Tag: Vancouver

Khatsalano in the rain

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I remember Khatsahlano last year. It was under the blazing sun, and the whole festival felt like a struggle to stay hydrated. I was super sticky after a day of checking out the performances and moving from vendor to vendor! This year was the exact opposite. The day started off a little gloomy, and then it started to drizzle. Honestly though, it was more enjoyable as an attendee for it to be cool, than super hot in my opinion. A little rain never hurt anyone. Of course, for the vendors (especially all the ones trying to sell drinks), it clearly caused a dip in business. That’s not to say the festival wasn’t busy. Quite the opposite!
IMG_1312There were music performances (duh— that’s what the whole festival is about), performers (Harrison Lee for one, the yoyo master), and lots of vendors. I ended up getting a few things! A cute Princess Leia bookmark, hand painted by Luiza Salazar, a fancy soap with shell-shaped little soaps on it from Sum Inspiration, and cookie butter from Pirate Joe’s. If you’re a Vancouverite, you should know Pirate Joe’s story. Love it!

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One interesting stretch of Khatsahlano was the Etsy Marketplace! It’s where they got a bunch of Etsy stores to come alive— taking a break from their online sales to sell things in person. It wasn’t the busiest part of the street party, but it’s interesting.

We then saw a camera crew running around and realized it was Carlos from YTV! He’s been the host of that channel ever since I was just a kid. Saw him again on TV the other day. Kind of surreal seeing him in the flesh.

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And that was that. A wet day, but I probably liked it better than if it was a super hot one 🙂

– Karen

FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada

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I bought last minute tickets to the FIFA Women’s World Cup game that happened yesterday. Literally last minute, as we closed the Craigslist deal an hour before the game. We still had to print out tickets and get there, so we ended up being late for two minutes or so. We had planned on going, but we wanted to wait till someone was desperate to sell them at a lower price. We got center seats in the end for $100 each, which wasn’t the cheapest, but given the prices we were seeing yesterday, it was pretty good.

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Canada was off to a rough start. Englad was aggressive and managed to get two goals in within the first 15 minutes. It was plain to see that the team was a little demoralized, and the crowd was also getting unhappy. Nonetheless, Christine Sinclaire managed to get a goal in at around the 42nd minute. The team livened up again, and smarter plays were made. Sadly, it was the only goal we got and it wasn’t enough to tie us or make us win.
IMG_1132Honestly, I’m still very proud of the team. We came very far— just one game away from the finals 😦 The team did us proud. I’m super happy when I see young girls being inspired by the women’s team, and jumping up and down, trying to get a team member to look their way. The team stayed around after the game, and were very accommodating to fans! We got to snap a few pictures of them, and they even agreed to do selfies!

The turnout was really good and you could see seas of red everywhere. It’s really touching to see everyone congregating to support the girls ❤

IMG_1120One thing I didn’t like was the weather. Sure, there were blue skies and it was summer, but the heat was crazy! On the bus, we sat across from a guy who was literally towel drying himself (not just his face. Anywhere he could reach that could pass as being proper in public) on the bus every 5 minutes, and another guy just sat there dripping sweat. Wearing red also didn’t help cool me down.

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Anyone going to the finals? Anyone got free tickets? I’m broke. But I want to go. Quite sad Canada won’t be fighting for the cup, but hey, we got far. Keep on trooping Canada’s women’s team 🙂 Keep inspiring!

– Karen

THREE DOGS IN MY LIFE!!!

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Today, I got ridiculously happy when my boyfriend told me that he’d have two dogs sleeping over. He also has a dog, so there would be THREE dogs in my life today.

I knew I had to go get dog treats for them somewhere. I happened to recall a dog bakery along Main, so I headed there right after work. This place was Three Dog Bakery — WHICH NOW I REALIZE IS SO PERFECT. Because there’s three dogs at our place today. Only now do I realize this. Sigh.

IMG_1076I ended up getting a bunch of goodies. I got three rawhide braids for them (beef flavoured), three donuts, and an extra cookie for my boyfriend’s dog because I heard he was getting a little jealous from all the attention that now went to the two other dogs. I couldn’t have little Rascal feeling left out. The guy who worked there was really nice and also gave us a little baggie of their oven baked treats as a sample 🙂

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I cannot believe I wasn’t buying this for myself. There’s no chocolate here, just carob. They look so good!

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LOOK AT THEM ENJOYING THEIR TREAT (I didn’t get a picture of them eating the donuts because I was too excited watching them). I have no idea if the treats were any good, but they pretty much gobbled it up. Like the guy at the store’s response of “basically all of them” when I asked which of the treats were fan favourites, I think dogs will eat anything.

Anyway, a little later on, we took them for a walk so they could do their business. Ollie (the brown & black dog) was quite a handful, but she was my responsibility because Tommy (the jet black one) would be too strong if he bolted after something, so my boyfriend took his leash. My boyfriend’s mom took Rascal…and I didn’t want to compete with her because Rascal would get hurt if she walked somedog else.

SIT

SIT!

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I need more dogs in my life.

– Karen

Car Free Day on Main Street

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Hey guys,

It’s summer, so Car Free Days are popping up around Vancouver, with blocks being closed off from traffic to accommodate for street festivals! My boyfriend lives near Main street, so we decided to spend the Sunday with the other folks who decided to give up their car for the day. Ironically, we drove to Car Free Days. But in our defence, we were busy in the morning, so in order to have ample time at the festival, we had to drive there. I drove a car share car though, so maybe that makes it a little better? 😛

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I can’t remember if I went last year. You know? Sometimes these festivals kind of blend in with one another. Italian Day, Car Free Days, Khatsahlano.. eh. But honestly, I don’t care, because I love being amidst the crowd in the lively streets.

As with any street festival, the main priority was quenching our thirst and not getting a heatstroke. We started off our walk at Broadway, making our way up Main from there. Which meant the conveniently located Tim Hortons was our first stop, in which we got an iced capp. It was gone in about maybe 10 mins? Maybe less.

Kids and dogs crowded around Homesteaders Emporium's chicken

Kids and dogs crowded around Homesteaders Emporium’s chicken. They had fun homestead living ideas you could takeaway on postcard pamphlets!

The festival was busy enough, but definitely not as busy as Italian Day last weekend. Lots of food trucks, artisan foods and crafts, second hand apparel, and activities for kids scattered around the twenty or so blocks on Main Street! There were also live music performances every few blocks to make sure it felt like a party.

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I ended up getting a henna tattoo, FINALLY had a slavic roll (pretty good, but pretty expensive. $6 for one), tried shaved ice from Cloud 9 (always wanted to try their cotton candy, which is what got them famous in the first place, but on a hot day, something cold is too enticing). The guy there also gave us free samples of mini donuts (baked not deep fried!) 😀

It’s well into Summer, but there’s other street festivals to check out! If you’re in the Vancouver area, you still can make it to (dats for 2015):

– Khatsahlano (July 11th)
– Canada Day (July 1st) or at Granville Island (went last year, and it was mediocre at best)
– Carnaval Del Sol (July 11th-12th)
– Caribbean Days (July 25th-26th)
– Powell Street Festival (August 1st-2nd)

I really want to check out Carnaval Del Sol and Caribbean Days. Both I heard great things about back when I did promos for companies at my last internship. I guess we’ll see if I end up going 🙂 I do want to take the Seabus again so Caribbean Days will most likely be a go!

– Karen

Room Escape Games – G.U.E.S.S. HQ Review

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Hey all,

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Last Wednesday, I went with my co-workers to G.U.E.S.S. HQ. I was excited to be spending some off-work time with my colleagues, but not so excited about another escape the room, live-action game. I was pleasantly surprised at how well done this one was! There’s a lot more tech, room (as in space for you to play in), and creative puzzles to beat compared to other ones! This was because (as an employee explained to us) the CEO behind G.U.E.S.S HQ was a past waterslide amusement park designer. He then tried out other escape the room games, and found them to be lacking. He came up with the idea to hire tech, video game, and set designers to create a game that he thought to be better.

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Located off Gastown, G.U.E.S.S. stands for the Gastown Underground Secret Society Headquarters. Even before actually starting the game, you get immersed. Your email came with a secret password, and they won’t buzz you into the premises without it. After we gave our password, they briefed us through our task to come, and made us sign some waivers.

We chose to do The Heist, one of the two missions available for a G.U.E.S.S. agent. Our goal was to break into a vault, and along the way you’ve really got to work together with your team to manoeuvre your way out successfully. Sadly, we didn’t make it all the way, but we were close.


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What was the interior like? It was easily five times as big as the usual escape the room games in Richmond. They also feature a lot of tech, like laser tripwires. You know in films when you’re like “how did they not see that laser beam?? It was so obvious.” It turns out laser beams are actually really hard to spot. We learned that the hard way. We did purchase a “detecting spray” to help us through, which was basically compressed air and water that can momentarily reveal the red lines that are not usually visible to the naked eye. But even then, it was hard to detect all the lasers.

There were also mechanized keypads all around the rooms, as well as motion sensors. Not going to give anything else away, but it was a pretty cool experience. The whole game lasted about 45 mins, with 15 mins on top of that for briefing and intro. They have small lockers to put away your phones and electronics, but it’s not big, so keep that in mind when you go there.

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One really neat thing about G.U.E.S.S is that once in a while, you can win $1000 if you make the top score after finishing their rooms against other competitors. That’s something that really gets the competition and stakes going! One downside is that G.U.E.S.S. is more expensive than the usual escape the room games. For example, the more popular ones in Richmond are going for about $120 to $142/6 people, whereas ours was about $189/6 people. We bought an online deal, which lowered it to $79 though, so keep your eyes peeled.

I remember when I first when to an live escape the room game at EXIT Canada. Man things have changed.

– Karen