Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Snaps from Abbotsford


I am so excited to share this post with you today! Stephen and I recently celebrated our 2nd wedding Anniversary on April 22nd and since our schedules have been so busy we wanted to take a little weekend away to celebrate. We are still in our first year living in BC and a goal we made to each other, okay correction a goal I strongly urged to Stephen was to make it a priority to get to know our new home. BC is such an incredible province, with hot hot summers and snowy winters there is so much to see and do all year round. One bucket list experience I wanted to see in real life were the tulip fields! I am sure you have been seeing girls running in white dresses through the bright red, yellow, and purple fields on instagram these past few weeks and I wanted to do it too! Spring is such an amazing time of year and with flower fields just 4 hours from us I knew we had to make the trip down to Abbotsford!

We have driven through Abbotsford many times when driving up from the states. It is the cutest little country/farm town with incredible mountains lining the valley with fields for days everywhere you look. We have always wanted to learn more about this cute little town so we decided to spend the weekend. Take a look at where we slept, ate, and played at during our Anniversary weekend away!


where we stayed:
We arrived in just after 4pm on Saturday afternoon to THE cutest boutique hotel called Brookside Inn which was surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards! Located off of Chardonnay Lane, this adorable three story Inn was perfection. It is actually voted Top Small Hotel in Canada and Most Romantic by Tripadvisor and the expectations were definitely met. When we arrived the owner Chris met us at the front lobby and escorted us to our suite on the bottom floor. The Roman Holiday was the name of our room styled and inspired by the classic 1953 movie featuring Audrey Hepburn. Each room is inspired after a different movie, so no two suites are the same!

The Inn has the most gorgeous gardens surrounding the paved parking area and up behind the back. We had a walk out bottom patio area from our room which allowed us each morning to wake up and see the beautiful views. Breakfast is included with your stay, homemade by Sandi (Chris's wife and owner!) herself and trust me you want to stay for breakfast. This is not just a bran muffin and cup of coffee, Sandi cooked an incredible full breakfast with eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, juice etc which we chose to enjoy in the dinning hall on the second floor. If you would like to enjoy your breakfast in bed, or in your room/patio you also have that option. We woke up at 5am and went to the tulip festival so when we got back to the hotel around 8:30 and were staving. It was amazing to come back to a fresh home cooked meal to keep our day going. 

where we ate:
After our 4 hour drive from the Okanagan to Abbotsford, we checked in and then needed to eat. Being so hungry we headed over to Duft & Co Brickhouse in downtown Abbotsford to have dinner. This family owned restaurant (they also have Duft & Co Bakehouse) is seriously adorable. It was totally my style; white, black, and natural wood decorated just right! We were met by owner Tyler who surprised us with some of their most popular must-haves. The restaurant is only open till 7pm, and seating is not a guarantee. We arrived just about 5:30 and hit a little break where we were able to grab the perfect middle table and enjoyed people watching. They also offer their menu to go if that is more your thing, but I would suggest trying to grab a seat because the atmosphere is great. Stephen vows one of his favorite restaurants he's been too!

As I said we grabbed a middle table so we could watch the action and sip on our cocktails (Stephen had Da Juice a local brewed beer and I had a class of their local Chardonnay).  As an appetizer Tyler brought us the Brickhouse Onion Rings which are just a lightly breaded white onion rings which sounds simple but were amazing, the perfect crunch! Next we had The Mac, which coming from a non mac n cheese lover was actually really good. A mix of cheeses, huge chunks of bacon and sweet peas Stephen swears it is the best mac n cheese's ever. He actually took half of it home to have as a mid night snack! Our final and main course was the Proscuitto Pizza where the proscuitto itself comes from Italy and is topped with an arugula salad. We were both so full after dinner we walked the little downtown area of Abbotsford and then went home and fell asleep from our food comas. 

On Sunday after we had breakfast at Brookside Inn we did a little sight seeing/shopping and then had a High Tea at Tracycakes Bakery & Cafe. All we could say to each other as soon as we walked in was how much Sofia would LOVE to be here with us! It was the cutest shabby chic tea room filled with delicious homemade foods, snacks, and sweets. There were a bunch of mother/daughter combos and women having a Sunday girls day. This is definitely somewhere I would go again but I would probably leave Stephen at home and grab Sofia instead. Although to my surprise Stephen drank his tea pinky up and all!

what we did:
It has been on my list to visit the incredible Tulip fields since I discovered they existed. When I found out that BC had their very own fields (BLOOM festival in Abbotsford!) I told Stephen (this was over a year ago!) that we 100% would be visiting them within our fist year living in Canada. Last year we moved at the end of May and the fields are only blooming from early April till early May so we missed them. There is actually only about 2 weeks where all the fields are in full bloom, we were a little early this year. With having such a long cold winter everything is a week or so behind schedule, we already had our trip booked for the weekend of the 21st/22nd and weren't able to change it because wedding season was starting the following week for us. I was following the Abbotsford Tulip Festival on Instagram almost hourly hoping the tulips would be blooming for us. As you can see from my photos not all the fields were in bloom yet, I would say about 60% were and the remaining 40% were still green with no bulbs. It was still incredible, honestly one of the coolest things we have ever gotten to experience together! I couldn't even imagine what it would look like with all fields in full bloom. Next year we decided we are taking Sofia and the pups. Yes, you read that right they allow dogs! Are you kidding, can you imagine the cute photos we would capture?! You can see all of the cuteness on the Abbotsford Tulip Festival Instagram. 
*Disclaimer we went at the magic hour sunrise to capture these photos. It is a separate ticket you can purchase that allows you into the fields before they officially open. I am so happy we did this having the entire area pretty much to ourselves was the coolest thing. I think next year we will do the same!


It was really one of the most relaxing weekends we have had in a long time. Spring is so pretty here in BC, especially in the Fraser Valley with the fields and mountains surrounding the area. With cute little cafes, vineyards, shopping, and of course the blooming trees! If you love magnolias in the Spring go to Abbotsford because they are literally planted EVERYWHERE! I tried to take photos in front of them but Stephen thinks its rude to hold up traffic or stop in front of peoples yards... we are still working on his blogging skills haha! We are excited to already start planning our trip back next year with the entire family!

If you get the chance to head to the Fraser Valley which is just 45 minutes from Vancouver, directly across the borer from Bellingham, or 4 hours from the Okanagan you need to go in the Spring! It is such an amazing time and we haven't even gotten explore it all yet.

shop my outfits from this trip below:



*Thank you to Abbotsford Tourism for putting this weekend together for us. As always, all opinions and reviews are my own.

12 comments:

Whit Wanders said...

omg so fun! I just went to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley and it was beautiful! Love your photos!

Whit

Client said...

It looks like you had the best time! The inn is so quaint and the food looks yummy!

Megan | www.pipmegan.com

Lizzie said...

This looks like so much fun! I would have loved to go here!

Maggie said...

The field of tulips look amazing and so beautiful!!

Unknown said...

Oh my heavens this is downright dreamy! I love all of your looks and I'm definitely putting this on my must do and see list!

xo, Sara

Kelsey Hill said...

That looks absolutely amazing! Cant get enough of that tulip field!! xo

Unknown said...

Such beautiful photos! And those blooms!! Swoon! xo

Unknown said...

This hotel and the Tulip fest looks gorgeous! I hope you had a great time!

Unknown said...

Such amazing photos, that looked like so much fun!
Xoxo
Sarah Lindner
www.TheHouseOfSequins.com

Jamaria O. Johnson said...

OMG you have some amazing photos! This trip looked like it was so much fun! XO

Unknown said...

What a beautiful hotel! It looks like tou guys had a blast!!!:)

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