity and culture of Victoria, the capital city of the province of British Columbia.

Often referred to as the Castle on the Coast, The Empress even outshines the stunning Parliament building just a block away, which is not an easy thing to do.

In fact, when both The Empress and the Parliament are in their well-lit nighttime splendor, with the reflection of those lights bouncing off the harbour waters, it seems almost as if they are in a competition to establish which one is more spectacular.

Victoria is the logical jumping off spot for a diverse round of Vancouver Island must-see attractions, beginning close by The Empress with the Royal BC Museum, the Parliament Building, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, whale watching tours and the charming Inner Harbour walking path that is an excellent choice for a morning stroll along the water.

There is plenty to see as well on the rest of Vancouver Island, which stretches 285 miles from north to south and 60 miles from east to west. Best of all, Victoria is in the Banana Belt, receiving considerably less rainfall than the big cities of Seattle and Vancouver on the mainland.

On this grand island there’s the challenging Malahat Skywalk, lawn tennis courts at Cowichan Bay, storm-watching at the isolated hamlet of Ucluelet, the 14-course Vancouver Island Golf Trail, the interesting up-island port city of Nanaimo and the famed salmon-fishing capital of the Pacific Northwest, Campbell River.

Did I forget to mention Butchart Gardens? There’s so much there that I’ll save it for another day on this trip and give it the full attention it deserves.

Then again, all those attractions aside, you could spend an entire week here without leaving The Empress with its indoor charms and its well-manicured outside grounds and still feel as if you’d had the best vacation ever.

It is truly that special.

Shelley and I flew to Seattle and boarded the Victoria Clipper for a comfortable three-hour ride through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, docking right in the Inner Harbour, just a 90-second walk from the Fairmont Empress if you make the green light at the crosswalk on Government Street.

We showed our passports at Canadian Customs and were asked if we were bringing anything into Canada other than ourselves.

“Just us and the shoes on our feet,” we replied.

We were then asked if we planned to leave anything in Canada.

“No, we plan to leave together,” we nodded as the customs agent finally cracked a smile.

When you first set foot on Canadian soil, it’s best to have a mathematician in your group to convert miles to kilometers, Celsius to Fahrenheit, American gallons to Imperial gallons and especially, American dollars to Canadian dollars. All that constant calculating is enough to make you reach for your migraine medicine until you learn the favorable exchange rate for your U.S. currency.

Turns out Ben Franklin is smiling on the front of that $100 bill in your pants pocket because in Victoria it’s worth $140 Canadian.

With that in mind, we left the Clipper and the Customs agent behind and virtually skipped across the street onto the massive front lawn of what would soon be our home away from home.

The Empress allows you to upgrade to an experience known as Fairmont Gold, which is an eye-popping, mouth-watering, mind-bending experience custom-made for a Silver Anniversary weekend.

Put simply, for the last three days we have been treated like royalty, almost as if we were the only guests in the hotel.

Our corner room has a view out one window of the Parliament building behind the Empress gardens and, out the other, a view of ships and ferries and fishing boats of various sizes arriving in the harbour. (When we get back to Washington state, I’ll return to spelling “harbor” the American way, but for the next few days, when it comes to grammar, I’ll be thoroughly Canadian.)

We are dutifully swimming in the indoor pool and working out (briefly) in the fitness center, fully aware of the number of calories we have been consuming in the last several days.

The Gold Lounge is a non-stop parade of edible delights, from a savory breakfast with several dozen choices, to early afternoon pastries, late afternoon hors d’oeuvres and finally an evening dessert service, all included in the price of your room. At any hour of the day you can help yourself to large glass jars full of pecans and almonds and walnuts and pistachios and Smarties, as if you don’t have enough choices already.

The lounge opens onto a massive outdoor patio overlooking the harbour, where you can pull up a chair or a couch or lean over the railing to keep an eye on the politicians in Parliament or wait for the whale watching boats to return to port.

Last night we ate at “Q,” the fine-dining experience at The Empress and it was fine indeed. I left wanting the recipe for the exceedingly thick Caesar dressing they put on my salad and I hope it’s not a secret the chef will take to her grave.

And then this afternoon we indulged in the ultimate Empress experience, Afternoon Tea, brewed piping hot at our table, with an individual pot for each participant and dozens of teas to choose from.

According to the literature, “Afternoon tea is served on royal china gifted by King George VI during his visit in 1939.”

Whether or not our very cups were indeed the same ones King George gifted to this hotel, I have to admit that when I raised the steaming cup to my lips, I felt like a king, by George.

Yes, there were, of course, cucumber sandwiches, plus salmon and chicken curry and more sweet treats than I have fingers and toes.

As we soaked it all in, Shelley and I discussed how fun it would be to keep this special tradition going by coming back to The Empress for our Golden Anniversary.

We laughed as we realized there is no way in heaven we will wait another 25 years before coming back here again.

In fact, we just might not leave here at all.

(Tomorrow: Are whales smarter than the people watching them?)

Please enjoy this photo gallery of The Empress below.

Reach me at bobdunning@thewaryone.com