And It Shall Be Forever Known....

...as the Burger Long-Weekend.

This past weekend was Victoria Day long weekend, which I actually had it off from work! Last year I had to work the long weekend so I missed out on all of the festivities that Victoria has to offer our lovely city on the holiday weekend. But then again, last year I pretty much didn't have any friends to enjoy them with, so no big loss there.

Jaime was away for work for a few days so Saturday I had an empty house. I got up early to do a workout because I had plans for the day, so I wanted to get in a quick P90X workout before the start to the day. About 5 minutes into it I heard the garage door open and was like, "What? It's 7:00am! How is Jaime home already?" But it was actually the lady who watches Tank when Jaime is away. She was dropping him off about 9 hours earlier than I was expecting, which kind of threw a wrench in my plans for the day. The plan was to drive downtown to meet up with a friend, hit up a morning farmer's market, buy some delicious food and head to the beach for the day. Now I had to add a high-maintenance and highly demanding dog to the mix. Alright. No worries.

So I packed up Tank and headed to town. Dogs aren't allowed in the interior area of the market so I ended up just perusing the perimeter of the fence and looking at the stalls that lined the outside of the market while my friend went in to buy some delicious food for the picnic. I learned how much I LOVE the Fairfield area of Victoria because the houses are mostly all restored Historian houses and the area has a very "Nelson" feel to it. I was instantly smitten. We headed to the beach (I can't remember the name!) which was an awesome area to bring dogs to. We spent a couple hours there and at no point was not someone walking and/or playing with their dog along the shore. Tank always had someone to play with (aka, someone to bother) which was good for us because we didn't have to entertain him the entire time. Unfortunately what this meant was when we wanted to just lay in the sun and do nothing for longer than 2 minutes, Tank wouldn't allow it. He needed to see and sniff everything and I soon got a bit annoyed. He was physically tired from playing so much but couldn't relax because there was so much going on around us. I couldn't tie him up because he can slip out of his harness (damn Bulldogs not having necks makes things difficult) so after some time, I decided it would be best to drive him home since Jaime would have been home soon anyway.

So I drove him all the way back to the West Shore then headed all the way back to town.

I need to find a place to live downtown.

When I got back to town, we headed to the Inner Harbour to go meet up with some friends at the free concert that was happening down by the water. It was an online RSVP event, which works OK in theory but as soon as we arrived we learned that things didn't work out as expected. They way overbooked the concert so by the time we arrived there, the line-up was a good hour long wait. Luckily it was an outside concert and the weather was awesome, so we just found a grassy knoll nearby and enjoyed the music while sitting in the sunshine. No line-ups, elbow-to-elbow crowds, shouting at your friends or the pressures of feeling the need to cheer and clap after each song. We grabbed a beer at an outside patio pub, which was about 20 feet from the concert, and also enjoyed the show there. Good times!

After the show we headed to another pub to have some late-night dinner with a group of friends, which is where the Burger Long-Weekend all started. Every night last weekend I had a burger for dinner. Each one of them very different than the next, but all were very enjoyable.

Burger #1 - consumed at The Beagle Pub - The Bison Burger. Topped with goat cheese and a whiskey bourbon glaze...yes please! It was a lot tastier than I would have expected and I ate every last crumb of that thing. The actual patty was nothing all that special but the sauces and spreads made it scrumptious.

The next day I volunteered to help my friend Chris paint his new condo. He's been a bit of a stressball about getting all of the renovations done in time for his move-in date (which is today) so I was more than happy to help him out. Plus I truly enjoy painting. I find it very cleansing - like a fresh snowfall that covers up all of the ugly snow buried beneath it. About half way through the work day we had to go to Home Depot to pick up some more paint and painter's tape, so we decided to also take a late lunch break afterwards.

Burger #2 - consumed at the Shine Cafe - The Berkeley Veggie Burger. I heard great stuff about this place and I was not disappointed at all with my choice. The homemade patty was topped with mushrooms, cheddar, onions, pesto mayo and all the trimmings. It was falling apart all over the place and my face and plate was an absolute mess. But honestly, it was the second best veggie burger I have had on this island and dare I say the second best veggie burger I've ever had?? Yup...definitely a possibility. It was pure awesome.

After 12 hours of painting, we called it a night and I went home and crashed in bed. Two busy days in a row, plus one more before the weekend was done.

The final day of the long weekend again started in the early morning. I was feeling guilty about my shitty eating habits the past 2 days so I headed to the gym to get in a quick cardio workout. After a quick shower and change of clothes, my friend Alice and I decided to take advantage of the continuous nice weather and went for a hike up Mt. Finlayson. I've only ever done this hike once before when my parents were in town, and this time I knew what to expect. It's a crazy steep hike with some dodgy areas to get through, but the view from the top is quite lovely. While I enjoy this hike, it's really not my ideal trail because you have to concentrate so hard on where you step or else you'll plummet to your death, so you can't really enjoy the view around you until you reach the top. But it was still a fantastic way to spend some time with Alice and enjoy the early afternoon.

After another shower and another change of clothes, I headed back downtown for a few hours to hang out with friends before the weekend came to an end.

Again, I really need to find a place to live downtown.

Burger #3 - consumed at Bin 4 - The Ginger Soy Tofu Burger. My all-time favourite place to eat in the city. It never lets me down. Considering it was already around 7:30pm and I had to get up at 4am for work the next morning, I didn't want to eat a heavy burger, so I went for this one with the butter lettuce instead of a bun. As much as I absolutely LOVE the buns they have there, I figured eliminating the bun would be easier on the old GI tract since I knew I had to go to bed fairly soon. And as always, even though there was no bun for my burger, I was not let down at all by the flavours and textures of my meal. Such a fantastic place to eat.

PS. Bin 4 has my all-time favourite veggie burger - The Mr. Bean. I dream of this thing.

Honestly though, I was looking forward to getting back to work so that I could actually stop and sit down for longer than 5 minutes! It was definitely a great weekend though. Also I think that Burger Long-Weekend might need to be a new personal tradition for me. Can a person ever get sick of delicious burgers??

Christmas, Board Games and My Re-Love of Hot Yoga

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here so here is a late "Merry Christmas" and an early "Happy New Year" to everyone out there :)

I went to Vancouver on Christmas Eve to spend time with my sister, niece and brother-in-law who are living over there while my niece is getting her treatment at BC Children's hospital. Even though it was not the usual Christmas that our family is used to, it was still a wonderful visit and I am very happy that I got to see them and see my niece open her presents. Unfortunately I had to leave on Christmas day since I had to work Boxing day, but that was alright. It was worth it.

Like I said, I've been keeping busy which has been highly enjoyable! I have to take a couple courses next semester which means that I get to become a whining procrastinating student again, but I only have 4 courses left before I am done this program and then I am free! Free! Free!!! The past few months, living as only an employee and not a student has been great, so I am not looking forward to cracking open those textbooks and putting my nose to the grindstone again. But like I said. Just 4 more courses to go.

723 Yates Street
 Just in case you want to drop in.

Saturday night I was promised a "fun night" by a friend, and I was pleasantly surprised to end up in a new board-game cafe downtown. It's called Interactivity Board Game Cafe and it's a quirky little cafe which specializes in board games! When you walk into the cafe, there are hundreds of board games stacked upon the shelves for the board game shoppers of Victoria to purchase. As you move on through the cafe, there is the sales counter where you can buy food, snacks, beverages and literally a "bowl of candy" for your munching needs. Then past that, there are about a dozen large tables set up and roughly 600 games for your playing pleasure. Basically how it works is you pay a flat rate for each person ($5/person) and you have unlimited access to all of the board games for as long as you want. Whether it's a charming evening for a couple to have a date, or a place to bring all of your friends for a random game night, there's something for everyone at this place.

I think it is a pleasing business concept and I am very interested in how successful it becomes. It's only been open for about 2 months now and after talking to one of the employees, it sounded like they were having good feedback so far. I can think of lots of pros and cons to the idea, so hopefully all of the cons disappear that they have a lot of success in their fun business endeavor. I'm always rooting for the independent business owners out there!

Yesterday morning started with a nice hike up Mt. Work. It's a fairly easy hike and if you stop to enjoy the scenery at the top for a few minutes, it only take a little over an hour round-trip. A nice Sunday morning hike. I didn't bring my camera so I have no pics to share of the trail but there was 1 or 2 magnificent views near the top.

I also got back to hot yoga yesterday :) I am ashamed to say that it has been nearly a year and a half since I stepped into a hot yoga studio and...oh man. I nearly forgot how amazing it feels to spend 90 minutes in a stupidly hot room and have obscenely amounts of sweat run off your body while standing in awkward positions with a bunch of nearly naked strangers. It felt great to get back in there. While I am not a huge fan of the Bikram Yoga, it was still good to get back in there and enjoy the amazingness of hot yoga (yes "amazingness" is a real word....)

So after burning several hundred calories in yoga, there is no place like Bin 4 to gain a couple thousand back into the body. I have been jonesin' for a good burger the past couple of days and wanted to hit The Pink Bicycle, but alas, it is closed on Sundays. So Bin 4 provided us with the greasy comeback needed after a great workout. I have eaten there a few times now and I swear that every burger I have at that place is better than the last. Between the "Mr. Bean" and the "Angry Bull", you just can't go wrong with Bin 4.

Well, back to work tomorrow. The last working day of the year! YAY!

Parents Visit!

I am a totally terrible daughter for not blogging about this yet, but my parents were here last weekend and it was great having them in Victoria with me! They were awesome enough to pack up some the essentials that I had to leave behind in Trail (such as my summer tires) and drive it over the mountains through some crazy snowy weather and onto the island. Trying to decide what to do while my parents were here was tough since I am new to the area myself and have yet to discover my own personal favourite features to show people who are visiting. I knew that they wouldn't want to be spending a bunch of money on going out to eat, so I wanted to find some places that were new to me, but had great local reviews.

Then I thought to myself, where is a place that I gotta eat? Then my brain went into corny tourist mode and I hit the internet to see if "You Gotta Eat Here" or "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" have ever gone to any local places that I would be interested in trying out. We decided to try John's Place which is a tiny local restaurant on Pandora Ave that is famous for its scratch cooking and homestyle menu (with many twists to make it not like what momma used to make). I had the Salsa Chorizo Benny, served on the amazing cornbread with a monster bowl of fruit on the side, and moaned in delight with every bite. The coffee wasn't very good, but my plate of food made up for that. I don't think mom and dad enjoyed their meal as much as I did mine, but I'd definitely go again to try many other things on the menu that peaked my interest. I really wanted the Ragin' Vegan Burrito but it was sold out, so I'll have to get it next time.

The second place we went to a couple nights later was Bin 4, which is another locally owned restaurant that specializes in burgers that are made with local ingredients, no hormones and good quality meats. I've been wanting to go to this place since I heard about it, since they have 2 kinds of lamb burgers, and I love me a lamb burger. I had the "My Big Fat Greek Burger" and it was really tasty! Not as tasty as the one from the Wooden Monkey in Halifax which I would step over my own sister to have again (kidding! kidding!), but still a good choice for anyone who likes lamb in the form of a burger.

See my dad, who LOVES burgers and I don't know of anyone who appreciates a burger as much as him, said that his burger at Bin 4 was in the top 3 burgers that he has ever eaten. Now. That's pretty huge. I don't remember the name of the specific burger that he got and it was a daily special so it's not on the regular menu, but this information about my dad alone should tempt you to try this place out.

While the folks were here, dad and I did a few good walks/hikes. One of them was up Mount Finlayson which is up by Bear Mountain, which is the area where they were staying while here. We've hiked some pretty good sized mountains, and this one is not big at all (just shy of 1400ft), so we figured it would be no big deal at all to climb one morning. Didn't research it, didn't look into it too much, just got up early Sunday morning, got into some walking gear and headed up. We didn't start at the point of the trail that most people take, so we missed this sign,

And this sign too,

And ended up climbing a pretty scary and trecherous trail. Like, I'm talking skinny scary pathways, steep and slippery rock faces, fallen tree, exposed roots to trip over, lose stones paths and areas where we would completely lose the trail and have to wader around looking for the way to go (orange markers on the rocks) without falling off the edge of the mountain.

All in all, it only took a little over an hour and a half to do the round trip which isn't all that long at all, plus we stopped to take bunch of photos, but the incline and grade of that trail was not at all what we were expecting. From the bottom, it really didn't look like much at all. Never judge a mountain by it's cover people!