A Weekend Away

I had a wonderful long weekend.

I was lucky to have Thursday evening until Sunday evening off. On Thursday I went out for some drinks at a pub. Or in my case, some Pepsi and the most amazing cheesecake ever. We went because one of my favorite cover bands, Green with Envy, was playing. They were good as always, but in my pregnant old age I was happy to get home and go to bed.

Me and B. went away to a 5-star resort and spent Friday and Saturday nights in a cottage. We made the plans weeks ago to go on a short vacation to relax alone and get a chance to talk.

We went about a year ago as well, but it was only for one night and it poured rain the entire time.

This weekend it didn't rain, but the sun was lacking a little bit.

Friday was a warm but cloudy day. We made it to the cottage around 2pm. Of course I took photos right away. It was a one-bedroom cottage with a king size bed. 

We made a quick trip to the beach, but it wasn't sunny enough to stay. We relaxed in the jaccuzzi tub twice with a glass of juice non-alcoholic wine.

The path to the beach: 

(More beach & belly photos coming soon!)

In the evening, we ventured out to the nearest community, where we browsed around a convenience store and then a grocery store.

In this small little grocery store, and this grocery store only, we found Golden Grahams cereal. I don't know if they have Golden Grahams where you are, but I haven't seen a trace of this cereal in years, and was convinced they no longer made it. Well, they do*, and they're hiding the only boxes of it in this small little area. This may have been the highlight of my weekend. (* There's also a chance that this cereal has been on the shelf for years in this tiny grocery store and no one ever bought it.)

We ate amazing BBQed food all weekend - breakfast sausages, burgers, hot dogs, a frozen pizza. I'm sad to go back to regular food.

On Saturday we drove east to parts I've never been before. Very boring parts, I must say. It was very windy and cold, so photos were rushed and very few. 

We visited yet another grocery store then went back to the resort.

The pool is indoor. We went at dinner time Saturday so it was deserted. It was the warmest pool I've ever been in. It felt so nice.

It rained all evening so we just hung out with the patio door open, listening to the rain. A little while before we went to bed we heard some sort of animal screeching somewhere outside. We couldn't see anything, and we couldn't figure out what the sound was, but it sounded like animal murder. There were no bodies found in the morning when it was light out.

Sunday we headed home, and I went back to work. And that was the end of my relaxing weekend.

NYE in NYC

Remember Flat Venassa? Sure you do. Now I've barely begun to show you the adventures that she has been on, but those stories can wait. Flat Venassa been around for a few new years, but she has never celebrated - until now, that is! Flat Venassa did New Years Eve this year in Times Square. That's right, New York. 

S. and Flat Venassa at the bridge from Home Alone

Grand Central Station

Looks like a good time. Wish I was there. 

Recap: more travels, a year ago & fall TV

Tuesday, September 21

New Brunswick road trip

What was supposed to be a trip to NS for S. to get fitted for a dress, turned into a random roadtrip to NB with no real plans or destinations. We visited a couple of roadside attractions, went to the zoo, tried out Magnetic Hill (my 2nd time), visited the outdoor gym, hung out with A. for the first time in months!, went to Hopewell Rocks, had some awesome Arby's, and just had fun. Here are a few pictures. 

A. and me. Just a tiny bit windy. 

Me and my moose friend at the zoo

Pretty kitties

Otters were our favorite! 

Magnetic Hill

The Silver Fox

S. and me with penis rock at Hopewell Rocks

Thursday, September 23

It was my brother and sister's 19th birthday. They grow up so fast. 

I went out to a pub with mother and sister, where everyone drank wayy too much. We talked to lots of people, had some drinks bought for us, and made friends with the band, who stay at the hotel I work at. I was so excited when they dedicated a song to me. We talked to the guy a bit while the band was on break too. When I saw him at work the next day he even remembered mother and sister's names. 

Going out when you have to work the next morning is not a good idea though. Mom would agree with that as well. 

Friday, September 24

I felt horrible getting up for work, but I survived the day. My friend Scott was in town and stopped by to visit me at work on my last hour. When I was done we met up with B. and had supper together. The meal was great, especially being my first real meal of the day. 

Afterwards we did some quick video game and grocery shopping before Scott went home and I spent the night with B. 

He got me Playstation Move, which was hard to enjoy hungover, but still pretty cool. I was in bed nice and early that night, as we both had to work at 7:45 the next morning. 

Saturday, September 25

Thankfully, it was an easy day at work, since I was still pretty tired. But it was the last day before my sort of 3 day weekend. I was off at 4 and don't have to be back until Tuesday at 4. 

I met up with B. after work again and we played more PS Move. I rock at volleyball and table tennis, just sayin'. 

Later on we pooled our money together to get some BOGO McDonald's and some Haagen Dazs on sale. We tried vanilla almond a couple of nights ago (I LOVE it) and pralines and cream this time. He was a bigger fan of this stuff. Too bad it's regularly about $7 because I am in love. 

We watched American History X after getting back. Good, yet disturbing movie. 

Sunday, September 26

It's kind of a sad day today. It marks one year since Keith died. Although thinking about it doesn't hurt like it used to, I still miss the guy a lot. I miss our random MSN chats and taking pictures together and drinking the Captain. He really was one of the funniest people I've ever known. 

RIP Keith

On to happier things. 

I spent the morning with my love, and the afternoon with mother. 

We went to the farmer's market they were having downtown, a few cute gift/craft shops and Wal-Mart. The best place was Michael's, the craft store. I could spend millions in the store. Probably on scrapbooking supplies alone. There was so much I'd love to have. 

My favorite was the scrapbooking table and storage blocks like this one:

I would kill to have my own room just for crafts/scrapbooking. 

I also looked around the baking aisle. The materials available for making cakes is amazing. It's something else I would love to get into, but I can't afford to take on another hobby. 

I also spent some time on Good Reads today. I'm reading 'Smooth Talking Stranger' by Lisa Kleypas (bought in the Toronto Airport) and I'm really enjoying it. It makes me feel like I'm really getting back into reading. If anyone else is on Good Reads, friend me! 

One last random thought.. Desperate Housewives started tonight! I barely remember what was happening at the end of last season so I feel a bit out of it but I'm glad shows are starting back up again. I also have yet to watch Big Bang Theory's newest episode. It's waiting for me on the DVR for tomorrow. What are you guys watching this fall? 

Soon my bedtime. I'm hoping to get lots of tv and baking time tomorrow while everyone is at work. 

Hope you all had a great weekend! 

Venassa Does Ontario - Part 2

Part 1 - Cinnamon buns & Air-trains

And this is part two. Again - this will be terribly long and extremely detailed.

Thursday, September 9th.

Nothing like waking up on the your first morning in a new city with a hangover. And being rushed to go out.

So we headed to the mall. I love malls. I don't love shopping so much when I'm hungover though, so I didn't shop very well. We went from the good mall, to the not so good mall, to the shitty mall, walking. It was a nice little tour of the city, minus the cloudy weather and our hangovers.

We ate at Applebee's.

I've never been before. I forgot what they're called that I got.. French Sliders? Little mini beef sandwiches with swiss cheese that you dip in some kind of dark jus, that really tastes like nothing. But it was good. Man, I'd love some of those RIGHT NOW.

Moving on..

We hopped on a bus, got off at the station and hopped on another bus. Easy stuff. Then we walked to B's father's place.

We had a quiet afternoon then went on a drive around the city with B's friend, S. We stopped for dinner at Jack Astor's. Chicken strips were okay, fries were boring. It was fine, but my meal was nothing special. When are chicken fingers ever special?

S's burger was interesting though.

We were home fairly early to our empty condo. I was kind of restless so we went for a walk. I got some pizza, then we got a bit of snacks and went to Blockbuster. It was a nice walk.


Friday, September 10th

It was Wonderland day! Or so we thought.

Closed on weekdays now, and closed Saturday due to a private event. We did CN Tower instead.

It was cool. I got some nice pictures and had my ears pop in an elevator. It's one of those 'try it once' things, where I would have no interest in doing it again unless I was going with someone who'd never done it before.

We wanted to stop at the Eaton Center but traffic was too crazy and we needed to get back. And THEN we got stuck because some sort of Back to School Parade was going on for a college or something. It was then that I got to see my first crackhead - a guy in a tye dyed shirt dancing down the street with a creepy smile on his face, stopping occasionally to spit at cars. We put our windows up.

On the way home I tried another new place: Mr Sub. Bread = good, but I would've rathered my sub toasted.

We relaxed for a little while then packed up to go to B's Mom's place for the next two nights. The drive was quite long due to construction closing off one lane.

We got there while she was still at work. It was nice to shower and be comfortable.

We were starving to we hit up a place called "Family Restaurant". I got fish and chips. I forget the type of fish, but definitely not something I'm used to. They got pizza, and it looked great.


Saturday, September 11th

We got up at a decent hour and went on a tour of Huntville. It's a really pretty place.

Lion's Lookout, I believe it was called. Overlooking part of the town. 

And look who came! This is Paper Venassa and B's mom. 

After we looked at the pretty-ness, we stopped at some shops along the town, then went to the mall.

At $7 each they were too expensive for me to buy them for my nephew, but still very cute. And he loves trains or basically anything that will stick together and move on wheels. 

I spent most of the rest of my money on jeans, DVDs and other random things.

We ate at a place who's name I don't remember. The food was okay. The waitress was not good at refilling water and missed somethings in our order.

We got home and relaxed and watched Eurotrip and napped.

We went out to Pizza Pizza (3rd time!) and I got us a large pepperoni pizza for supper. That is when I fell in love with jalapeno cheddar dipping sauce.

We were in bed crazy early that night, but I could not fall asleep for hours.


Sunday, Septembe 12th

Up early, to be on our way to the airport. Home time already.

Toronto airport was so easy to me this time around. Less stress with having someone with you, and knowing a bit more about the airport procedure. I love how huge it is on the other side of security in Toronto. On the island, we have a vending machine and a woman who sells chips and sandwiches and cinnamon buns.

Toronto they had about 5 places to eat and a bunch of shops.

I got poutine.

We were there very early so I broke down and bought a book to keep me entertained until it was airplane time. Time flew by.

It was nice flying with B this time. A lot better than being alone and beside strangers. I tried to sleep on the plane but wasn't very successful in it.

Mom picked me up at the airport and it really felt like I'd been gone for a long time. I don't know why. But it felt weird to be home. It was so hard waking up for work the next morning.

But basically, that was Ontario. I can't wait to go back.

Cinnamon buns and air-trains: The story of my travels

I struggled from 8:50-9:30 pm to stay awake. I'm still struggling with it, and so I'll finally recap my weekend trip. What better way to force myself awake until 10. At least it's more acceptable to go to bed at 10, than 9.

Never mind that I probably won't drag my lazy ass out of bed until 10 tomorrow morning but it is much needed.

Disclaimer:

This will be very detailed. RAOR: Read at own risk. 

Wednesday, September 8

The only thing that let me sleep, and not get all worked up until I felt sick was the fact that I had to work a full 8-hour shift right before my flight. The put off my excitement for a bit. By the time I got off work, I could not sit still. Mom took me to the airport, it was crazy easy. Baggage, security, not as scary as I thought. 

I was through early, so I had me some nasty airport food, since I hadn't eaten much all day. Yay for $3 cinnamon bun. I got lucky and the lady gave me the apple juice as well for the $3. 

And so I eventually boarded my very first plane, but not before slowing down to take a picture with my phone. 

We are pretty ghetto. On tv I always saw people walk through a tunnel, right on to their plane. 

Uh, no. Not on my island. We walk through a bit of an open-ended tunnel on the ground, straight outside over to the plane, and climb up some kind of stairs contraption there. 

I sat right at the wing. Super excited to get a window seat, never thought that the plane would block some of my view. 

Effin rain.

I got to sit with two old ladies, who didn't seem to share my newfound anxiety about flying. We started to move, I gripped the armrest. We stopped to wait about 10 minutes. Love the delays. Finally, we took off. 

This was probably my face:

But really, I wasn't too scared, just nervous. I was more scared about the feeling in my ears. I was chewing gum furiously so wtf was this feeling? It went away once we settled 40,000 feet in the air. No biggie. 

We got into the clouds. They were all dark and the wing was shaky. I couldn't see much. But then we got over the clouds. They were huge, and there were big spaces in them. I wish I could've gotten a picture, because I can't describe it in words. But I was amazed. I was thinking "This is so beautiful. I wish I could stay up here forever and watch this." But then after 10 minutes or so I was like "Effing clouds are so boring to look at," and I started watching some tv. (Highlight of my flight: Big Bang Theory was on for the last half hour, then Big Brother but I didn't get to watch it because we were in Ontario!)

So I got my first glimpse of Toronto, Ontario, and it was amazing. I think that view would've gotten less boring than the clouds, by far. 

[ via ]

I was in awe, so this is not my picture, but it gives you an idea. Either way, it is basically breath-taking, for a small town girl like me to see my first big city from the sky, all lit up. I didn't think we were in space where a plane could land, but then we landed. It was quick, and a bit bumpy and I near had a heart attack, but I survived. 

Mom gave me some advice: Follow the crowd, and they will lead you to baggage. Totally my plan. 

But no, I mentioned I was sitting beside two older ladies? I got stuck walking out behind them, and stopped when they did to grab a wheel chair. By the time I got around, the crowd ahead was gone, and the crowd behind was too far back. 

Turns out it's not hard to follow a bunch of signs with a bag symbol with an arrow. It seemed like a million years, but I found the baggage area. 

Then I found my love, who had snuck into the baggage area to find me so I wouldn't be scared. At that point I was on some sort of 'travelling high' and all in amazement. But I was mostly excited to see him. Cause apparently 5 days without him turns me into some whiny, needy thing. Gross. Moving on... 

My bag came quick, we grabbed out and headed out to find our ride.

I was amazed by the air-trains, or at least that's what I'm calling them for now because boyfriend is too slow responding to tell me what they're really called. By they go on those tracks you see a bit in the background. Common stuff for you city folk, more of an OMG moment for me. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the actual air-train. 

Boring stuff: We drove to our condo (completely empty except an air mattress and our stuff, his aunt and uncle just moved into a new one, and still owned this one), got ready, and walked in the rain down to a cute little bar. Where we got: 

Bottle service!

A bottle of liquor, bottomless mix, and two buckets of ice so we could keep ourselves with drinks all night, without having to move. Genius. But drinking it all so quickly was not. Not bad experiences, just some stumbling and a couple of annoying hangovers on my first official day in Ontario. 

Ex-roomie joined us.

I needed that bottle of liquor just to put up with the two.

I like this one, but bf probably does not.

I bet he likes this one though:

At this point things get fuzzy, but we had some pizza and headed home to bed.

Goodnight, Ontario. 

PS. Air-train aka subway, supposedly. What do I know?

Stay tuned for part 2. 

Complete: My goals to 'Fly by plane' and 'Visit a new province'.