When I booked the house near Sooke, we had never heard of the famous Sooke Harbour House. Then when reading up on the area, I discovered that the restaurant has been named as one of the top 10 in Canada.
Travel + Leisure named it the #2 Hotel in the Continental U.S. and Canada, and one of the Top 8 Small Hotels in the World...among many other awards the hotel and restaurant have received.
I soon discovered that we were among the last Northwesterners who had never heard of the Sooke Harbour House. Many people (including our very well-traveled Australian sister-in-law Shemara and our friends Nancie and Dave) have dined there or stayed there, and it's apparently Mike's elderly friend Serena's lifelong dream to go there.
I suggested to Mike that, although it's very expensive and out of our usual restaurant price range, I take him there to celebrate his birthday. He was not terribly hard to convince. He loves fine dining, and even more than that, he loves being pampered!
Early in the week he started panicking about it being difficult to get a reservation...and his anxiety grew as the days passed and I hadn't made a reservation. Finally he presented me with the telephone and the telephone number on Tuesday, and I made a reservation for Thursday with no problems. Fortunately my stomach bug had abated enough to enable us to go forward with our reservations.
We left the kids with my parents (the kids really wanted to join us...even though it would be the last place we would take our children, even if it wasn't supposed to be a DATE!), and drove off for our 5:30 reservations on Thursday evening.
We arrived a bit early, so the hostess encouraged us to look around the hotel a bit--at their four floors of art! We only made it through the first floor because there was so much to look at and we were hungry. We both LOVED the art.
The hotel had a wonderful, peaceful, casual but elegant feel about it.
These beautiful paintings had an Emily Carr feel about them...
This is an enormous mosaic peacock--gorgeous!
A Japanese woman in mosaic
More mosaic
This is a 3-D breakfast tray hung on the wall--so imaginative!
Can you tell I love mosaic? I took a class at the Multnomah Art Center in mosaic years ago, so I have a real appreciation for the art!
More pretty rocks!
And one framed by driftwood
At this point we got too hungry to look at more art, gorgeous though it was. And next, the best art of all...the amazing food! :)
Travel + Leisure named it the #2 Hotel in the Continental U.S. and Canada, and one of the Top 8 Small Hotels in the World...among many other awards the hotel and restaurant have received.
I soon discovered that we were among the last Northwesterners who had never heard of the Sooke Harbour House. Many people (including our very well-traveled Australian sister-in-law Shemara and our friends Nancie and Dave) have dined there or stayed there, and it's apparently Mike's elderly friend Serena's lifelong dream to go there.
I suggested to Mike that, although it's very expensive and out of our usual restaurant price range, I take him there to celebrate his birthday. He was not terribly hard to convince. He loves fine dining, and even more than that, he loves being pampered!
Early in the week he started panicking about it being difficult to get a reservation...and his anxiety grew as the days passed and I hadn't made a reservation. Finally he presented me with the telephone and the telephone number on Tuesday, and I made a reservation for Thursday with no problems. Fortunately my stomach bug had abated enough to enable us to go forward with our reservations.
We left the kids with my parents (the kids really wanted to join us...even though it would be the last place we would take our children, even if it wasn't supposed to be a DATE!), and drove off for our 5:30 reservations on Thursday evening.
We arrived a bit early, so the hostess encouraged us to look around the hotel a bit--at their four floors of art! We only made it through the first floor because there was so much to look at and we were hungry. We both LOVED the art.
The hotel had a wonderful, peaceful, casual but elegant feel about it.
These beautiful paintings had an Emily Carr feel about them...
This is an enormous mosaic peacock--gorgeous!
A Japanese woman in mosaic
More mosaic
This is a 3-D breakfast tray hung on the wall--so imaginative!
Can you tell I love mosaic? I took a class at the Multnomah Art Center in mosaic years ago, so I have a real appreciation for the art!
I love the bright colors! (And the handsome birthday boy...)
This gives you a feeling of what the hotel hallways are like...
More pretty rocks!
This mask was hanging in a stairwell, allowing lots of room for the hair!
Here's a mirror framed by barnacles--isn't this imaginative?
And one framed by driftwood
At this point we got too hungry to look at more art, gorgeous though it was. And next, the best art of all...the amazing food! :)
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