My Weekend Brings All the Boys to the Yard

Whoooooo, what a great weekend I just had! It was jam-packed with friendship from Friday to Sunday, and I even got to take several long walks in the sunshine - although the humidity around here made those walks sliiiightly less enjoyable. Humidity in the Northwest was at a relative low, compared to these parts, so the past few weeks in Massachusetts have been a bit of a wake up call for me, sweat-wise.

On Friday afternoon I set off on an adventure to Malden (the town just northeast of Medford) to find a shop that ultimately ended up being closed when I got there. Finding my way back to the T station was a bit easier said than done:  My life does not currently include a smartphone, so looking up directions on-the-go is not an option for me (#StoneAge)... thus, I accidentally walked pretty far out of my way that afternoon. Oh well, not the end of the world - especially because I stopped at an ice cream parlor to ask for directions... and of course one does not simply ask for directions at an ice cream parlor without also buying a cup of ice cream. (If anyone asks, my dinner on Friday night was not a cup of black raspberry ice cream with chocolate sprinkles. That'll be our little secret, Internet.) While standing in the blessed shade to eat said ice cream, I also snapped some pictures of the pretty windowsill flowerbeds they had at the shop:

 

Later that evening I went out to a bar in Somerville with my friends J-rod and Derek and their roommates. Brass Union in Union Square is everything that a bar ought to be... and by that I mean full of games to delight your inner child while you drink. We played some shuffleboard inside beside their bar and then moved outside for some Giant Jenga on their patio. It was a fantastic way to avoid boredom at a bar, which can often be a problem for me. It also doesn't hurt that my friends are hysterical, so there was plenty of throw-ya-head-back laughter going on.

.  jrod makes a move!  .

On Saturday morning I pulled myself out of bed around 9 to get ready and then make my way south of Boston to Roslindale to help my friend Anna paint some rooms in her newly purchased duplex.

.  medford to roslindale  .

She and her boyf are working to get the downstairs apartment of the duplex rented out ASAP (um, so if you're looking for a nice place to live in Roslindale, holler at me), which means getting the place painted and making finishing touches to give the older building a more modern feel. Personally I've been reading so many home decor blogs for the last several years that I was actually itching to have a reason to paint a room, so it was a win-win for both me and Anna.

After an afternoon of painting (and getting covered in paint splatters!), my next task was to head even further south to Canton, MA to spend the evening with my friend Steph at her condo.

.  roslindale to canton  .

Steph's boyfriend Gerry was out of town all weekend at a bachelor party (BEHAVING HIMSELF ENTIRELY, I'M SURE), so we thought a movie night and sleepover was in order for the two of us. And because we both enjoy being crafty and artistic whenever possible, I brought along a Care Bears coloring book for us to partake in while we watched movies (Four Rooms and Mean Girls, if you're curious). By the way, don't you dare tell me it's not normal for a 29-year-old woman to have a Care Bears coloring book... or any coloring book at all, for that matter. Coloring is fun - that's just a fact.

Before settling in for the movies and coloring, we sat out on Steph's balcony for about 20 minutes and watched an amazing lightning storm that had rolled into her neighborhood. As I mentioned earlier, it gets quite humid in Massachusetts but not so much in the Northwest - so lightning has been essentially absent from my life for the last couple of years. I'd forgotten how thrilling it can be to just sit and watch a storm in action. I wish I'd taken video!

The movies I brought turned out to be great choices - obviously Mean Girls never (EVER) disappoints, and Steph had never seen Four Rooms before. Here's what we did while we watched:

.  mine!  .

.  steph's  .

Just try to tell me these aren't the cutest pictures ever.  JUST TRY IT.

The next morning, Steph brought me back up to Medford. There was a traffic jam nearly the entire way, so the drive ended up being a bonus hang-out-and-chit-chat session for us (the silver lining of being in a traffic jam with a buddy!). Once back home, I raced to take a shower and head back out the door to J-rod and Derek's place to catch the second half of the Patriots game that had started at 1:30. The Pats unfortunately did not win. There's no silver lining to that one.

All in all, it was a weekend well spent. I'm still kind of pinching myself over how NICE it is to be spending time with my friends who live around Boston. Hopefully they don't start to get sick of me, HAH!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend as well - and a sidebar "thank you" to all of you who visit my little corner of the Internet. My blog hit 100,000 views this weekend, which was pretty exciting for me!

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A Morning Hike On Brunswick Mountain

I took a bit of an unintentional break from hiking for a little while there, and then all of a sudden I got to go on five different hikes in a few week's span! HOOZAH for fitness and fun at the same time! But seriously - my muscles knew I'd taken a break from uphill hiking... my calves/hamstrings were SO SORE after these hikes. It was a good incentive for me to get back to a good workout routine - which I have, by the way ;)

One of those aforementioned hikes was a quickie but a goodie - only about 2 hours total - up some of Brunswick Mountain in Lion's Bay.

Brunswick Mountain is a pretty steep hike in Cypress Provincial Park and is the highest peak in the North Shore Mountains.

At the tail end of December, David and I bopped out of Vancouver and up into Lion's Bay - a village on the Sea-to-Sky Highway between West Vancouver and Squamish:

We didn't bring crampons or snowshoes - on purpose. It was sort of a "We'll take our chances" type of deal, knowing that we'd do what we could and turn around if we found ourselves in any icy conditions for which we weren't prepared.

We parked at the trailhead, booted up, and began our hike up a steep logging road. It was much steeper than a typical trailhead, so I was sweating within minutes and had to stop to layer down. I actually had to stop and layer down a couple more times as we wound our way up the dirt road - until I was down to a tank top!

Eventually we came to a fork where the logging road took a right-hand turn towards The Lions, and a wooded trail continued straight ahead. Here we jumped onto the wooded trail to head towards Brunswick Mountain. I'm always happy to be in the woods when we're hiking - I definitely prefer it over hiking a logging road.

Not long after we began on this wooded trail, we had to cross a little creek... 

It was a bit deeper than it looks in these pictures. I like to take extreme caution when crossing even small rivers, because I've made the mistake of falling knee-deep into a cold river before and #LEMMETELLYA it's a quick way to ruin the rest of your hike.

Here was the view looking up the mountain from the creek:

.  bit of a mangled mess!  .

You might think that all woods around here look the same, but they don't really. These woods were particularly interesting because if you looked through the trees, it looked like a disaster zone - countless trees were knocked down in every direction. These pictures don't do it justice...

There were also lots of these interesting overhangs above us on the trail, where land has eroded to expose tons of beautiful roots:

The higher we walked, the more we encountered patches of snow until eventually we were walking over a completely snow-covered trail beneath us:

.  frozen droplet  .

At first the snow wasn't really a big issue for us because the trail wasn't so steep that we were having any trouble without crampons. But just after a particularly steep portion turned into a flattened out field with a nice (albeit foggy) view of Howe Sound below...

... the terrain turned steeper, narrower, rockier... and icier! Even if we'd successfully make it UP further, it would have been a real biatch getting back down. So we conceded that we'd probably come as far as we could, and we turned around.

We were able to sit on a log in that field to enjoy the Subway lunch that we'd packed, as well as some deliciously warming peppermint tea and a Mars bar. Can't go hiking without chocolate, I always say.

.  ringseses  .

I really liked how close this hike was to Vancouver, compared to so many other hikes we've done. Sometimes Squamish seems foreverrrrrr away, so Lion's Bay was nothing compared to that drive.

This was certainly not the most involved or exciting hike that I've done since moving to Vancouver, but it was challenging in that it was quite steep. If we'd made it further along, we would have encountered a section where we'd have to do some scrambling before reaching the summit... which would have been cool. Maybe another time when we've got crampons!

Have you gone on any cool hikes lately?

Do you know what tomorrow is??? You'll have to check back tomorrow to find out!

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Parents Visit + Touring Vancouver

This past weekend, David's parents came all the way from Massachusetts to visit us here in Vancouver! We had a packed weekend full of tourist-type activities and LOTS of amazzzzzzzzzing food. No, seriously. Did you see how many z's I put into the word "amazing"? The food was all really that good. So here's a little breakdown of our time very well-spent last weekend:

Friday

Tony and Pauline arrived in Vancouver mid-afternoon and settled into their room at the downtown Marriott hotel, where they stayed on the 28th floor and had an impressive view of downtown and the Coal Harbour/Gastown area. David and I met them at their hotel and the four of us walked a few blocks north to the waterfront and ate dinner at The Cactus Club Cafe. I've eaten at 3 different CCC's around the city and they're all completely lovely as far as I'm concerned. This time I ordered a roasted butternut squash soup that came with seared scallops, apple curry foam, and basil oil. (I just realized this is what I ordered the first time I went to CCC, way back in October 2012.) I also had a salad of seasonal greens with almonds, feta and a lemon-thyme vinaigrette. All yummy!

After dinner we walked around by the water, but it was quite cold and rainy and the view of North Vancouver wasn't too great, so we walked back to the Marriott to have a nightcap for an hour or so before Dave and I grabbed a cab back to our apartment. We don't "grab cabs" often at all - we usually walk or bus it everywhere - so this was a treat that we kind of indulged ourselves in all weekend long!

Saturday

On Saturday we picked up T &P at their hotel in the morning and we drove north of the city to Squamish to show them some of the views along the Sea-to-Sky Highway. Again, it wasn't as clear as we were hoping, but we did get some patches where the clouds would part and show us a towering mountain peak or two:

.  david admiring the mountains  .

From there we continued just north of Squamish to the town of Brackendale, where we stopped at a tourist viewing area for nesting bald eagles. It's apparently the home of one of the largest congregations of bald eagles in North America. We got to see an eagle up close right away - in a tree above us right as we were getting out of our car in the parking lot!

The eagle viewing area, known as Eagle Run, is atop a long dike with a stretch of the Squamish River between us and the eagles in the trees.

We probably ended up seeing around 15-20 eagles (and also a couple of seals!) that day. Apparently there'll be waaaay more eagles in December and January, so I hope to go back then and hopefully take some better photos. For now, you can sorrrrrta see the eagles in the pictures below - just look for the bright white spots in the trees!

On the way home from Brackendale, we stopped in Horseshoe Bay, a small community in West Vancouver. There, we took a few pictures...

.  tony took this picture with his ipad. ayo technology!  .

... and then grabbed some lunch at Troller Ale House, where I ordered a quinoa/black bean veggie burger with a side salad. The burger was ENORMOUS. Like the size of my face.

We began making our way back to Vancouver (via a detour around Stanley Park to show Tony and Pauline some big trees), and went back to our Kitsilano neighborhood to give an extremely brief tour of our apartment before heading back out for a nice afternoon walk in the lingering daylight.

We're in love with our Seaside Bike Path, so we knew we wanted to take Dave's parents along it so they could see the beautiful views it affords of the city. We walked along the path from our apartment for a half hour or so before eventually turning around and heading back towards Granville Island...

On the island, we got some tea, showed Dave's parents around the bustling Public Market...

... and then we all split up for a couple of hours to refresh and regroup before our 6:45 dinner reservations at The Sandbar (just recently voted the Best Restaurant on Granville Island).

Dave and I had been to the Sandbar twice before, but this was the first time we were eating inside on their second floor, rather than out on their third floor's heated and covered patio. Totally different vibe than being on the patio, but - good news! - being surrounded by four solid walls inside the building does not detract from the incredible food. I ordered pan roasted prawns with citrus cream and a chile-rice that were just as good as you'd imagine them to be. I really love this restaurant, and I'd recommend that anyone who likes seafood head there if they're in Vancouver.

Sunday

For their final day in the city, we took Dave's parents around the UBC campus, where Dave gave us all a tour of the lab building where he does all of his research everyday (I know I don't talk about it much here on the blog, but Dave is in a graduate program in the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department at UBC - that's why we're living here in Vancouver!).

For lunch we did a quick walk up and down 4th Ave in Kitsilano before deciding to stop in at Burgoo. I'd been to Burgoo just the week prior for a solo lunch, and it was yummy food with a nice atmosphere. This time I ordered their Gooey Grilled Cheese Grillers - a generous portion of grilled cheese made on angle-sliced baguette with mozzarella, gruyere, Swiss and white cheddar cheeses. It's a yummy sambo, but a LOT of fried cheese!! Burgoo has a great soup-and-sandwich combo option so I added a cup of butternut squash soup to my order. (Are you picking up on the fact that I love butternut squash soup?) The soup is filled with warm spices and maple syrup and garnished with toasted hazelnuts. I actually hate hazelnuts, but that wasn't Burgoo's fault. I should have asked for the soup without them! #Oops

On Sunday night we made sure to bring Tony and Pauline to Kibune - arguably our very favorite restaurant here in Vancouver. It's a deliiiicious Japanese restaurant that's right around the corner from our apartment, and I'm actually perpetually appalled at myself for not having written a blog all about it yet. Someday, I swear! I've entirely lost count of the number of times that we've been to Kibune at this point.

We ordered an amazing spread of different Japanese dishes - sushi, sashimi, gyoza, vegetable and prawn tempura, spicy beef and lots more! Really, the food is worth an entire blog post so I won't go into it too much right now. Suffice to say - if you're in Vancouver and looking for some Japanese food that will knock ya socks off, head to Kibune!

After we'd stuffed ourselves with Japanese food, we took a quick walk up the hill to 4th Ave so that we could then walk back down the hill and check out the view of the city. I didn't snap any pictures of the view that night, but this is basically what you can see walking down the hill from 4th Ave to my apartment:

And that was the end of our evening and our eventful and food-filled weekend with Tony and Pauline! It was so much fun to show them all of our favorite spots and be a tourist in my own city. Having visitors is a great excuse to really take advantage of all of the awesome things that Vancouver and BC have to offer.

I can't wait to go back to Brackendale in a month or so to see some more eagles, and I've been re-inspired to spend more time in the Granville Island Public Market because there are so many talented vendors there.

Have you had any visitors lately? Anyone else want to come visit us? :)

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Sweat Round Up of the Week

I didn't post my Sweat Round Up last weekend because I was off on a spectacular hiking/scrambling adventure, which I think trumps writing about physical activity. #IWin.

So here's my outline of activity since my last Sweat check-in, sparse though it is.

8/25

Rock climbing in Squamish

8/31-9/2

Hiking/scrambling north of Pemberton, BC (blog/pics to come!!)

9/4

10k (6.25 mi) run/walk intervals around our Seawall bike path loop:

9/6 (full body - just trying to jolt my muscles back into activity after a 2-week break from weights!)

5 mins elliptical

12 squats, 12 lbs each hand

12 bent over rows, 12 lbs each hand

30 calf raises, 12 lbs each hand

12 overhead press, 12 lbs each hand

20 deadlifts, 12 lbs each hand

40 alternating medicine ball flys w/ 6 lb medicine ball

40 bridges

12 tricep kickbacks, 5 lbs each hand

40 bridges from tip toes

10 deltoid fly, 5 lbs each hand

10 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

1:20 plank

5 mins elliptical

And right now, rather than lifting weights at the gym, I am blogging and watching the Patriots game. Maybe I'll get to the gym later on though :)

What are you up to today? I'm excited to share the pictures from my scrambling trip - hopefully I can get to that soon!

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