The final day of vacation is here! Of course, only the trip portion as I still have one week of staycation afterwards, which turned out pretty great as I caught up with movies and TV series and a ton of chores that needed to be tended to. I managed to get some cooking done as well. Getting ahead of myself again! What’s new, right?
Let’s go home!
The way home was pretty smooth. A few clouds and a few raindrops, nothing as intense as the first day. We ended doing a bit of the Acadian scenic route. Being Canada Day, there was a lot of Canada flags but there was also the Acadian flag which we didn’t know until we saw it. Its pretty impressive to see the Acadian settlements and how prominent they are, even after so many years. Its pretty amazing. I’m not a history major by far and I honestly have the worst memory for it. Still, the drive slowly went from that to looking again at creepy country houses and barns and formulating creeps in our head. Probably not the best thing to do but still. Between that and talking about home and games and working together with my husband on his first post for Game Warp, which is still in the making, it was a really nice drive home. Super long and stretched out, but also so very beautiful.
These pictures are after we crossed back over to the province of Quebec. We took a little bit of a shortcut from the originally planned route and it cut a little off the time of driving. We did do a lot of driving over the last few days and would like to get back sooner rather than later to just sit back and relax. We got to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and there are some fantastic scenery there. We head back into Quebec and every time we do these drives, we remember how big this province is and while we’ve traveled quite a bit of it, there is still so many places to explore and the road trips on Quebec roads may sometimes be boring but mostly, they are just so breathtaking that its something that everyone should try.
This wraps up the vacation recap! Like I probably mentioned before,I did have a week after that where I was on staycation and it was great because I managed to prepare for Montreal Comiccon, mentally, physically and with the blog and channel. I caught up with a lot of movies which I have ready to review when Fantasia Festival ends. July is a busy month for the recreational side of things like blog duties and event coverage, but also for actual work.
That’s it for Day 4 of our vacation! It was a long and calm drive back home with really not a lot of stops. Its a lot of passing images as we drove by nice scenery.
2016 is sure flying by! February is done already? My goodness, that is rather surprising especially since work feels like it really hasn’t stopped to give me time to breathe. Its surprising that I’m still catching up with everything (well, barely). March starts the month of family birthdays also. Incredible, right? I’m also going to be 30 at the end of the month and I have that blog reveal thing that I haven’t even gone back to work on in a while. Man, lots of stuff coming up but at least you know what? Blogathon is going strong for the first two weeks and working on those Oscar movies went really well which was the goal in the last Weekly Adventures.
I’m going to keep this short as this post will be focused on my weekend getaway to Toronto with one of my great friends. We had a ton of fun exploring bakeries and whatnot. We got lost a little and was frustrated at Google Maps navigating us with a lot of those Toronto forbidden left turns and overall, we had some fun adventures. Its nice to be back doing road trips with one of my best road trip buddies.
Crazy Thing on Friday Night
Friday night we started our trip in the late afternoon around 4pm. We were on the road at a good pace until we hit around Kingston area where we got stuck in stand-still traffic due to an accident that kept us sitting there, engine off for an hour. During this time, a little event happened that inspired quite a bit of conversation. A man in the car in front of us got out, was on his cell for a call and then pulls out this big bag. Not long after, a minivan pulls up on the opposite side of the highway 401 (big highway, dark and no street lights, a bit of blowing snow sporadically) and a teen boy jumps out picks up his hockey bag and equipment, climbs over the median and runs across to get in the minivan with oncoming traffic.
The car that stopped on the other side of the highway..
Question here is: Is there a hockey game so important that you would risk your life and the bigger question, what reasonable judgment for the guardian/adult with him made him think it was a good idea to do this?
We got to Markham after the Ontario Police opened up a route to go backwards onto a ramp and some very horror movie potential sort of thing could’ve happened as we tried to get back on the emergency detour route. It was an exciting night. We almost drafted out a whole horror short. 😉
With our bellies full with an okay breakfast joint and my friend pretty happy about trying out fresh coconut water, we were on our way downtown for some bakery, independent tea and/or coffee shops. We had a little tentative itinerary.
First (Surprise) Stop: Fantail Bakery-Cafe & Tealish
Vegan Avocado Chocolate Cake
I’ve been thinking of replacing butter with avocado since forever. I almost didn’t get this one until some guy comes in saying that it was the best vegan baked good they’ve ever had. So I got it for takeaway. While I was waiting for my friend explore a coffee shop, I started eating it and OMG! Its only been the only thing on my mind since then!
This was really a stop we made because we were waiting for the tea shop Tealish to open. We also made a stop at The Art of Cookery where I got a lovely little kitchen accessory which I will showcase later.
Spring Longjin Green Tea
Intermission on the way to Second Stop
Karma Cluster
Cookies N Creme Donut
Third Stop: Cock-a-Doodle-Doo Gluten Free Bakery
Gluten-free Apple Tart
Fourth Stop: Almond Butterfly
Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookie
Dairy Free Snickerdoodle Cupcake
Fifth Stop: Vaughan Mills & Shopping
At this point, we’re suffering from some mega sugar rush followed by a crash on my end. I got a ton of liquids to make it better. However, there was some awesome finds here!
Baymax & Thumper: Completing my Disney Plush collection (for now)
Aside from this, I managed to finally get a pair of shoes for Zumba (In Studio Training). In one of the previous stops, we also stopped at an LCBO to get some wine. They didn’t have the one I wanted but I did pick up some good stuff over the two days so might as well get my purchases over in this section.
Crazy Beard & White Wine
Angry Orchard
My friend had told me about Angry Orchard before and since I saw it, I had to get myself a pack to see how it is. Plus, its gluten free and Apple cider. Two things I love to bits 😉
Sixth Stop: Asian Legend in Markham
Onion Pancakes
Soup-filled Steamed Pork Dumpllings
Ribs with Shanghai Bok Choy
Green Beans
Fried Pork buns
Asian Legend is our go-to spot. Unfortunately, it felt like everything wasn’t quite as good. The soup-filled dumplings were still pretty good and it was the first time trying the ribs but overall, it didn’t quite live up to the delicious taste it had. Maybe its the bad economy and the inflation causing things changing. Who knows…
We went back to our hotel after dinner. Well, after a quick stop at T&T Supermarket to pick up liquids for the night.
Next morning, we had a brunch before making some quick stops to buy some snacks and supplies before heading back to Montreal.
Sunday Brunch/Chinese Early Lunch: Ding Tai Fung Restaurant
Soup-filled Steamed Pork Dumplings
Sticky Rice Roll
Pork Rolls (I think…can’t remember the exact name)
Fried Donut Sticks
Dim sum
Pot Stickers
Ding Tai Fung is always a surefire. As usual, this place made some delicious food. I was pleased with such a delightful meal. Their soup-filled steamed pork dumplings are absolutely scrumptious. We went home safe and sound.
Game Night
The weekend after (the past one)..we got together again with one of my best friends and had a game night. It was a last minute thing so not a lot of people made it to my friend’s event but we had some food, chatted a little. The games of that night:
Cards Against Humanity
Saboteur
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
It was my first time playing Scotland Yard and man, was it fun! If you don’t know what it is, one player is Mr. X and they have hidden moves and unlimited resources while everyone else are detectives that need to trace them down. Obviously, we were just two detectives but if we had more people, it would be a different story. As we were strategizing our next moves, I thought it would be hilarious to make a podcast or vlog of it. That would be incredible. What do you think?
In case you don’t know what Saboteur is, its kind of a card game where you are dwarves mining to gold. There are three cards faced down, two is rocks and one gold. You can have cards to see which is the gold. Depending how many people, there are people to be the Saboteur whose goal is to sabotage your path. You have cards that build the path to the gold and other special cards that will block and unblock other players. The more players, the more interesting it gets.
It was a ton of fun! We were all really tired and somehow we ended playing super strategic games. Oh yeah, Mr. X got away…
That’s it for the last two weeks! Very fun two weekends despite work going batshit crazy and absolutely out of control!
Upcoming:
Last 2 weeks of Ultimate 80s Blogathon
Book reviews
Review: The VVitch
Before we go…a little music!
What games do you like to play with friends (board or video)? Do you like road trips (even if its just a weekend getaway)?
When my boyfriend and I travel on day trips, a lot of it is pretty spontaneous. We make the decision days before and then set off for the trip that morning depending how far, we decide how early. Valentine’s Day is every day for us and its normal, we’ve been together for a good many years so we usually forego flowers but go for a drive together. I’ll talk about us a little more when I get the chance but Valentine’s day, we decided to go to Isle aux Coudres. I know I know, its not the same as the title because plans change.
That Saturday morning, it was the most eventful ever. After a few days of deep freeze, my car’s battery decided to die completely. My boyfriend’s charger thingy needed to get charged up before he could connect it onto the battery. So we ended up taking his car. For those interested, after charging it two times and then jumping starting the car later that night, the next morning the battery just was too old to do anything more so my boyfriend changed it. I only spectated and ran to get tools..haha!
Back to Valentine’s Day, due the whole battery issue, our time was pushed back enough that we would miss the ferry to go over to Isle aux Coudres and if we caught the next one, it wouldn’t be worth it. My boyfriend suggested that we just take a drive in that general direction while we tried to think of places to go. Somehow, as I was looking at Google Maps, I saw Ile d’Orleans and decided that maybe it was a good choice.
Scenery wise, we got a lot of good choices BUT, Ile d’Orleans is definitely a summer trip location because almost everything was closed (almost 80%, I guess). Still, I managed to get some nice snowy shots from this drive.
Enjoy! Roll over the image to get a little description 🙂
Ile d’Orleans Bridge
On the bridge onto the island
A little spot at the end of the bridge to gather our surroundings
Seeing our first lookout in a restaurant parking area
Our second lookout next to Saint-Francois’s church.
Down a pier landing to see some moving ice/snow on the river
Going back up the slope, showing a little bit of the cute houses
A viewpoint behind the church of the river
A church next to the viewpoint in the previous photo
I realized how its just extremely snowy scenes and not really all that exciting but we’re planning to go back in the summer and capture all its beauty. Summer and warm weather feels so far away right now but we’re still starting to plan for it 🙂
Valentine’s Day was eventful to say the least. A beautiful drive where we talked and laughed about everything and nothing for a few hours. Then went home to help my boyfriend push my car out of the driveway and steer it so that it could get jump-started. Learning every single day 🙂
Tranquil Dreams 