mindless ramblings

So how was your Valentine’s Day? I hope it went well, with or without a date!

Esther and I had a pretty relaxing day. Our plan was North Vancouver for lunch and the afternoon, and then downtown for dinner. The weather was beautiful for a change and the drive there was equally pleasant.

Our first stop was Lonsdale Quay. I had no idea where to park so we ended up at this parkade which cost $2.50/hr. It turns out Lonsdale Quay has it’s own lot which comes with 2hrs of free parking if you purchase anything there, all you need is a receipt. The place is quite similar to Granville Island, lots of grocers, florists and delis. We were quite hungry by the time so we headed right to the food court. I ended up having a 2 supposedly-spicy enchiladas from a Mexican deli (a mexi-deli?), and Esther had some yummy halibut and chips. With our appetites satisfied for now, we took a nice (but cold) stroll along the waterfront. After taking a couple of pictures, we headed back inside to warm up. The stores there stock some pretty cool items. It’s a great place to shop if you are sick of your regular mall and want to look for something different. It’s readily accessible by Seabus too, so don’t go thinking you need a car to get yourself over there.
Our next destination was Cleveland Dam. The dam was built in 1954 and named after the first Chief Commissioner of the Greater Vancouver Water District, it supplies 40% of the drinking water used by the Lower Mainland.

We weren’t really prepared for the cold, so we hopped back into the car and drove back down to Park Royal. Since both of us have not been to the new Village At Park Royal, we grabbed hot tea from Starbucks to warm up and had a great time just chatting it up! Recharged by the tea, it was time for me to open my present! I got a beautiful photo frame/album with our initials on it. It’s already sitting on my desk despite having no pictures in it yet, and it will be a permanent fixture right there! Since we weren’t too keen on spending more time in the cold exploring the stores in the Village, we headed to the mall proper and took a stroll on the south side. It’s pretty silly to have a mall broken into two, where the only easy way to get across is by car but I’m sure they had their reasons for doing so.

It’s finally time for dinner! I had reservations for 2 at the Hamilton Street Grill and overall it was quite good, albeit a bit on the steep side. We started with a gorgonzola cheese fondue which was cheesy, sinful and very very delicious. As for entrees, I had a hanger steak and Esther had a filet mignon. The hanger steak, despite it’s exclusiveness (there can be only 1 per cow), was somewhat tough but nevertheless juicy and had a nice char on it. It was made better by the wine I had (what’s with my wine drinking nowadays?). Esther’s filet mignon was surperbly done, with meat so tender you could have told me it was minced beef and I would have believed you! Esther didn’t care too much for the bacon wrapped around the filet, but I liked it… as always. The red meat filled us up completely and we had absolutely no room for dessert, so that concluded dinner for us. The service was excellent throughout the night, and that made it so much better for us. I feel bad for people working on Valentine’s (or any other special occasion/holiday for that matter), but I’m sure the tips make up for it.

We decided to head back and see how Yen and Alvina were doing back home. They had finished dinner too and were enjoying a ridiculously sour kiwi wine. We took lots of pictures, Alvina got horribly tipsy, and generally had lots of fun till past midnight. A already memorable day was made even better by another surprise gift from Esther at the end of the night! I got a Swiss Army Knife which despite it’s small size, has very handy stuff like a large blade, can and bottle opener, screwdriver and even a wire stripper. I just discovered a little engraving panel at the back too, so we’ll have to get that done soon too.

It was a perfect end to the perfect day! I know some of you might think that we have fallen into the consumerism of the day (damn you Hallmark!), but to me it’s a day to appreciate what you have, everyday can be Valentine’s Day if you make it such! Let me know what you guys did!