The big 5-0 - picture loaded ;)

So my big birthday started at get this..4:45 am with a wake up call... uh pardon?? Oh and you don't want the 5 am follow up? No thank you! This was a huge mystery. How on earth??  This is exactly Sheldon's set alarm clock.. so crazy right? The only answer came from the operator who had no idea why she put us on this crazy wake up list but took total responsibility for the error. My only thought was we were in room 445?? She did send up a complimentary drink voucher for each of us to make up for it.

Time to eat the fancy cake while wearing the fancy robe and slippers ;0)

A text to the valet had our elantra at the entrance ready for the days adventure.  First stop on the way to Butchart Gardens was a quick stop at Tim's for a tea and for me a Boston cream donut while the rest had healthier breakfast bagels.

Butchart was gorgeous!! The day was beautiful, sunny and even hit 17. The dining room required a reservation unbeknownst to us but we did enjoy a couple refreshing beverages before setting out again.

 thanks to Sharon a few birthday gifts ago, I managed to get a few selfie stick group pics ;)

Sheldon loves planes, Glen loves boats and yes I <3 flowers, my perfect birthday outing!!

This time we ventured to Cordova Bay coming upon Mount Douglas park quite by accident (well actually it was a rest stop search for Sheldon) The summit gave a 360 degree view of this area of the island including Mt Baker in USA.

 there's mount baker

The tour continued south towards Victoria with a beverage store stop where I found some refreshing canned beverages.

a detour on way to hotel to check out the exterior of Craig Darroch castle quick, we also drove thru the grounds at Government House quick too

Back at the Empress we enjoyed a cold drinks in the Cole's room before venturing outside again to find a patio seeing it was such a beauty day. The Docks was the choice, the fellows enjoyed the fresh oyster bar special. The patios and restaurants were packed seeing it is a long awaited break in the rain/clouds so we stayed here for birthday supper. The fish tacos were yummy and the turtle pie was soooooo good.

We all now needed a walk a bit to work off the belly full.

buildings are just so architecturally pretty

We did not get really far before stopping on at the Bard and Banker, (shown above) a roaring 20's gangster like pub. This ended up being our stop for the whole night as a live band started up at 9:30. Our balcony table had the perfect band and people watching view. We ended up shutting down the pub before making our way back to the empress. Again the magic pillows had Sheldon in sleep land in minutes and I caught up on a other Outlander. Such a perfect birthday for sure!