I got surprised!

Yesterday was my birthday and for a while, I thought people at work were stalking me because everyone was asking me what I was going to do for my birthday. I didn't know that many people knew when my birthday was... anyway, it started off with a run to Starbucks, a hug from a barista and a free coffee later I was back working. We went out to lunch to rush back for a meeting -- to which I was surprised with PIE. Yay! I was so surprised that all of my work pals were able to keep a secret like this from me -- and I guess they had planned this for almost 2 weeks. After the surprise, I worked some more and after work Joe and I went to Red Robin, then a few games of Cribbage and watching Wayne Newton dance (sad dancing) -- that was my birthday!

This weekend we are going to my parents house and my dad will make almond fried chicken and sweet and sour pork for me. Yum yum.

The highlight of today: http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/index.php?page=2.

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 4...last day!

I blog to you from my Seattle home this evening. The last day of our 4-day weekend vacation is quickly wrapping up. I really do feel relaxed even after going through my work email and deleting all of the things I don't need to address. It was good that we got away and now without delaying any further, the rest of the story...

Last night we decided to dine in and went to the Pan Pacific's gourmet restaurant called The Five Sails. We didn't know what to expect as we have never dined there before -- there wasn't a lot of publicity about this place or its menu, but what the heck it sounded better than Italian Opera Buffet or room service options. We walked into The Five Sails promptly at 730pm and noticeably it was elegant. Again in the Vancouver nighttime-casual way though. We weren't super dressed up as some of the other guests but I looked around and saw some younger guys I'd say with their mom kind of thing dressed in athletic warm up suits (think adidas track suits not sweats). We started off with a complimentary plate of albacore tuna and a fresh tomato cream soup. Quite nice actually and after some custom rolls (one of which tasted like a pretzel) and some cocktails I had the smoked salmon appetizer and Chris had the foie gras. Again, delicious! The entrees we switched it up, I had duck and he had seafood. The dessert though -- fantastic. A rosemary mango sorbet dish and also a kiwi neopolitan. Overall a wonderful time and we agreed that we would eat there again albeit on the pricey side.

We slept in this morning, had some breakfast and packed up driving straight to North Delta to go to a Real Canadian Superstore. Why? Because I am at least fascinated with the different flavor (sorry, flavour) options that Canadians get to choose from such as in seasonings and chips. We bought some random items and of course I had to get another Double-Double before crossing back into the USA with our NEXUS cards (again go get a NEXUS card, trust me you will thank me later). Our drive home was pretty uneventful and to me it seemed to fly by until we got to Everett. Ok, WDOT you need to fix this problem. Every time I drive south on I5 and I hit Everett (the stretch right after the big lot of boats, y'all know what I mean right after you leave Marysville) and we slow down to a crawl for what seems like no good reason. I realize the reason is because people are merging to avoid exiting and people who are merging onto I5 want to avoid immediately exiting...but COME ON... it is sad. Fix it, please. Don't use the light rail excuse, don't use the there isn't enough money so let's slap on another gas tax excuse -- just fix it already. It got me thinking -- Portland OR has a great mass transit system, Vancouver BC seems to be implementing a great one...and Seattle WA...yeah, we'll just leave it at that.

We stopped in Mill Creek to shop at one of our favorite stores, Central Market. After loading up on groceries for the next week or so we finally came home, unpacked, ate dinner, I got to re-synch my iTouch and now I am blogging. Some time in between all that, laundry got done, emails got checked (read at least, not replied to), and we have succumb to turning on the heat in our house.

Again, although it was only 4 days and what seems ridiculous to blog about was a great 4 day mini vacation. I am SO glad that we took it. Tomorrow I hope that I won't have to stay too late to catch up. Here's to trips! Yay!

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 3

Aren't we all special today! I am blogging for the second time today. I left off as Chris and I were heading out the door for some Dim Sum. We strolled from our hotel up northeast to dine at Kirin. The name itself sounds more Japanese than Chinese, but according to Vancouver Magazine, Kirin was named Vancouver's Best Dim Sum and Chinese restaurant so we had to go and check it out. We walk in and the place is completely empty which at first startled me until Chris pointed out the time -- 1040am. We think that they must open at 1030am and we were the first customers in the door. Surely enough by 1100am it was hustling and bustling. We enjoyed quite a few little dishes including beef tendon, eggplant with fish, gai lan (chinese brocoli to y'all who don't know), congee (rice porridge) with chicken, dumplings, spicy salt and pepper squid, mandarin styled pork spareribs, chinese donut and mango pudding. It sounds like a lot and it felt like it too until we started walking around again.

From Kirin we walked up and down Robson and various side streets. We checked out Canada's equivalent to Barnes & Noble -- it is called Chapters. Very spacious store indeed! I am impressed with how many non-book items they carried (nice stationaries, toys, local products, et al.). We leave Chapters and ended up at The Bay where Chris quickly pointed out -- BUTTER TARTS.

BUTTER TARTS backstory if you will...I ran across this Canadian Public Radio piece on Butter Tarts -- and from what I gathered, Butter Tarts are a big deal for many Canadians. I have read quite a bit about what a Butter Tart should be, runny or not? Raisins or not? I am fascinated since I've grown up traveling and staying in BC and have not once heard of a Butter Tart. Back to us at The Bay...so I am staring at the pastry case that has the sought-after Butter Tart. "One butter tart, in a bag please" and $1.33 Canadian later I have it in my hands. You have no idea how excited I am at this point -- me and a Butter Tart just waiting to try it out. We make our way back towards Canada Place where we find a Tim Hortons. We treat ourselves to the "We just had a huge Chinese meal but we're hungry 3 hours later snack" of the Butter Tart, a Canadian Maple, a French Crueller and 2 large Double-Doubles. This particular Butter Tart was runny and contained raisins. Being that it is my first ever Butter Tart, I can't say I am swayed one way or the other -- it was good, like a pecan pie without pecans. It was very sweet, too sweet for my personal liking but I did appreciate the flaky crust with the runny middle. I am not going to run home and start baking these up by the dozen, but it was definitely something worth trying. If anyone can recommend some really good Butter Tarts (April and Steve, I know you read this sometimes...) let me know and I will make it a point to check it out. Our donuts were outstanding as always, makes me wonder how Americans can settle for the greasy donuts that come out of Krispy Kremes. Tim Hortons definitely has a lot more flavor -- and are a lot cheaper even with the horrible exchange rates right now. I could definitely go for another Double-Double right now though -- so good. Ok, I need to stop thinking about Tim Hortons for now...

After our snack we spent a good hour looking out onto the water. The Pan Pacific is located at Canada Place and Canada Place is basically where all of the cruise ships load up and leave. Lots of activity takes place around here, water buses, airplanes from HarborAir, all of the sight-seers at Stanley Park -- just a lot of fun!

And now...it is just past 400pm, the Husky Game isn't on until 715pm tonight and Chris is asleep. Good times. I have determined that the next time we come up we have to try traveling on the SkyTrain throughout the city. An all-day pass is only $8 and it allows you unlimited travel on all routes including the water bus and the regular street buses. How cool is that?!

I have no idea what we will do later tonight, I hope it isn't anything too fancy as I don't feel like getting all dressed up; however, speaking of dressing up I have noticed that Vancouver is just the birthplace of nightlife-casual though. Everyone walks around dressed psuedo-REI and psuedo-designer which IMO is great. It doesn't seem like you are frowned upon because you are wearing hiking boots with dress pants and a polar fleece atop your fancy blouse. I love it. I noticed that while we were walking around Robson as well -- a relaxed acceptance of "just be yourself". Another thing I noticed is how many Starbucks there are so much so, I am beginning to wonder if downtown Seattle has more or if downtown Vancouver has more. Vancouver also has a lot of other coffee and tea shops in general though -- crazy Canucks love their caffiene too I suppose (this coming from me who usually goes to SBUX 3 times a day, go figure). Like I said -- not sure what is up for the night but I know tomorrow will consist of going to the Real Canadian Superstore. Oh fun!

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 2

Ok so I am a little late technically speaking here, but it isn't like you were waiting on pins and needles, right? Right?

Yesterday started off with the Pan Pacific's Breakfast Buffet which wasn't so bad except that there were some flies, ok a LOT of flies on the standing cheese platter, so we slightly avoided the cheese. After getting a good breakfast we headed straight over to Stanley Park to check out the Vancouver Aquarium! It had been a long time since either of us had been to the park or the aquarium so it was fun to see the fish, the sea otters were especially cute and stinky. I'm sure that Chris will be putting his pictures up soon for you to see. We took a walk from the aquarium over to the Totem Poles, viewed a pair of dare-devil black squirrels and hopped a free summer-time shuttle that took us around the park. During the shuttle it started to rain quite heavily so it was a good thing we took the shuttle versus walking around the park. By the time we get back to our car it is almost 300pm. We relaxed for a while in our room then took a cab over to Joe Fortes.

Joe Fortes by all accounts is a fine restaurant. However it seems that every time we have been (I think last count is at 4 including last night) we have a reservation and we arrive early or on time and we still have to wait at least 30 or 45 minutes for our table. Why is this? Why do we keep going? We figured that we will not go again because of their reservation and seating process. I wrote on a comment card that they need to review something about this process -- either they take too many reservations or they have a seating problem, or their service is SO slow that it delays all of the diners and makes them stay longer, who knows. The food was good, surprisingly the miso crusted black cod I had wasn't overcooked (the last time we ordered cooked fish from Joe Fortes it was overcooked). Chris had the porterhouse which was delicious as well. The star of the night was definitely the mussel appetizer we had -- it was like thai-styled mussels, with coconut milk and lemon grass and it wasn't too sweet or salty.

After such a meal you can imagine that we came back and just kind of drifted off to sleep. We are just about ready now to head out for Day 3 -- we are going to walk around Robson St. today and who knows what else. More to come later.

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 1

Before I begin I must apologize yet again for my lack of blogs. For those who may be slightly more astute, you have probably noticed that I did in fact post some new pictures in the photo gallery -- go to the left of this post and click on My Photos. I hope to blog more at least this weekend as we are in Vancouver, BC for a short time.

I'm still working 12-14 hour days but we decided a long time ago that we were going to take a long weekend around my birthday and here finally is the long weekend. We woke up this morning roughly 8am, which felt SO good. Got washed up, packed up and cashed up (the Canadian Dollar is at an all time high right now, not zesty). Chris found out that my surprise birthday present was delivered rather early to my work so we swung by work to pick up my brand new iTouch. Very snazzy indeed. By now it is almost 1130am and we are starving. A quick stop at my normal Starbucks for some delicious Pumpkin Spice Lattes and off we were. Early on we decided to stop at the O'Brien Turkey House. The O'Brien Turkey House is great -- it is this little Mom and Pop place off of exit 208 (Arlington exit) from I5. My Dad started taking Jody and I there when we were little kids and for me at least, it is still a favorite place to go it's just how often do I find myself that far north on I5? Anywho, I had my usual turkey pot pie, Chris enjoyed his hot turkey sandwich and we topped it off with a shared piece of homemade custard pie. Yum...my stomach hurts thinking about it now, but it was delicious.

We pack up again and by now it is 130 give or take. I drive another 40 minutes or so and decided I need to fuel up the car, so I see a sign indicating gas station. I take the exit and the gas station is like 5 miles off in the middle of nowhere next to this huge brand new casino, hotel and spa. Go figure. We end up driving all over Ferndale trying to get back onto I5. Back on I5 we now are and 20 minutes later we use our beloved NEXUS cards for the first time. NEXUS is this program that basically prescreens people so that you don't have to wait for an hour or two at the US-Canadian International Border. OMG--we are now in love with NEXUS. I was afraid that I was going to hit a pedestrian while we were driving up to the special gate, I'm just not used to going so fast near the Peace Arch entrance. We flash our NEXUS cards, the guard waves us into Canada -- and it was then we realized outloud that the $58 dollars or whatever it was we spent to get the cards were worth it. GO GET A NEXUS CARD NOW, DO IT, YOU WILL THANK ME LATER.

After entering Canada like it was old news, we finally get to our hotel. We are staying in a lovely room at the Pan Pacific. I played with my new iTouch for a while and we went off to dinner. Dinner tonight was at C Restaurant -- to die for. We had the Wine Pairing dinner -- 6 courses of OMG I can't believe how good the food is type of goodness. It started with a smoked salmon, then we moved onto seared albacore tuna with chick peas, next was the most wonderful crab risotto ever. After using bread to wipe up the risotto we feasted on crispy halibut, some beef tenderloin, and finally dessert with a super chocolate sorbet and raspberries. I definitely will go back to C Restaurant. As me more about the dinner some other time because right now my head is kind of dizzy from all of the wine and I wanted to write this particular paragraph so that I could get all of this out of my brain for now.

So that was today, Thursday September 20th -- Day 1 of our long anticipated long weekend. Tomorrow I think we're going to Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium!

Side note-- I think I need a new laptop, my old one is too slow. I used Chris's new Thinkpad to type this bad boy up and it is quite nice. Quite nice indeed.