Tag: summer

The End of Sleeping In

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It’s that time of year again. School is going to start real soon and I have found myself filling all my remaining days with some sort of activity to squeeze whatever I can out of my summer.

I am very excited to be going camping today! It will be my first time camping outdoors– ever! (Unless if you count that time we camped in my friend’s backyard…but we definitely were not roughing it out at all.) Four friends and I will be going to Sasquatch Provincial Park. In a matter of hours, we will be setting up our tent!

Now that we are preparing (basically done at this point) for our trip, I realized how much work this all is. I have also been reading up on some camping tips and honestly, I find some of them quite terrifying. I will update when I get back so I will remember what it was like when I look back on my first camping trip!

In other news, my friends and I went to Society down at Yaletown for a goodbye get-together for my friend who is going off to Toronto for university. I really did not have high hopes for this place as I had googled it before going and they had pretty bad reviews. However, I thought that the pizza I ordered was decent, and my friend’s truffle mac n’ cheese was pretty good. My friends who got the Chicken Gnocchi said it tasted mediocre… so I guess our group had mixed reviews. We ended it all off with a Junk Food Platter! What really caught my eye was how pretty it looked! It tasted pretty good, though the macaron was not soft enough.

My pizza– the Ultimate Meat pizza 😛

The Junk Food Platter

On the other hand, the restaurant itself was annoying. The music was on very loud, so it is definitely not the ideal place to sit and chat, or catch up with friends. I felt like we were shouting most of the time. But then, there were pink chandeliers  inside so it looked really nice. It was the perfect lounge for a girl’s night out, but not so much for chilling and talking.

That is it for now! I will update after my camping trip! Hope you guys are enjoying the sun!

-Karen

 

Outdoor Movies – A Vancouver Tradition?

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Hey all!

After three years since I moved back to Vancouver, I finally went to my first summer outdoor movie event!

My friend Connie asked if I wanted to go to their Lion King showing. It was a Disney movie, so how could I say no? 😛

Those gaps you see between groups of people and blankets? Yeah, they disappear as it gets later.

We arrived at Stanley Park at around eight o’clock, and the designated field used for movie watching was already more than half full! We laid out our blankets and tried to take up more space around us as our friend were running late. Of course, with these events, it was really hard to actually reserve a spot, so we soon found people cutting into our space. However, we did manage to squeeze in our three other friends who later arrived. I went and bought an overpriced burger from one of the food trucks nearby (Triple O’s), and got back to our blanket-claimed territory just as the movie started.

The two food trucks. I am surprised there are not more… Triple O’s were so overwhelmed you had to wait in line for 20 minutes

The Lion King!

The great thing about these movies is that they wait for the sun to set before they play it– or else no one would really be able to see the movie, which was projected onto a huge inflatable screen. So you get total silence from this crowd of several hundred, sitting under the stars on a cool summer night, all enjoying as the movie unraveled itself. It was a different experience.

I loved that whenever an amazing scene ended (e.g Simba running back to Pride Rock to claim his destiny), the audience would cheer and clap. It just really added to the atmosphere. What was even cooler was that it would always start with a small group of people cheering, then you hear the cheer ripple outwards until the whole field was cheering.

Tips for outdoor movie watching?:
-bring your own food
-if you are saving spots for a friend, bring a big towel/blanket, or else no one will take you seriously
-before you sit down, make sure there isn’t a speaker in your line of sight, or you will have to live with that throughout the movie
-bring a flashlight if you are leaving early/a lot later than the crowd (if you go to the Stanley Park venue) because it gets really dark
-get there early if you want good seats. However, we went pretty late (approximately 1 hour before it started) and we got a seat two-thirds of the field away from the screen and it was still a pretty decent seat since the screen is quite large and there are a quite a lot of speakers surrounding the field.
-do not sit in the middle of the field if you have to leave early. It really sucks when Timon and Pumbaa are in the middle of their Hakuna Matata song and you see this huge blanket/pillow-ladended person trying to carefully (and very slowly) make their way out of the field.
-cheer and clap 🙂 Help make some noise!–When appropriate of course…but we did hear someone shout the following when the scene played

I had a really positive experience altogether, and I would really encourage you go out and watch one of the many movies that they still have yet to show! I mean not only is it fun, but it is also free! What are you waiting for?!

More info here.

-Karen

Strawberry Picking– It’s a lot harder than it looks

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Hey there!

Yes, it has been a very long time since I last visited WordPress. It seems like the longer I was away, the more I was hesitant to come back. But then I realized how much I miss this, so here I am again! 🙂

So last week, my friends and I went to Abbotsford to go strawberry picking. I remember hearing stories about when my parents were still dating, they’d go strawberry picking in Toronto. They always said how much fun it was, and how cool it was to pick your own fresh strawberries. My friends and I then decided that since we were not doing much anyway, we will go on a small roadtrip out to Abbotsford and go strawberry picking. We bought a pass for the farm, which included their petting zoo, wagon ride and mazes.

After waking up bright and early (and an hour or so drive), we got to the Maan Farms.

I loved the fact that the first thing I saw was a red barn-like structure that everyone associates with farms. I think I have been to farms before, but that was when I was still in elementary school and we went for pumpkin picking with our class. Anyway, we explored around a bit as we did not want to pick strawberries yet, or else they will just get gross when we leave them for long periods of time in the car. We first went to the playground. They had a wooden slide. Yeah, wooden. At first we were thinking you would have to be crazy to  slide down a wooden slide, but then we saw the burlap potato sacks they left around the base of the slide which you are supposed to sit on while sliding down.

William on the wooden slide!

Afterwards, we decided to look for the mazes. It said on our tickets that we were allowed to use both their mazes. In my head, i was ready for crazy labyrinths of tall green hedges. You can guess I was disappointed when it turns out it was just a ‘rock maze’. What is a rock maze? Well to me, it seems like they just placed rocks on the ground, tracing out a path, ultimately making a ‘maze’. I do not think I have ever been in a satisfying maze. I remember when I was living at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel and they also had a maze behind their hotel. I, again, had my hopes up, seeing the brochure depicting a Mickey Mouse-shaped maze, formed out of green trees/plants of some sort. When my sister and I got there, I realized this maze was made for small children, so the height of the bushes reached my  knees. Fun.

The wagon ride was enjoyable. It was short, consisting of ten minutes or so of driving up to the haystacks on the farm, offering a view of the whole of Abbotsford, as it seems this farm was on some sort of hill. It was a beautiful day of 25 degrees, so the view was spectacular. Not a cloud in the sky, and you could see snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Us on the wagon, after the ride 🙂

Finally, it was time for strawberry picking. I imagined it would be very relaxing, digging for perfect little strawberries, enjoying the nice weather. Boy was I wrong. The first several berries I picked, I was very particular about. They had to be the perfect shape, size and colour. Eventually, after another twenty minutes in the blazing hot sun, I just dumped whatever looked edible into my  basket. Plus, since strawberry plants were so short, you had to bend down or squat down in order to pick them. Believe me, after a while of kneeling and standing up repetitiously, you start seeing dark spots everywhere. Also, finding strawberries were no fun either. Old strawberries were left on the plants to rot, since it will fertilize the soil again. So you end up touching some pretty gross, mouldy strawberries. Some strawberries were so old that if you moved them, you realized they were dust and they kind of just float away as grey ash. That is when I came up with the conclusion that strawberry picking is hard work.

Strawberry patch @ Maan Farms

The strawberries!

After what seemed like forever, we were all done with our baskets and we went back to the car, finally leaving Maan Farms. We went several more places after that, driving across Langley, Surrey, stopping near White Rock to watch the sunset, visiting the Peach Arch just to stand between the Canadian and American border. You can guess that I was exhausted at the end of the day. We ended off our adventure by visiting the Richmond night market. We got there just as all the food was going on sale since they had to close for the day. I did not even know they did that. So we ate a bunch of unhealthy, but delicious and cheap food!

Under the Peach Arch on the Canadian side 🙂

And for the past week, I have had an endless supply of strawberries sitting in my fridge. They were delicious! I guess it is true– if you work for something, the fruits of your labour always tastes better.

Ah, this has been nice. 🙂 I missed this blog! Hopefully, I will see you again soon!

Karen

Meanwhile in Vancouver…

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Hey all!

I have not updated in a while…but between juggling Calculus schoolwork and trying to fit in time for my family and friends, I felt at a loss when it came to blogging! But believe me, I have wanted to blog several times after my adventures! So I hope this will allow me to summarize what happened in between these two weeks! Oh, and if you need ideas on what you can do around Vancouver during summer this year, feel free to try these out! Of course, some events are limited to the days they occur…

So to begin, on the 21st of July, Carmen and I went to Metrotown to watch Captain America! It was the advanced screening so we were both excited to be seeing it! Metrotown itself is not exactly a place I like visiting, with its busy customers and practically what seems like 50% of the population of Vancouver there during the holidays, but the movie itself made the trip totally worth it! The movie was amazing and I was going to blog about my feelings and probably a short review of it after the movie, but somehow, that post never got written. I even had the title made up: “And a bunch of Canadians shouted, “GO CAPTAIN AMERICA!” Did I mention special edition 3D glasses?! They are red and blue!

So here are the Cliffnotes version of my reflections on that night. Of course, Chris Evans was eye-candy galore! But he was also a good actor, portraying the weak but strong minded Steve Rogers and then the action-packed hero we know as Captain America. The audience was wonderful, cheering together at the right moments. Many of us stayed behind, hoping to catch a glimpse of the preview of the next marvel film, but sadly, they did not show it for the advanced screening. We all complained, but that did nothing…so we all trickled out of the cinemas. There were fans in Captain America gear, which made you feel like you were part of a legit group of excited people! It was also funny how all of us Canadians were so excited for Captain America, but then again, a hero is a hero. Thanks again Carmen for the tickets and spending the day with me!

Special 3D glasses at Captain America!

Onto the next outing! If you live in Vancouver, you will know that the fireworks display during summer are a big deal to many of us Vancouverites. That is why around 300,000 people showed up to the first day of the Celebration of Lights! You needed to head out there early to get a good spot, but despite the heedings, our group had people there at around 5:30. Connie and Robert were the first ones there and then I arrived a bit later as I had to eat dinner with my family. Slowly, our group all managed to find the rest and we ate snacks and played Taboo as we sat and waited on the grass. I did not expect too much from the fireworks and was mainly there to spend time with my friends, but when the show went on, I was truly stunned. The Celebration of Lights was also a competition between countries to see who can put up the best display of fireworks and on the first day which we went, it was China’s turn to show off what they had to offer. I believe at some point during the dazzling lights, I said to someone “I feel like this is the closest I will get to magic.” The dark night sky was lit up in brilliant explosions of color. There were many different explosions and effects that the fireworks brought about, but my favourite were the ones that cascaded down like a curtain of stars.

After the show, there was the problem of getting home. No doubt, public transit would be congested so we decided to walk to Broadway. It was quite nice walking across the Burrard bridge at night and I eventually found myself on a bus and well on my way home!

iPhone quality..sorry!

Then came hiking. Yesterday, Monica, Josh and I ventured to Lighthouse Park and Whytecliff Park in west Van! Lighthouse park was a series of many trails that you can choose to explore. I had no idea where I was going, but Josh seemed to know his way, and Monica seemed willing to take whatever road seemed most dangerous. And so we hiked. Hiking made me realize how out of shape I am, but asides from that, I have not felt that close to nature in a while. It was nice seeing all that green and it really felt like you were a part of nature while you got lost in the towering green giants of trees. Of course, I was scared of the spiders, bugs, wild animals and whatever else was kept in secrecy among the leaves and bushes. However, we made it out alive and then made our way to Whytecliff park. There was less walking and hiking involved at Whytecliff, but the view was equally gorgeous if not more. We just relaxed near the cliff’s edge, watching the sun slowly set and the waves gently roll by. I saw a seal amidst the waters and I quickly pointed it out to my friends, but it slipped away before they saw it. By the time we got back to Vancouver, it was quite late and we had to Yelp check what there was to eat. William joined us along the way and we eventually settled for Korean food. We were actually craving sushi, but after walking in to an all-you-can-eat place and being told it was $26 (price was sans tax and tip) per person, we booked it out of there. We were also wanting to try “Guu” or “Guu with Garlic” but somehow we went to Ma Dang Goul. The food was delicious, but we were so hungry you could have given us stale bread and we would have scarfed it down.

Whytecliff

Asides from keeping up with things around Vancouver, I also started watching TV shows. I guess that is what a big chunk of my time is used for these days. I just roll in bed and watch them until I get tired. Not the best activity there is, but I am addicted. I finished Game of  Thrones (wonderful TV show by the way! Would not be surprised if I write something about it soon!) and then realizing I had nothing better to do, I started to watch Dexter. Both AMAZING shows and thus why I do not feel guilty wasting my life on them…well, not too guilty anyway.

Well, that is all for now! Hope your summer has been as fun as mine so far!

Karen