BC Day long weekend

We went shopping, visited a botanical garden, discovered a new park, had a barbecue, and watched library dvds. Just the three of us. We had no plans with anyone and it was sort of nice. We did what we felt like doing on our schedule and it ended up being really fun!

My family went to Portland. We were invited but we declined. Having gone away to Whistler in May and heading on another vacation later this year, we didn't want to take more time off. It seemed like everyone but us were going away this weekend. When we drove around or even when we were at the mall, Vancouver seemed a bit deserted. Wow.

On Saturday, we visited VanDusen Botanical Gardens. It was our first time and we were surprised to find that it was so big. The garden took up nearly the entirely block! We brought a panini for Tristan and lots of cherries for us to share. It was a lovely garden but we regretted not bringing the stroller. Afterwards, we drove to Stevenston Farm to buy corn. It's not really corn season right now but we did buy a bunch of other fruits and vegetables. There is just something about being at a farmer's market that makes be so excited! This farm had complimentary Salt Spring Island coffee too:)

That day Tristan got splinters in his hand. He was touching all sorts of stuff at the gardens so it wasn't a big surprise. I'm amazed he hadn't gotten splinters before actually. After his bath that night, I had to use a needle to remove his splinters. We tried to blindfold him so he wouldn't see the needle but he sort of freaked out so we abandoned that idea. He whimpered a bit and tried to pull away from time to time but overall he was very brave. It didn't take long before I removed all three splinters. Phew!

On Sunday, we did our usual shopping at Metrotown, chores around the house, and went running. Blah, blah, blah. Ok, Sunday was totally boring but we can't expect to have fun every single day.

On Monday, we headed to Stevenston Village. We brought Tristan biking at Garry Point Park. The park reminded me of Dallas Beach in Victoria because it was so windy! The wild flowers there kind of blew me away too. The park is great for picnics, flying kites, biking, running or just walking. I was surprised to find no playground though. From the park, we walked to Rocanini to have coffee. On the way, we bought Tristan a vanilla ice cream cone. Not only an ice cream cone but his very first taste of ice cream!!! I think we won the best parents in the world award that day :) He ate his ice cream while he walked and made such a big mess. Tristan is a super slow eater and he didn't know that he had to lick from the bottom up and of course it was a hot day. We were getting all sticky and messy ourselves just from cleaning him along the way so we put a bib on him! If you were cruising Stevenston Village and noticed a little boy walking and eating an ice cream cone wearing a orange bib and his parents holding a bunch of napkins, that was us! :)

 

We couldn't let BC day long weekend pass without having a barbecue. Isn't it tradition to have barbecues on long weekends in the summer? Well, it should be! I know it was just the three of us but we were cooking for the winter. You may think we're nuts but when we're eating barbecue soulvaki in November, we'll see who's laughing then! :) We made pork soulvaki, quinoa burgers, soy chicken wings, and hummus. We served the quinoa burgers with roasted tomato, avocado, hummus, lettuce and pita bread. We opened the coconut water and we had a feast! Oh so good! That evening, I ended up foodsaving around 75% of the food and throwing it all in the freezer. Yes, it was another great weekend :)