Lily Haight

I feel like a child in a candy store in Victoria.

It always surprises me how close this neat little metropolis is to our rural American life on the Olympic Peninsula. It’s just a hop across the Strait of Juan de Fuca – 35 nautical miles away, according to the internet – but when I step off the Coho ferry in Victoria Harbor, it feels like we’re living in the dark ages back home by comparison. (Literally. It is so dark in Port Townsend at night, which starts at 4:30 now that it’s winter. I appreciate the night sky, but I also miss being able to walk around at night without worrying about being tracked by a mountain lion).

Victoria is such a bustling city – touristy for sure, but also filled with lots of young people doing cool things thanks to it being a college town. And the restaurants. The restaurants.

The biggest loss in choosing to live in a small town is the lack of interesting restaurants. We’ve got it pretty good here in PT, considering what other small towns are like, but I still find myself in mourning for the sheer amount of places I never tried when I lived in Queens.

So when Libby and I spend a weekend in Victoria, we give ourselves over to gluttony, self-indulgence, and over-spending.

And I’ve since realized that those particular sins make for the very best vacations.

We stayed in Victoria’s Chinatown, which has an ornate entry gate, colorful lanterns, old-fashioned neon signs, and the famous Fan Tan alley, which was the perfect launching spot for our weekend of eating.

We usually hit up a few of our old favorites – like the Irish Times Pub for shephard’s pie, pale ales, sticky toffee pud, and live music. And we have a favorite coffee shop of course – Habit Coffee – which serves as a home base for when we’re tired and need to sit and stare into the ether for a bit, silently sipping coffee and nibbling on Ted Lasso shortbread biscuits.

And then we spend the rest of the weekend trying to get the food that we’re always craving in our small town. Like:

• Fresh baked pastries and French desserts at La Roux Patisserie
• BBQ pork buns, which I used to buy for a dollar in New York, but which have since steeply increased in price (or maybe that’s just cuz it’s Canada)

• Japanese food at Ghost Ramen – our first time there, and I have to say it was a highlight.
• Brunch at the Ruby on Johnson. Why are there no good brunches in PT?!?
• Dumplings at the Dumpling Drop (conveniently right next door to Habit Coffee!)

And of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to Victoria without a high tea. We love going to the White Heather Tea Room because it’s not as expensive as tea at the Empress or Buchart Gardens, but it’s just as good.

This time, we got extra fancy with our indulgences and also added a trip to HAVN Spa, which is a hydrotherapy spa located on a barge in Victoria Harbor.

We were a bit out of our depth there at first – when they asked if we were familiar with hydrotherapy I answered “yes” even thought what I really meant was that I go into the ocean sometimes and it’s very cold but I do it anyway because I heard that it’s good for you.

As soon as we entered the locker room, we realized that our trip to the spa – which was a splurge for us – was just a day-to-day thing for other guests, and immediately felt like dirty ruffians in our birkenstocks, next to all the women with perfect hair and expensive smelling perfume. I was a bit wary of how we’d manage to spend the entire 3 hours we were alotted without either getting bored or feeling awkward.

And then we found ourselves sitting in a hot tub looking at a beautiful view of the harbor with various groups of girl-talk happening on either side of us – Libby had the real housewives of Victoria next to her and I had a group of soccer moms (sorry, hockey moms) next to me. And we sat there silently listening to all their gossip, and realizing that straight women have a lot of relationship issues.

Anyway, once we relaxed a bit and got into a rythm of going into the saunas (momentarily, as we learned that we both suffer from claustrophobia inside them), cold dipping (mostly me and only for seconds at a time), and then luxuriating in the hot tub for many minutes, the 3 hour time block started to disappear a lot faster than I anticipated.

The highlight was the salt scrub shower (picture a giant bowl full of salt that you get to scoop out and rub all over your skin) and the lounge area, which was such a perfect temperature and had a giant window where we watched the sunset over the harbor, feeling relaxed and sleepy as harbor seals and fish frolicked in the water outside.

In the end, I started to feel like I wish I had the kind of budget to make this trip a regular occurence. Wouldn’t mind whiling away the hours in a barge spa every now and then.

But the interesting part about a weekend of indulgence is that by the third day, I was starting to feel full – both physically (I literally could not eat anymore), and mentally. I was suddenly craving my pared down home life. My crunchy, peanut butter toast in the morning. Sitting on my couch in the evenings when it’s dark out, knowing there’s nowhere to go and nothing to do.

In a way, it taught me that indulgence is not something to be afraid of, because one of the best parts of life is balance.