New “Do”

I got my hair cut tonight and decided to go a little shorter. So here’s the final product (not the best pictures by the way)…what do you think?

Victoria & Other Stuff

So I’ll start off by warning you this is going to be a LONG post. I’ll work my way back to our trip to Victoria BC.

So this past weekend, I made another batch of bread…actually a double batch. The good news was that the bread turned out lighter and more moist than the last batch I made…the BAD news is that I burned up the motor in my KitchenAid mixer :( I’m trying to find out if I can get it fixed or if I’m going to have to shell out some major $$ for a new one.

I was having a bit of a “bad luck” yesterday, so on top of the mixer, I also broke a wine glass, burned myself, and spilled a huge container of pistachios all over the floor. After all of that I decided I should get out of the kitchen before doing some serious damage!!

I have also taken up attempting homemade yogurt. I’ve tried two different recipes. I think the first was better than the second a little better texture. So anyway, now I’ve made it my mission to perfect a yogurt recipe.

Okay…now on to our trip. We had such a great time! The house we stayed in was great. Eagles landed in the tree near the back porch, we had a pool table, spa, and air hockey table to entertain us and most importantly we had gorgeous weather!! See the slide show below for some pictures taken at the house.

The day we went to Butchart Gardens is the day we saw the most rain…which equated to a couple of 5 minute showers conveniently timed when we were under cover :) Here are some pics from the gardens…which are absolutely beautiful!! We also went back to the gardens at night when it was all lit up. It looked so different! I’m glad we got to see it all lit up.

We also went whale watching and I don’t think we could have asked for a better experience!! We saw 2 Orca. The boats are only allowed to get within 100 meters of the whales because they are a protected species, but the whale started swimming toward the boat and I think at one point they surfaced maybe 100 feet from the boat. We followed the same 2 whales the whole time we were out and finally got the shots below. It was really amazing! There are also a couple of pics of the lighthouse that was under construction.

We also went to Wild Play Parks in Nanaimo. It is a ropes course with wooden bridges, zip lines, cargo nets, tarzan swings etc. It was a lot of fun!! They had 4 different levels, each got progressively higher and more difficult. Steve and I both made it through all four levels and had a great time doing it but were feeling the effects the next day!! We did it in shifts so we could watch Adam, so the girls went first and they guys went after lunch. Everyone got through at least part of the course.

We did a lot of walking around downtown Victoria. They had some great (but expensive shopping). And we had some excellent meals. If you ever go up there lookup these two places: Seagrille at Brentwood Bay Lodge & Cafe Brio …they were both awesome!! We didn’t have any bad food while we were there. Steve and I did a little shopping the day we were in Victoria by ourselves, but we tried to restrain ourselves…we could have done some serious damage!! Below are some random pictures from our time in Victoria.

We did buy the duvet cover & sheet set below since we finally found one that both Steve & I liked.

So, I probably forgot something, but I’m getting tired and it’s time to think about bed. Hope you enjoy!

Bread and Stuff

So, this weekend I decided to try to make some bread…it was a good attempt, but it could definitely use some improvement. It makes good toast, but needs to be a little less “doughy” to use as a sandwich bread. I think the cure may be a combination of letting it bake an extra few minutes, decreasing the water by a couple of tablespoons (because it seemed a little sticky) and letting it raise a little longer the second time to get a little less dense bread. Maybe I’ll make attempt number 2 next weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of the first attempt.

So I’ve also been trying to learn a little more about my camera before we go on vacation in a couple of weeks. I don’t know how much I’m really learning, but I’ve taken A LOT of pictures. The flowers in the back yard and the bread pictured above have been my most recent test subjects. Here are some of the flowers.

Let’s see I also hit the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning for my usual fresh fruit run…I love all the berries and cherries that are there this time of year. We also have a guy out of Concord that comes to our market with Afghan foods. I stopped and tried some of the stuff for the first time on Saturday and it was DELICIOUS!! I bought a spinach bolini, whole wheat pita bread, sweet jalapeno jelly, and garlic mint cheese….mmmm makes me hungry just thinking about it!

I also washed my car this morning which was VERY necessary. Especially since someone else is riding in my car with me down to SLO tomorrow morning. At the very least I needed to empty the case of empty water bottles out of the floor of my back seat (there may have been 2 cases :P). And we emptied out the spa and refilled it this morning too. I think it’s almost back up to temperature.

And finally we spent a couple of hours at our neighbor’s graduation party this afternoon. He just graduated from high school yesterday.

So, now that it’s almost 6pm I’m thinking about what I might make for dinner tonight….maybe filet with a tomato, basil, eggplant, mozzarella caprese style salad and I’m not sure what else yet, but at least it’s a start.

Catching Up With Friends

We went to a Pat & Katie’s house for dinner last night and Katie made the best pizza dough!! Not to mention she had ALL the fixin’s. It had been a really long time since we had seen them, so it was great to catch up. We got to meet their little boy who is now 9 months old. And their daughter gave us a little piano recital. We had a lot of fun. Katie gave me the pizza dough recipe she used, so if you are ever inclined to make home made pizza, try this recipe…you won’t be disappointed…

This morning we went out to breakfast with our neighbors. We had a really nice weekend. And on top of it, the weather was perfect this weekend!!

Links for Victoria Trip

Okay, here’s all the Victoria/Vancouver info I’ve accumulated:

Things to do in Victoria:

• Butchart Gardens
• Tree Go
• Whale Watching
• Empress Hotel Afternoon Tea
• Hatley Park National Historic Site
• Vancouver Island Brewery
• Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 
• Butterfly Gardens

Restaurants in Victoria:

• Wild Saffron Bistro
• Camille’s (dinner)
• Heron Rock Bistro (maybe for lunch)
• La Piola (Italian both dinner & lunch)
• Fireside Grill (lunch or dinner)
• Il Terrazzo Ristorante
• Romeo’s Place (pizza)
• Chandler’s (dinner)
• Fire and Water Fish and Chop House
• Marina Restaurant Oak Bay (brunch)
• The Black Olive (dinner or lunch…some Greek)
• Café Brio (dinner only offers small plates at a cheaper price)
• Canoe Brew Pub

Restaurants in Sydney & Brentwood Bay

• Seagrill (Brentwood Bay Lodge)
• Piccolo (Brentwood Bay)
• homestead café (lunch)
• Blue Peter Pub & Restaurant
• Theo’s Place (greek food & pizza)
• Fish on 5th (lunch or dinner)
• Hyland’s Fish & Chips
• Maria’s Souvlaki Greek Restaurant
• Mary’s Bleue Moon Café (Hamburgers)
• Pier 1 Restaurant
• RC’s Grill House
• Starke’s Deli & Sausage Factory
• Taste of Tokyo
• Woody’s Grill
• Rumrunner Pub

Steve and I both thought Chandler’s would be our top pick for a nice dinner, but Cafe Brio, Wild Saffron Bistro, and Seagrill would be close behind.

The Marina Restaurant Oak Bay looks like a great place for brunch Sunday morning if people are interested.

The restaurants in Sydney are generally cheaper and are probably good for either lunch or dinner.

It seems like there are plenty of places to choose from.

Things to do in Vancouver:

• Grouse Mountain
• Stanley Park – Prospect Point looks like it could be a good restaurant for lunch if we went to Stanley Park. I think the aquarium is at Stanley Park.
• Capilano Suspension Bridge
• Metropolis at Metrotown (Shopping)
• Museum of Anthropology
• Greater Vancouver Zoo
• Science World

Here’s the mass transit link for Vancouver Susan gave me…hopefully this will work instead of having to take the car over to Vancouver.

What do you guys think??

Whale Watching In Victoria

Here’s the site I found for whale watching from Victoria. It’s a little spendy, but could be cool. Could see Orcas, Porpoises, Seals, Sea Lions, Humpbacks, Minkes, as well as Eagles and Herons.

Price: $100/adult, Under 4 is free, $85/senior (doesn’t say what the age for a senior is)

Length: 3 hours

Departures: 9am, 12:15pm, 3:30 pm daily

Here’s the site: Whale Watching Tour

I also sent an email to WildPlay to ask about the Tree Course. Still waiting for an answer.

Let me know what you think.

Time Flies

And I’ve been horrible about blogging!!!

So I guess I’ll start with March…

March 9th was Shawn’s (our nephew) 11th birthday. We went to Shirasoni’s in Lodi for his birthday dinner the weekend before. Shirasoni’s is a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant so we got a little show from the chef. We all had a good time. The following weekend we went to Shawn’s birthday party at the Stockton Children’s Museum. The kids had a great time going through all the exhibits and playing outside. Here are a couple of pictures.

Now for April…

So far this month, I turned 30 on the 2nd and my mom turned 60 on the 6th. My sister, dad, and I had been planning a surprise party for her for about a month. The party was on Saturday April 4th and we were actually able to pull it off which shocked us all!!

It was a bit of a whirlwind trip, but we managed to get to Tomo’s for dinner, to Seascape for lunch and a little bit of beach time. It was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from the party

We could never have pulled the party together without the help of Julie and John Damron!! We are so lucky to have such great neighbors!!

Here are some pictures of our Seascape visit and the beach.

Sunday night we stayed with our grandma in Red Bluff. Here’s a picture of her with Adam.

Hopefully it won’t be over a month before my next post!!