Been too busy living life to write about it. Also, too disorganized to make time for this, but hey! I’m back after a month! July has been non stop, 50% of it work. Where has all the time gone?
Spent a good chunk of the month eating too. Here’s an acai bowl from Radical Juice in Mount Pleasant, a perfect way to cool down during this heat wave in Vancouver:



I had the berry bowl, which consists of a blend of acai, coconut water, and banana, over a generous serving of granola, berries, and more bananas. I added the nut butter for extra protein and flavour. H had the Dragonfly smoothie, which contained a good kick of ginger, while B had the Island bowl, which was similar to mine but had pineapple and bee pollen instead of the berries and bananas. It’s been about 3 weeks since we visited this little shop along Main Street, and I’m still craving it because I haven’t had a chance to go back yet.



How do they make their smoothies so refreshing? The consistency if so smooth, and it stays really cold, but there are no extra little chunks of ice, like at other smoothie places (*ahem* Jugo Juice, Buddha-ful *ahem*). Not to put down other places, because these other smoothie joints have their own advantages, but this is a smoothie place I can’t wait to visit again.

It’s been a long month, and I’ve tried to find opportunities to step out of my comfort zone, but it’s been tough. I feel like I want to grow and experience new things, but there isn’t enough space and I’m trapped in this stuffy little room. The end might be near? I might be content with my own air conditioned apartment soon, but it won’t be enough and I’ll want to escape into the mountains, to find waterfalls and glacier fed lakes, and naturally cool down.

Tried to find a waterfall, got lost and didn’t really have enough gas (probably because Mercury is still retrograding hard), so we tried to save the day with a walk around a few lakes and good coffee at Galileo Coffee:

I was pleasantly surprised by the cute heart on top of my latte and the strength of their coffee beans. I knew I needed some extra energy because I was heading to the Monstercat Compound after the hike, and I was already drained. B and A both liked their coffee enough to buy some freshly roasted beans. The baked goods looked decent, but I didn’t go for it, because I’m really trying to save up. This seems like a great spot to start off any trip north along the Sea to Sky. I’ll be back.

Here are a few shots from Sparkle the Drone at Stump Lake, one of the four lakes along the trails at Alice Lake:

Easy trails, relaxing views.

Also, we’ve found a pineapple floaty. Let the floating will begin.

Dinner with H and some of his mum’s friends the other night at Suhang Restaurant, close to Pricesmart in Richmond. I was too hungry and got too excited by the food to take photos, but luckily snapped this one of the meat buns:

A glimpse of the dish with egg whites is on my dirty plate in the bottom left corner. Usually, the egg whites and broccoli dish comes with seafood, but we held off on that for the vegetarians. Even without meat, it was delicious! A few other places do this dish, but this is the best one I’ve tried so far because the egg whites were just so smooth.

I’m glad I have easy access to good hearty meals like the above. Sometimes, I think about all the folks who don’t get 3 full meals a day (let alone free lunch with snacks in between, sponsored by my workplace). Also, I think about the folks who don’t have views like this within a 30 minute drive from home (basically my backyard):

Hopefully I can keep documenting these moments on this platform for the next few years to come.

Weekend getaway to Salt Spring Island with M+P and H last weekend. H recently purchased a 4runner, 2nd hand through Craigslist, so we drove down to the ferries after work on Friday. After a 3 hour ferry ride, and a 15 minute drive to St. Mary’s Lake Resort, we unpacked and just went straight to bed. The next day would be a long one, at least I hope I had instilled that expectation in everybody, because there were so many things we wanted to do!

7:27AM - I was adamant about catching the sunrise.

We made breakfast:

We tried to go to the Saturday Farmer’s Market, but they were still setting up the tents and because it was still early in the season, a lot of the vendors were not attending yet. We left shortly after that and bought groceries at the Thrifty’s instead.

10:30AM - P was adamant about digging for clams, so we set off for a beach that apparently was safe for clamming. He found the advisory online, through some government website:

We sat here for about an hour, I think… Got bored. I wandered off.



This is literally somebody’s backyard. The houses are right off the beach, and one of the neighbors actually came out to chat with his. He had recently purchased one of the properties lining the beach, and the struggles he had with bidding for it. Real estate market is still a war zone. Anyways, he recommended we find some fish and chips in Vesuvius.
 

It started to pour, but it quickly passed. We got impatient, and the boys jumped into the water. That was when we realized it’s still too early for clamming. We cleaned up, and decided to follow the friendly Islander’s advice to find lunch at Vesuvius, a bit defeated by the lack of fresh clams for dinner, but still excited for the island adventures to come.

Go to Day 1.5 on Salt Spring
Go to Day 2 on Salt Spring