Let the visitors begin…

Meghan and her mom, Catherine, visited me for the first weekend in April to kick off Catherine's Spring Break week out west visiting Meg. We were fortunate to have gorgeous weather, so we did lots of exploring and playing outside. I was also fortunate to be hosting two exceptional cooks, so I ate very well all weekend too--thank you!

Arriving Friday evening, the three of us checked out a local place called Central near me on Denman for some drinks and eats. Delicious fries there with all sorts of dipping sauces (ask for the special trio combo, which I'm pretty sure we made up), and very yummy berry crumble desserts! Local brewed beers, local wines, and wonderful teas too.

Saturday we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at home, and then headed off to rent bikes and enjoy the full loop around Stanley Park. This had been a wish of Catherine's to see Stanley Park, and we were blessed with a perfect day for it—clear and sunny all day! We rode leisurely around the park stopping to shoot pictures where we felt inspired. Whether it be a good view, a special bird, or us standing in “tree” pose.

I'll admit I'm not a "birder", but I probably came away from the weekend with a better appreciation, at least for the loon. I now know why it makes sense that Canadians call their dollar coin a "loonie" because the duck-like bird, the loon, is on it. They also call the two-dollar coin a toonie. I think this is purely a play on the loonie word, but it's kinda fun too. But I digress... We enjoyed a wonderful ride at Stanley Park ending at the playground, where we had quite a time playing on the rings--see pics! Oh, and I can't forget the Heron nests we found, and right in the city. Very impressive!


In the afternoon we took the quick ferry boat ride over to Granville Island to buy all sorts of goodies from the markets to make quite the feast for dinner that evening. Chris joined us for dinner in celebration of his passing an exam that morning, and good thing he can eat! We made so much food that night that I can't even remember it all. But I do recall eating dinner on the floor picnic style and being sooo stuffed afterwards!

Sunday morning Catherine whipped up a scrumptous "scramble" with practically all of our leftovers from the night before loaded into scrambled eggs--delish! We fueled up for a road trip to the Sunshine Coast, including a lovely ferry boat ride from Horseshoe Bay. The leftovers continued, and carried us through a picnic lunch on the top deck of the ferry boat. Literally, we used a picnic basket! The couple I'm renting from left me all sorts of fun things to use, one of which includes a picnic basket--very fun. We had a long day of driving all around the coast seeing stunning views and lots of bird life. Kept my birder friends, Meghan & Catherine, happy :) Caught a nice sunset on the ferry ride home too!

Upon our return we were pooped and hungry, with no leftovers to spare. We wrapped up our weekend with a yummy dinner at a Greek restaurant, Olympia, also around the corner from me on Denman. An excellent weekend indeed! Thanks for being the best first visitors!!