Reality TV Roundup – February 2023

The Mole ( Season 1, 2022)

Host: Alex Wagner

It follows twelve players as they work together in challenges to add money to a pot that only one of them will win. – IMDB

While I haven’t seen the original The Mole, Netflix picking up this show is a completely new thing for me. The Mole feels like familiar games that have found popularity like Werewolf (not sure if that’s the actual name) or Among Us. Deception is a wonderful game especially when the audience gets to watch all the angles and try to figure out who is the mole along with the players. Of course, the showrunners are doing the deception here since the editing is what creates even more intrigue a lot of times. I went into The Mole thinking it would be another guilty pleasure sort of watch, it actually turned out to be more than that.

What makes The Mole stand out from the other shows is that it has team missions. Everyone wants to cast doubt on themselves or someone depending on their strategy so it all comes down to who is trying to mess up the game the most. The team missions go through a lot of different places and settings from the beginning at the jungle to prison break to bank heist. The scenarios make big changes and the variety along with each of the players’ know-how is factored in. At the same time, the show also throws certain curveballs to give certain players a chance to make certain decisions that will affect the pot to reveal whether its a positive or negative choice. It all makes the elimination at the end of day feel more intriguing. However, the intrigue does set a lot more near the end since its fairly predictable who will be eliminated in the beginning episodes.

The Mole has some compelling settings but with many shows like this, the players are a mixed bag with a variety of personalities and different strategies. Nothing is quite exciting than seeing how one player can mess up the plan for everyone out of selfishness for example. Human nature to the test is just such a fun thing to watch. However, as fun as all this is, the host Alex Wagner is really great. She’s the consistent compelling element that makes The Mole very enjoyable. I’m not sure how Netflix does it but they’ve been getting some great hosts for these money-winning shows with Nicole Byers, Michelle Buteau and now Alex Wagner.

28 Days Haunted (Season 1, 2022)

Three teams spend 28 days in some of the most haunted locations in the United States for an experiment based on the theories of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. – IMDB

I’m not really a Mythbusters and ghost hunting watching sort of person. Chinese believe in ghosts too much to want to watch this whole question about whether ghosts exist so this is a completely random selection from the husband. On top of that, I never watched The Conjuring and haven’t really dove into what Ed and Lorraine Warren has solved on this front so I’m going to take their word that this experiment is based on their theories. Its an interesting one for sure especially when trapping mediums and paranormal teams in three different haunted locations.

What makes this reality show good mostly is the locations they choose and having the different team and their dynamic really come through. Some of them is the location that shines through, some is the team itself that makes it more intriguing. For the most part, the biggest question here is whether you do believe these things are actually happening or whether its all staged.

At the end of the day, 28 Days Haunted is an intriguing show. For most of it, it feels creepy and intriguing. Sure, the whole idea of mediums and such is a little odd since they all have different approaches. It is kind of a 101 course on ghost hunting and the technology and techniques behind it. While the season did feel rather convincing, what broke it and felt staged was the last shot and it broke the whole concept.

Physical:100 (Season 1, 2023)

One hundred contestants in top physical shape compete in a series of grueling challenges to claim the honor – and cash reward – as the last one standing. – IMDB

Being big fans of Ultimate Beastmaster (review) and very sad that its never been renewed for more seasons, Physical:100 is a good placeholder. Its not quite the same but it does achieve other things. Yes, there is negative news regarding a participant who hasn’t been specified the last I saw but it doesn’t take away that this show does break a lot of preconceived image of Asian bodies because these participants both male and female are seriously ripped, big, well-built. Plus, it highlights a lot of their athletes from national to Olympics level.

With shows like this, its always the structure of the competition and the challenges that makes or breaks the show. Physical:100 uses 5 challenge plus a pre-challenge to eliminate its contestants to a final 5. With that said, the elimination goes pretty fast. Looking at the challenges, it definitely has a preference over strength and endurance as a whole. Some challenges favor one over the other which also gives the smaller built players a little more leeway to play with strategy.

In terms of challenges, there are quite a variety starting from an endurance strength hanging from a structure raised to the ceiling as a pre-challenge and follows with 1 on 1 matches to recuperate a ball within a time limit to eventually team challenges which prove to be more fun to watch from moving sand to the best challenge of the show which involves pulling a wooden ship to an sloped destination.

While some of the challenges feels a little skewed to a certain build, Physical:100 is a pretty fun show to watch if you like this sort of thing. It can get a little confusing to match a face to the name but as the numbers go down, there’s no doubt that there are a few frontrunners that take more spotlight than the rest.

Perfect Match (Season 1, 2023)

Host: Nick Lachey

Couples who prove their compatibility gain the power to make or break other matches in this strategic and seductive dating competition. – IMDB

The newest social matchmaking reality show by Netflix is Perfect Match which seems like a bankable idea as it takes all a bunch of normal single people turned famous through their various reality shows and puts them all in one location to find their perfect match. Of course, maybe its just another way for Nick Lachey to have more work seeing as he now hosts three of these matchmaking shows making him the person that is the most familiar with the majority of these people. Being an avid viewer of The Circle (review) and Too Hot to Handle (and catching The Mole before watching this show), I also was rather familiar with the majority of these people as well. Still, its not the depth of these shows that are make them popular, lets just be honest there. If you weren’t into those reality shows to begin with, this probably offers nothing at all.

Perfect Match delivers exactly what you’d expect from this group despite whichever show they might be coming from. There’s a lot of switching partners and a lot of dramatic reactions and arguments over the silliest things. Its really hard to be completely invested into the show at times because its obvious what this whole thing is trying to do and much like the other matchmaking shows, the chances of success do feel very low so the only bit to enjoy is the conflicts and arguments which reveal some unimpressive character traits. Still, as I said before, we’re not here for the depth of the show and its just some mindless entertainment.

There’s really not a whole lot to say about Perfect Match. Its not a particularly great show but really just feels like a show that Netflix thought up to bank on these people that they’ve made famous by putting them together in a Panama resort. They don’t even earn anything other than a trip for the winning couple. Judging from some other resources online, it doesn’t even seem like any of the couples ended up together making this an even more meaningless show.

Workout Round-up: Working Back up to Par

I can finally say that I’m somewhat pleased with how these past two weeks went. I wanted to get workouts in and I worked hard to even find just like 10 to 15 minutes rather than not doing anything at all. I did three workouts in the first week and only two in the second. The last one before done right before this post goes up, but that is because I insisted on getting the minimum two I want to do. Its just making the effort to get it done and when I do accomplish that goal, it makes me happy.

 

Monday: Short Zumba Session

DreamHack coverage wrap-up took longer than anticipated on Monday following. Its usually the case with fatigue just hitting hard but I wanted to get in a workout so I ended up doing a short one at 11:45pm. Not optimal as it cuts into sleeping time but a 10 minute session is better than nothing, right?

Thursday:  Weights & Yoga

I have the worst back muscles ever so I figured out that I’ll do that and it was fairly challenging. Then I went on to do  yoga that I haven’t done in a good few months (if not an entire year). Let me tell you that the side planks were so painful. I guess its time to work out the abs more.

Sunday: Hiking

Location: Reserve Naturelle des Montagnes Vertes

Trail: Etang/Decouverte

Distance: 9km

You can check out the details of the hike HERE. Its our first hike after my husband whole health debacle scare. We’re hoping to get another hike in but we are still waiting on some results and also on medication to hopefully fix the issue. We’re still keeping it rather gentle.

Wednesday: Zumba

Nothing like a session of Zumba to keep things happy and light. The week was fairly ridiculous and stupid on all levels so my stress level was really high. Zumba is my go-to destressing thing.

Sunday: Calisthenics/Weight Training

A final workout before we wrap up this week! I asked my husband who helps me out with figuring out workout stuff a lot to just give me different sets to do. This is what he came up with it.

3 rounds of each set

Set 1
Push ups x12
Bent Over Rows – 5lbs each hand x20

Set 2 (15 reps)
Overhead Extensions
Bicep Curls

Set 3 (12 reps) – 5lbs each hand
Lateral Raises (dropped in 3rd round)
Front Raise
Reverse Flies

Set 4 (15 reps)
Squats

Survived that one! Lateral raises are my death usually so it wasn’t surprising that my shoulder starting to hurt so I stopped that in the 3rd round and just did front raises and reverse flies (is that how you spell it?). Either way, it felt good to get back to weight training and slight calisthenics.

That wraps up these last two weeks!
Goals for the next two weeks? Get in some ab workouts. 
Maybe go for a jog if it doesn’t get really cold.
Keep up the 2 workouts minimum per week!

Workout Roundup

I apologize for the tardy post. These two weeks have been about digging really deep. I’m not going to lie that getting back into working out has been a mega hard uphill trek. As much as I acknowledge the necessity of it, there is always that lack of motivation. As I try hard to stay accountable here (and trust me, it really helps), I’m trying to also find back the push to make me want to find that perfect balance of workout that doesn’t put into a boring routine same thing every week but still enough to keep me challenged and motivated.

Weights & Cardio

Done with 5lbs dumbbells

Weights

After a series of days postponing workouts, I had to get in a few days in a row to feel less guilty. With that said, I’ve been trying to strengthen my arms a little so I went back to do another short arms weights workout. I chose the Tone It Up Sculpt Your Arms Workout.

Here’s the link of the Love (and Sculpt) Your Arms Workout!

So I did 15 reps with 5 lbs weight for 3 rounds.

September 7 to 9: DreamHack Event Coverage

This past weekend was DreamHack Montreal. As with event coverage, time runs a little thin on hardcore workout but cardio and excessive amounts of walking and stair climbing was definitely put in the mix here. I realized that I forgot to set my health app after I switched phones so I don’t have an actual amount of distance or step count.

For accountability purpose:

Friday: attended for 4 hours and sat about 20 minutes for eat and watch an esports match
Saturday: attended for 7 hours and sat about an hour or so for events and game trials
Sunday: attended for 2 hours and didn’t sit much at all. It was a quick in and out to grab remaining coverage

Overall…

I can’t say the last two weeks was a riveting success but getting one workout in a week is already a step forward to getting back into a routine slowly. That’s generally the idea. I realize that when I go too intense, the schedule gets warped and I just end up feeling bad that I let something slip whether it be a blog post or editing a video or keeping up with chores so I’ve actually been feeling great about the baby steps back into a solid workout schedule. Maybe in two weeks, I’ll be back and doing two workouts a week. I think thats a solid goal to set. 🙂

Getting into Shape 2018: Weekly Workout Revival

Hey everyone!

Its been at least 5 years or more since I wrote a Weekly Workout Recap segment. And that really is because the last few years, its been a horribly unhealthy and health ridden days. It killed my motivation and whatnot. I did do a ton of running and zumba in 2015 in preparation for the whole wedding thing. I feel like I did at some point revive the segment trying to get back into the groove of things, but it didn’t last for the above reasons again. Either way, my lack of health and fitness has lately really affected how I feel about myself so weekly updates, WE ARE BACK!

I’m not tracking by the balance and losing weight. My goal is to just feel good about myself and feeling toned and strong. I don’t necessarily feel that how much I weigh will do that, actually I never have, because if I build muscle, I’ll gain weight but it’ll be good weight as opposed to just building more fat. Either way, I’m trying to eat a little cleaner and less processed foods. The past year, I’ve tried to get back into the groove of things with my sheer desire and wanted to create my own little workout thing and the indecisiveness made it just take too long to start and then too late to begin without sacrificing the little sleep that I get. Then I tried to just keep to a schedule but things always got in the way, finally went back to my go to with the Nike Training program and I just couldn’t stay motivated, mostly because the workouts felt like they were out of my league and then I’d be in too much pain to do the next one in the schedule without risking injury.

Anyways, its already a pretty long story but point is, back then, I started out being super motivated when I did some Pumps and Iron or Tone It Up workout so I’m going back to where I had started and trying to complete the Bikini Series for Tone It Up which just started. And to stay accountable, I’ll share the workout progress. If you want to join in, they actually have a TIU app which tracks your fitness goals and has the daily workouts and 5 toning moves that changes every day.

Bikini Series – Week 1

Monday (didn’t jot down the moves so just working with memory for Monday and Tuesday)
Arms (2 rounds of 15 reps)

Bicep Curls
Shoulder Pulses
Reverse Flyes
Squat Presses
–can’t remember what the last thing is–

Tuesday
Total Body (2 rounds of 15 reps)

Reverse lunges with curls
Pushups
Bikini Walkouts + Tummy Tucks
Squat Jacks
Bicycles

Wednesday

Didn’t have time for 5 Toning Moves
Ended up doing a 1.5 km walk at lunch

Thursday
Total Body (2 rounds of 15 reps)

Walk 2.5 km at lunch

Single-Leg Deadlift (each side)
Weighted Chop (each side)
Side Plank Crunch (each side)
Plank Row (each side)
High Knees (30 seconds)

Pushing through my own lack of motivation and got a late quick workout in despite getting home late from the dentist and having a late dinner. The small triumphs are what builds habits in my mind. 🙂

Friday
Yoga and Abs (2 rounds of 15 reps)

Bikini Walkout + Plank Jack
Shoulder Taps (each side)
V-Sit
Rock the Boat (each side)
Seated Side Opener (30 seconds each side)

Saturday
HIIT & Abs (2 rounds of 15 reps)

Squat Jacks (30 seconds)
Mountain Climbers (each side)
Toe Touches
Squat Jacks (30 seconds)
Down Dog Booty Lifts (each side)

(extra: do 30 seconds mountain climbers after each round)

Sunday
Arms & Cardio

5KM Run & Walk (or as my Nike running app says 4.69km)
Total time: 33:15 mins

(2 rounds of 25 reps)
Shoulder taps (each side)
Plank taps (each side)
Bridge & Press
Bent-over Row
Cross-body Curls (each side)

Overall…

This week was a lot of making myself get back into the groove. I don’t think that realistically working seven days a week even if its just 15 minutes sometimes works but I’m going to try my best and also start adding in not only the 5 daily toning moves but also some Tone It Up workouts. Thats the plan for the next 3 weeks until the Bikini Series is done. Week 2 of Bikini Series is out. Check it out HERE. Arms and abs have always been my weakness so those double duty things like walkouts and Down Dog Booty Lifts were the hardest workouts of this week that I needed to really push myself to complete. For the record, I don’t have resistance bands, or I might have them but I can’t remember where it is. So just to not murder myself, I did some of these just normal without the added resistance. I’m pretty happy with just staying on track for week 1.

That’s it for Week 1 recap!
It definitely feels both painful and awesome to be working out again.
Can’t say that I’m particularly in the groove since most days I still want to just not do it but end up finding some motivation.
Let’s keep me accountable! And well, tell me if you are working out to stay fit as well. Let’s encourage each other!

Workout Round-up!

Its time for another workout roundup!

I’m not going to lie! I’ve been super busy so walking around and standing and sitting is a lot of my life. But, the last two weeks, I’ve started getting in some more workouts and its a toss up between Zumba and when its too hot, workouts in the pool. Also two that from the post that I had wanted before but didn’t during this (almost) two months of no workout updates.

Here’s a few for you! 🙂

Warm-up 02- Marlon Alves Dance MAs

Pool Exercises [Fully Body Workout] – Popsugar Fitness

*Only one I didn’t do is Water Treader because my pool isn’t that deep.

Pool Workout [Ab & Core Workout] – Popsugar Fitness

Summer Ab Routine &  – Tone It Up

Sleek & Slender Abs – Tone It Up

I need to get a much more routine workout schedule going! Things are hopefully slowing down after Fantasia Festival ends next week! Kind of… I’ll be back with another update/workout round-up soon. 🙂

How are you staying active this summer?

Workout Updates: The Start of Healthy Living (Again!)

Welcome back to Workout Updates!

I can’t say that its going to be like the Weekly Workout Roundups which I stopped back in late 2014. You will still find this under Weekly Workout Roundups for now and they will normally be on Sunday late afternoon to get whatever workout I want to do during the day.  I know that this space is now really a lot of reviews and recipes and the likes but fact is, what I want this space to be more of is a well-rounded blog about lifestyle: healthy living, staying positive.  Its always been the central goal because even reading and watching movies are a central part of that living positive experience for me. You can see that its been gradually gravitating towards this sort of thing and its why its taken me forever to regroup and find a suitable domain name. Its still something in the works in case you were wondering.

Back to this, the goal is to do weekly workout roundups and to work out about two to three times a week (maybe three to four if schedule allows) and this is something I’m striving so hard to do. Healthy living is one of the focal points starting this year again. It’ll make me feel better and more positive altogether plus I have my cousin’s wedding to attend in late August so I need to lose some weight and look relatively nice. 🙂

Enough of this rambling! I promise these opening bits won’t be this long in future workout updates!

Wednesday: Last Minute Zumba Session

Warm-up – Dance MAs

Popee by Francesca Maria – Live Love Party

Worth It by Fifth Harmony – Live Love Party

Baddest Girl in Town by Pitbull – Dance MAs

I did a few other routines randomly from my list.  It turned out to be something like a 30 minutes of Zumba with a little cooldown of stretching. I just can’t remember the other routines. I’ll be better to jot them down next time.  I couldn’t make it to class this week either. Its what happens in summer but this is my effort to keep up the little bit of Zumba skills that I have.

Friday: Running

A sign of some outstanding social life, eh? 😉

This Friday, my mom had some stuff to take care of so I didn’t hang out with her for dinner and watching some TV together (like I usually do) so I decided to go for a run. This is actually the second run of 2016 so far. Nothing to brag about but I added another 0.5 miles to the run from the last one. This one felt a billion times better than the first run just because I could get into the zone and really  found my pace (kind of). It wasn’t constant enough though and I ran slower and slower as I went. I mean, my time is nothing near ready for participating in whatever 10 km runs or anything but I’m working on it. That’s the key! 🙂

Here’s a snapshot of my last two runs from Nike Running App.

For the purpose of this week, I ran 3.60 miles, which in what I comprehend better is 5.79 kilometers. That’s pretty good 🙂 I probably will do one or two more runs with this route before switching it up.

Sunday: Full Body + Yoga

I was going to do this on Saturday  night but totally slipped my mind and ended up playing games and falling asleep early and all that fun stuff. To be fair, gardening mode has been on so I did a little bit of gardening because I wasn’t feeling all that great so I took it easy. Sunday was a whole different story. It was gloomy so I wasn’t feeling as energetic but I did plan on doing some strength training and maybe a little of cardio and hopefully to stretch and calm down with yoga so here’s the idea of what I did.

Warm-up with Zumba

Full Body Workout

I love full body workouts because of their double duty moves. This workout packs in four circuits with ton of double duty moves that I’ve never tried before so its a lot of fun to do. Just saying..I was sweating bullets after this one. It felt all sorts of awesome! 🙂

Yoga

If you were around back when I did these roundups, you’ll see that I’ve already done this one before but I haven’t in a long while so to start off my yoga again, I wanted something a tad more focused on flexibility than the hardcore stuff which is the more recent Tone It Up one. It was my original plan but one of the moves intimidated me just a tad bit. Lets take it slower to build some confidence. 🙂 Let me say, I had a hard time with the transformation that went into a side plank which usually doesn’t happen. Just shows how much more work I need to rebuild the strength I had. I promise I’ll try the new one soon!

That’s it for this week! Nice and easy to start things off! Hopefully I can keep it up around 3 to 4 workouts a week.
It would be optimal to get back into shape. Plus, nothing works better than having a ton of you keeping me accountable.

Hope you enjoyed this Workout Roundup! 🙂
How do you stay fit/healthy?

Week 4: A Little Bit at a Time :)

Week 4! I can hardly believe that I’ve been back in this workout thing for a month.  Its really made me feel a whole lot better. My mind and concentration, even my energy is better than before.  Not to mention, aside from feeling sore, I feel really great about myself.

WEDNESDAY: 15 MINS FULL-BODY WORKOUT by PopSugar Fitness

Also called Fast and Furious Calorie Burn (on Youtube). This workout is pretty intense.  When life gets busy, I try to get these intense workout bursts to stay active.  I’m slowly gathering a good little bit of these and I want to try new ones so that I can keep the workouts diversified bit by bit. The instructions are done really well so its easy to follow even if you are focusing on the moves and there’s demo before each one before moving to the reps for the move.  At the end of this, it feels extremely hard to do for some moves.

I love this one a lot and I’ll probably head back to do this again to see how strength improves.

SATURDAY: DETOX YOGA & PURA VIDA 

I needed to get some yoga in and since I was going to a arts and crafts show and going to taste some alcohol, I wanted to do a detox session before.  This one is supposedly very good for hangovers and I can actually see it really working out for that.  Its to help boost metabolism and I definitely felt like it got my blood flowing but also relaxing.  Its a few moves and the sun salutation.

I followed this through with Pura Vida Workout from Tone it Up. Its one that I haven’t done in a long time.  A full-body workout again.  I didn’t quite feel it in my legs while I was working out but today (Sunday), when I woke up, its been reminding me how hard that workout was.

If you click the image, you’ll have the actual link with a video for this workout.  Some of these are a little hard to understand from the description but its a pretty good workout.  The dual movements covers the full-body. Spider Monkey Push-up is a pain to do.

FYI, I did 20 reps for first two moves while I did 10-15 reps for the last two. Completed 3 rounds.

OVERALL

I’m not hitting the 3 times a week nowadays.  There’s just too much stuff to do.  Still, this weekend, tracking my body transformation is starting to be motivating because I’m seeing better results this week. Thats my inspiration.

I’m totally back on track.  Its great to see my body heading in the right direction.  Its an amazing feeling to get back some of that feel-good element, reduce stress and start feeling more confident about myself (and my body). Loving it! 🙂

My Weekly Adventures!

Life is an adventure so anything I do qualifies! So before you start talking about how watching TV isn’t, thats like saying reading a book isn’t. I can pretty much say that there’s a lot of readers who would disagree with you.  We are explorers and we travel to lots of fun places. Maybe you think I’m crazy but I’m not 😉 So to saythat this week is less actually going somewhere but just achieving little things.

Before we move along with this, I’d like to remind or bring to your attention that my Halloween Movie Marathon Poll has been up.  If you haven’t seen it or having voted, please head on over HERE to help me out 🙂 With some earlier planning, I can get more movies seen in October and make it an amazing month, especially with all of your help/recommendations!

1) Dragon’s Den!

I absolutely love watching Dragon’s Den.  I skipped a few season in middle but when it first launched, it was one of my favorite shows.  Its really grown to be completely amazing.  Although some pitches are just completely out there, some are really awesome ideas.

The last episode where recapped some of the some deals are usually amazing.  Its all so amazing to see people’s dreams become a reality.

2) Splurging on TV *blush*

A little shameless selfie 🙂

I never intend to splurge and I pretty much don’t impulse buy anymore. And I didn’t because I fully planned to go out and get Season 2 of Arrow but then I was thinking, I have to catch up with Vampire Diaries also. Now I’m waiting for Grey’s Anatomy Season 10 to go on special too (but then I didn’t watch Season 9 yet so its not so rushed).  See, I’m still logical, right? 😉

I’m trying to not go too crazy over Arrow so I started watching Vampire Diaries on the weekend.

3) A Productive Weekend Starts….Harvesting Herbs

Lemongrass, Orange Thyme and Yellow Zucchini

The weather got cold really fast last week and somehow is supposed to get warmer this week again….gradually.  Either way, it was the kick in my butt to speed up the process and let my fatigue take the backseat.  Thursday night activity consisted of going to harvest everything I could while there was still a bit of light before sunset.  Orange Thyme and Lemongrass is currently in the drying process.

4) Bike Support for my Friends

Thanks to my friend who took the picture

Oasis Marathon is going to be happening this coming weekend so my friends who are going to do the half marathon along with one doing the 10km and 3 others in for the fun went out for a group jog.  My job was to be bike support for their 17km run.  It included making sure that they were hydrated and giving them directions and scouting out the route ahead.  There were heavy winds and then my bike support broke down near the end because of bike issues.  Note to self, next time make sure to bring tools.  I did manage to bike very slowly home after making sure everyone passed the intersection to head home.  It was a pretty fun day and I biked a whole lot of distance and I was so tired after but I couldn’t let my body slow down because the garden and my house needed me.

5) Transplanting in and out

Top Left are the transplanted flowers from pots for next year

Between early morning before bike support and coming back afterwards, I got the two flowers at the top left planted into soil.  They should be both perennials viable in my zone.  They were also paired with others so I needed to pot those right away and brought in a few plants as well.

Eucalyptus, Orange Thyme and Citronella Geranium inside

This is only partial because others are by the bay window or in the dining room. Still a lot of transplanting to do this week and then hopefully it will be done…for now. Next is the shopping for spring bulbs and getting those in the ground.

6) Workout room done!

On Saturday, after the run, I went to battle the anniversary sale in Walmart and aside from a bunch of household products, I also ended up getting on special the final touches to our workout room.

Hello workout flooring 😉

Oh right, my boyfriend’s weights.  Mine haven’t been moved yet.  I can’t possibly lift that.  All I can do is roll them across the floor when they are in my way.

7) Making Awesome Ribs

I know I’m backtracking, but on Friday night, I sat down after running errands at my place with more moving stuff around and came home to make my ribs.  Ended up eating at around 9:30pm or something but they were so worth it.  I don’t know the measurements but I used soy sauce, smoked paprika, ground pepper, honey, ground coriander, herbes de provence to marinate it.  I did marinate it in the morning and then just popped it in the oven for 1.5 hours in the evening.  They turned out amazingly delicious 🙂

8) Autumn Chrysanthemums

Nothing more to say on that.  So beautiful 🙂

9) Hot Pot (aka Chinese Fondue) with my girl friends

One of my girl friends came back from Western Canada to settle a few things so we got together for a hot pot hang out.  There was so much food and it was amazing to chat with the girls.  Its always filled with fun and laughter.  And we’re even going to go see The Maze Runner together this week.  Yay! 🙂

10) Favorite Quote this Week

It was a tad tiring and busy but it was pretty fun as well.  I’m looking forward to seeing The Maze Runner.  I can actually see the fuzzy finish line in this whole moving business where I’m trying to do it slow and by myself so I can save money, still, its almost there.

How was your week? Tell me about it!

Happy Monday! 🙂

Saguenay, QC: Hiking in Mont-Valins National Park

Day 2 started on a good note.  We were energized and warmed up from the day before and ready to tackle the Mont Valins National Park.  It was about a 45 minute drive or so from the hotel.  We had to first go to the Information Building where we paid our fees and learned a little about the trails to decide where to start and what takes us where.

We finally decided to drive up to the higher trails so that we could benefit from seeing the higher viewpoints and not having to worry about not completing the trail and ending off in the middle of nowhere and having to turn back.  The drive up was the most painful for the car because it was off road and huge slopes.

It was quite a relief when we finally got up there and parked.

Off we go for the hike on the Pic de la Hutte Trail! It crosses over two other trails and includes three viewpoints. The top most one is also the starting point for paragliding and has a breathtaking view.  It makes trekking through this crazy mountain with snakes, birds and frogs worth it.

Entrance to the trail

Along the trail

Berries

Flowing Stream

First viewpoint

First Viewpoint

Mushrooms

Frog

2nd Viewpoint

Berries and moss

White berries

Final Viewpoint at the top!

Final Viewpoint

Final Viewpoint

Hiking is amazing because of getting in touch with nature (even if I’m mega freaked out by snakes). Its also great because its motivating and great exercise.  This time, we were better prepared with snacks and abundance of water so we were able to set a good pace and keep our energy going.  The best part about hiking is going higher and higher up and seeing that absolutely stunning 360 degree view that really nothing can compare.  The reward at the end makes all that hard work feel almost like nothing.

Saguenay Lac Saint Jean region has some of the most beautiful hiking trails that I’ve ever gone on.  Its really a treat and if you are a hiker, I highly recommend it! 🙂

I’ll be wrapping up the Saguenay weekend getaway with the last day events tomorrow! Remember to check back..I promise a lot of cuteness! 🙂

Saguenay, QC: Parc de la Caverne Trou de la Fée

This year, my boyfriend and I had a big purchase: our house.  With a few other events budgeted in, we had to make cuts.  That went to cutting down on the vacation we had together in the end.  However, we did decide to take a trip since it was nice to take a breather, relax and just be together away from everything.  Thats what weekend getaways are fantastic for.

Our choice was Niagara Falls and Saguenay.  Seeing as we’ve already been to Niagara Falls two times in the last 6+ years, we decided to go back to Saguenay and do what we weren’t able to do last time.

The first one was scheduled for Day 1 for a cave exploration and walking and hiking trail located in Parc de la Caverne Trou de la Fee. What that directly translates to is “Fairy’s Hole Cavern Park”.  The park is actually very affordable with a guarantee of at least 3 hours of activities. Its separated into 4 parts.

The first part is going for the 15 minute cave exploring.  They are known for their wide settlement of bats, except summer isn’t the season and with some climate changes, its caused an irregularity from what the guide said.  Inside the cave, it was impossible to see anything so I didn’t even bother to take any pictures but I promise you, there is actually a shape of a fairy in there on the walls and there’s a little piece of history attached to it.  However, the walk to the cave had a few pictures.

Overview of the park area at the start of the trail

Looking back from the bridge over the falls

When you reach the other side, its a little bit of a hike and then you get to the cave, where we wait for a little bit and head in to explore.

Waiting to go into the cave!

If you recall, I actually did another cave exploration earlier this year.  This one had a little bit more maneuvering around rocks.  It had some narrow spaces but it was short enough to not be too much of a problem. There was three chambers to go through and some stairs to climb here and there. It was pretty impressive!

Coming out of the cave, the second part of the hike is following the path back, except when we cross to the other side of the bridge, there is an actual hiking trail to the Three Falls.  This trail does a loop and leads to an open area with three waterfalls.

Lots of water around the site! Love it!

Near the falls!

A beautiful rainbow

The hike is a simple family trail.  Its easy and comfortable.  Coming back into the loop, you come back to the main path and this time, instead of heading back the way we came, you go down to walk on the old electric dam facilities which now forms a tunnel with some information about what this site used to be used for.

As you walk through this, it is connected with some wire barriers like this one, which leads to wooden pathways.

This path eventually leads to the final part of the trail which is the Green Corridor/Coulée Verte. This part is yet another hike but a super calming and beautiful fun.  The only thing is this one gets a little more challenging with narrow paths and some slippery uphill areas, rocky paths and that sort of thing.  Hiking shoes are useful not only for the caves but also for this trail.

During this path, I gained my new obsession on this trip, aside from waterfalls and flowing rivers: assorted berries and mushrooms, especially along mossy areas.

The Green Corridor was long and curvy.  It was pretty tiring as the ending of this trail, mostly because our day started at 6am and a 6 5+ hours drive.  However, it was a great preparation for warming up the muscles and getting ready for our actual hike the next day.

If you are in the Saguenay Lac Saint Jean area, this area is a must do.  Its not expensive and you get a whole lot of activities to do which makes it completely worth it.  Its part of getting in touch with nature.  You can always choose to not do the cave and just do the trails and that costs less.  Or you could choose to do everything including the 350 feet high zip line crossing.  I wasn’t brave enough to do that.  I’m not actually sure of the actual height but its pretty high so I wouldn’t be surprised if it is.

Thats Day 1 in Saguenay for us! Getting in touch with nature, a bit of hiking, lots of water, calming and refreshing! I loved it! 🙂

Day 2 coming up tomorrow! 🙂