A Royal Mother's Day

    So... my sister and I decided to give ourselves an early Mother's Day gift.  This past weekend we decided to visit Seattle, Washington, and Victoria Canada.  While in Seattle, we went to Pike Place Market where we visited  the first Starbucks Coffee Shop.   We also stopped y the Flying Fish Market.

 

    In between visiting these Seattle Landmarks, of course we started to get a little hungry.  It wasn't quite dinner time, so we decided to grab a quick snack, but it wasn't just any ole snack, we stopped by Beecher's for their famous Mac-n-Cheese.  Beecher uses their own in house cheese, Flagship, and Jack Cheeses. This had to be the best mac-n-cheese I've ever tasted, sorry mom and Aunt Justine.  Needless to say, this snack hit the spot.

     After our snack, we continued walking through the market where we came across some wonderful fruit stands and spice markets. We also came across a cute little doughnut stand, that served cute little doughnuts, and of course we had to stop and try them.  They were served directly off of the conveyor belt and placed into a brown paper bag.  They were warm and sugary, what more could you ask for. (I'm going to really have to hit the gym after this trip)  After eating the delicious doughnuts, we continued to walk around the market where we saw jewelry, candles, fresh lavender, honey, meats, cheeses, and much more for sale. After walking for a while, of course we got hungry again and spotted a cute seaside restaurant where we had dinner and ended our day at the market.

     After leaving the market, we decided to walk over to the space needle.  I wasn't interested in going inside, so I only took a picture of it.   We also wondered by the Underground Troll, what an interesting sculpture.

Day two of our Mother's day Trip, my sister and I decided to take the ferry over to Victoria, Canada
 It was a two hour ferry ride with beautiful panoramic views of Mount Reiner and beautiful shore lines.  Once we arrived to Canada, we took a shuttle bus to Butchard Gardens, what a magical place.

     After our visit to the Butchard Gardens, we decided tot have afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel.   A little history for you history buffs.  Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the Empress and enjoyed afternoon tea there as well.  Princess Diana also enjoyed  drinking her afternoon tea there as well.  My sister and I enjoyed the entire experience, from tea to an assortment of appetizers and desserts.  I chose the Rose Congo Emperor tea, a favorite of Princess Diana.

The Empress Hotel

Tea Setting

My sister and I in front of the Empress Hotel.  

I'm on the left...Hi!!

Inside the Empress Hotel

Pictures inside the Empress Hotel

Me inside the Empress, Hi, again!

Cheers!

Me sipping Tea

The Tea Menu

The Tea Set 

Another picture of the outside of the Hotel

     After our afternoon tea, we decided to take a walk around this quaint little town of Victoria, Canada and take a look at some of their local shops and some of the historical buildings before we had to head back to the ferry to return to Seattle.  Once on the ferry, while drinking a glass of wine, I thought about all of the beauty this world has to offer, and was very thankful that I had the opportunity to experience it my sister.

     With everything I have experienced this past weekend, I would like to say happy mother's day to all mothers.  Please stop and do something special for yourself, even if it is just stopping to enjoy a doughnut, because you deserve it!!!

Donuts and Diner

My family and I usually try to attend church every Sunday, and occasionally we will treat ourselves to breakfast after church.  One particular Sunday we decided to try a diner not to far from our neighborhood called Pena's Donuts and Diner.  It a very small diner, so you have to get there before the crowd arrives, and if we make it to the earlier service at church, we usually get there before the crowd.

Once you enter into the diner you will be faced with something that looks like this:

By the way that is crumbled bacon on top of the donuts and kolaches.

After you have finished salivating over the counter's display of donuts, once seated at your table, you will then begin looking at all of the wonderful options on the diner's menu.  While trying to decide what I wanted to order, I drank a very good cup of freshly brewed coffee and I decided on the 3 Berry & Basil Pancakes.

The pancakes were very moist, buttery and sweet with just a hint of basil, what a wonderful combination, and what a wonderful breakfast!

San Antonio !!

In between attending sessions at a conference that I attended in San Antonio, I decided to explore the area near where I was staying.  While walking near the River Walk, I stumbled across a Bar-B-Cue Restaurant called Bill Miller's Bar-B-Cue. It was crowded with mostly locals on their lunch break, and a few tourist:

Bill Miller's have been around since 1953, and my lunch was so good, and I ate it so fast I forgot to take a picture of it. 😆  I had a smoked bar-b-cue chicken sandwich, with steak potato fries (try to use your imagination, I"ll get a picture next time I go).   The meat was so flavorful that bar-b-cue sauce was not required.  I then washed all of this down with a big cup of lemonade (I managed to get a picture of that).  Overall, I enjoyed my quick tasty lunch at Bill Miller's.


That evening, I decided to continue exploring my surrounding, and I ran across a cool little place called Rosella at the Rand:

I called it a cool little spot, because that's exactly what it is.   The music was REALLY good, and it was a cute small restaurant that played THE best music.  Music that had a neo-soul vibe to it such as, A tribe Called Quest and De  La Soul.  Although the atmosphere was loud, it was also cheerful and vibrant.  While I sat at the bar, bobbing my head to the music, I enjoyed two glasses of wine, a steak salad, and watched the bartender mix some very unique cocktails.  I would definitely return to this restaurant again for an evening bite and cocktail or glass of wine.

That evening, I also ran across  La Pandaria, one of the city's local bakeries.

I landed here after I left Rosellas', but who goes to a bakery in the middle of the night? I do, especially when you spot this in the window:

Since it was late in the evening, the young lady encourage me to stop by in the morning when there would be more items to choose from and everything would be fresh out of the oven.  So that's what I had planned to do until I ran across these two bakeries the next morning.

While at the counter, at CommonWealth coffee and bakery, contemplating on what I should order, something  kept nudging at me to look around the corner, not a real person, but I felt like I should look around the corner.  When I did this is what I saw:

Any one who knows me knows that there are several things that I like and like to do and that is baking, traveling, eating good food, and of course I am a HUGE Prince fan.  I ask the gentleman behind the counter where the painting came from and he informed me that a local artist ask could she showcase her pieces in their establishment, and she did.  What talent!!  Ok, I had gotten distracted for a little while, in which I often do, so let me get back to why I went to CommonWealth, and that was to eat. I ended up ordering a cup of coffee and a turkey croissant sandwich topped with Bechamel Sauce, boy was it GOOD.  The turkey was SUPER flavorful and moist and the croissant was buttery and toasted, I enjoyed every bite of it.   Needless to say, I had a great breakfast with Prince at CommonWealth ( well his picture).

Before I left San Antonio to return to Houston, I decided to make one more stop at another local bakery and look what I found:

A three Pound Cinnamon Roll at Lulu's Bakery

 

Since i had just eaten at CommonWealth, I decided to order one of these large monstrous cinnamon rolls and take it home to share with the family.  The cinnamon roll came with a full cup of icing so that every little piece that you cut, you could pour the icing over it after it was warmed in the microwave.  When I walked in my home, with the cinnamon roll in my hand, I don't know if my kids were more  happy to see me or the cinnamon roll.  Anyway, it is great to be home again!