H’s 30th birthday is coming up, and it’s an important age, so I wanted to make sure he would remember it. Behind his back, I had planned for about 20 of our friends to meet at Speeder’s to hang out last weekend, before his actual birthday to catch him off guard. As part of the deception, I had also booked him for a nice dinner prior to his surprise birthday party. It was a way to book off his evening and get him out of the house. We went to West Oak in Yaletown:

They’re known for serving sustainable, West Coast style dishes. I’m still not too sure what “West Coast” food means, other than certain seafoods, but we had some good mussels. There was also a delicious side of brussel sprouts bacon dish, which was made with apricots and a sprinkle of parmesan:

You’ll ntoice the lobster tail linguine in the background of the photo above. It’s in the background because neither of us preferred it, and we would not spend our hard earned money on that again. The service was quick, and they managed to seat us on the packed patio after just a few minutes of waiting. Overall, a good experience, but I would not go back. The restaurant scene in Vancouver is very competitive, and there are plenty of other places to go for more affordable West Coast, sustainable dishes.



I think H had a good time at his party. He was thoroughly surprised, and did not expect me to plan such a successful event. I almost want to plan another one, just because it was so satisfying to bring everybody together for a purpose. After doing this though, I think I realize the significance of making time and energy to participate in these types of events, and really try to connect with everybody. Parties are difficult to coordinate, because everybody is busy now being adults and making a living, and how many 30th birthdays, 1st birthdays, weddings, graduations, Fridays, Mondays – DAYS in general - are left for us to actually celebrate together?

It’s been a while since H has been this sick, and I guess it really hit him hard for 2 days straight. He missed a shift at work, he stayed in bed for 1.5 days (where the 0.5 went towards going for dim sum across the street from him), and he is still coughing and sniffling. I guess he breathed on me or something on Friday, because I started feeling the headaches and chills on Saturday. Almost missed a powder day on Sunday, but woke up after a dose of Neocitran and 13 hours sleep to make it into P’s car for this:

It wasn’t my best day, it was certainly hard to breathe and get circulation to my legs for them to work proper-like. We went up the t-bar to do the glacier bowl on Blackcomb… I was not prepared for the low viz pow that would hit us right in the face. Not bad though. Then, moguls left right and centre, and my cardio was shot because of the flu/cold that I thought I’d slept off the night before. It just hurt so much to breathe in that –10/-15°C air… Still felt amazing, adrenaline rush.

Any day on the mountain is an awesome day. I still swear by this.

I’m looking forward to going up more often, maybe in the new year, because looking at the calendar for the rest of this month, I think things will get too busy too fast.

I just took another pack of Neocitran... Goodnight, world.

J, P, S, and I came to the House of Dosas for a catch up dinner on a random weekday, after maybe a year of not seeing each other together. We ordered an appetizer and we each got our own dosa. What is a dosa? My description would be a thick, crispy crepe-like wrap filled with potatoes and meat.

Paneer 65

Paper Masala with the meat filling

The brutal truth is I didn’t like it. Maybe it’s not my type of food, maybe it was because the food was cold, or maybe I just thought the curry soup/dip in the metal tin on the 2nd picture above was way too salty (kidneys are precious). Maybe my tongue just doesn’t have taste buds for the spices in the dosa filling, but I thought it was extremely bland. The service was average, there’s a really nice lady there but the rest of the guys weren’t too useful, it seemed.

I have had a lot of time alone to think about things this past week… What do I want to do next? What do I want to continue doing? What do I think should change? H is busy with work, and his high stress job is rubbing off on me a bit, and stressing me out too, so I am very sorry in advance for snapping at anyone. It was nice to escape for a bit to Rice Lake on Sunday morning though, during the lull in the storm:

It’s very easy to get to, just off the highway, and straight down Lillooet road until you hit the parking lot at the hut. The fishermen were out already and it was just a breath of peaceful.

More about Rice Lake here:
https://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/rice-lake/
http://vancouverhiatus.com/hiking/rice-lake.html
https://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/featured-trail-rice-lake/


You cannot control the wind, but you can direct the sail.

Breakfast at Milo City Cafe:

Top plate: Salmon hash with sourdough and scrambled eggs

Bottom plate: Sourdough, Italian sausage, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns

In the middle of it all: COFFEE

Extremely friendly service and loads of comfort food. Go if you’re staying at the Hilton.

We started early so we could go farther. We were out of Portland before 9AM. I had so many hopes for the outdoors scene in this hood, but wet weather and lack of vehicle hat can drive over everything dampened my hopes just a bit. I wanted to visit either Lost Lake or Mirror Lake, but we made it to neither lakes… We drove through part of Mount Hood National Park, made it to Government Camp, but we really didn’t go too far because of forest service roads that my poor baby wouldn’t be able to handle. We stopped here:

Parked close to this view, where there were a few trailheads. H and I stood around, trying to decide which path to take, until 2 girls came out of the bush. They were super friendly and helpful, so we ended up going along what I believe is Buck Peak Trail. We
saw this:



Not sure if that was supposed to be the end point with the “good views of the mountain” that the girls told us about (I don’t think it was), but it was also getting dark and we still had a ways to go to get to Mt Hood. Back to the car.



No lakes today. Instead, we found the waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge!

Multnomah

 Horse Tail

Would’ve been more breathtaking if we were not already exhausted from the day’s travels and if there weren’t busloads of tourists roaming around. It’s all about perspective.

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

It was the weekend of H’s 28th birthday, which also sort of marks the 2nd year we’ve been together (we don’t have an date when we first started dating, but it was some time around his birthday). This called for some sort of celebration, and I planned a mini vacation for the 2 of us for Sunday/Monday. We left Vancouver on Sunday afternoon, battled traffic through the Upper Levels, somebody had also had an accident while cliff diving off the Chief, and finally made it to Whistler:

We slept at 10PM on Sunday, I was exhausted from running 5km in the Scotiabank Charity Challenge and H was tired from training at work (and the beer he had in the afternoon).

Monday - after a very satisfying meal at Riverside Cafe of eggs, meat, beans, and waffles:

We were stuffed. Perfect waffles – fluffy and crispy on the edges. Super greasy meats that would’ve been fantastic for a hangover. Friendly servers and a beautiful view of the campsite surrounding the cafe:

We then wandered up the path to Whistler’s Scandinave Spa to spend a relaxing day soaking in the hot tubs and Eucalyptus steam rooms:

I’ve heard a lot of my coworkers talk about the wonders of this place, where no cell phones are allowed and nobody makes a sound. Complete and utter silence to help calm the mind.

We also used their RMT services, with 2x $50 gift cards from Costco that we paid only $75 for. Deal.

It started getting cloudy right before we left, so we hurried out of there... H was kicking those yellow pylons that are cemented to the bridge and it bounced back and whacked him in the belly:

Do we spend too much time together? Probably, but even though I'm an introvert, I wouldn't mind too much at a place like Whistler with H.