Monday, March 31, 2014
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Via SkyTrain to the Waterfront Station
After lunch we hopped on SkyTrain at the Landsdowne Station located next to the Mall and rode the Canada Line all the way to the Waterfront Station.
We initially got caught in a brief downpour but the skies cleared and we walked along Coal Harbour for a mile or so before returning to Richmond to drive home.
At the border the NEXUS lineup was actually longer than the regular lines, but it still only took us 10-15 minutes to get through so we can't complain.
While it wasn't spectacular, it made for a pleasant outing and a reward for all our recent renovation work.
Richmond BC: R&H Chinese Food
We found this joint in the Landsdowne Mall Food Court after reading great reviews here on Yelp. We ate very well, as the photos show, for about $22.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Our Newest Project: Shower Forecast
We've spent the last few weeks renovating rather than recreating. We tore out the venerable fiberglass shower unit in our en suite bathroom - reciprocating saws are very handy in such situations - and our project has continued with few major problems - knock on wood.
We bought our tiles locally but ordered online the fixtures, the shower base and door, and the porcelain shelf and niche, getting exactly what we want and saving ourselves several hundred dollars in the process.
After setting the new base into mortar, we hired a plumber who roughed in the new fixtures.
A fair amount of heavy work included not only the tiles themselves but the HardeeBacker cement board.
Just yesterday we mounted the (very) heavy glass door and soon we should be able to take showers while enjoying Kathy's tile artistry.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Chilliwack Sunrise Serenade
We spotted this magnificent sunrise on our way up to Chilliwack early this morning to hear Jake's band perform in the music festival at 8:00 a.m.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Crêpes in Fairhaven
After several days of feeling housebound from the steady rain, we had to take advantage of merely overcast skies to get out of the house.
We drove down to Bellingham's scenic Fairhaven district and walked around for awhile before looking for a place to eat a light lunch. There are many choices in this neighborhood and we settled on Magdalena's Creperie fairly quickly for two reasons.
First, we discovered Trip Advisor rates it Number 2 of 382 Bellingham eateries. Second, we'd never dined there before. If not now, when?
Around 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon the smallish restaurant was packed and we were lucky to find a table for two next to the front door.
The service was very slow and we noticed a couple of fairly obvious inefficiencies, but the servers were friendly. We both ordered savory crêpes from the menu and, once delivered, they proved to be tasty. Brian's, in the foreground below, comprised ham, tomato, sun-dried tomato, pepper, olives, arugula, and mozzarella in a buckwheat crêpe (galette in French), and Kathy chose grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini, pepper), mozzarella, tzatziki in a whole wheat crêpe.
It made for a pleasant, if not spectacular, lunch, which we walked off a little with a stroll afterwards down past the Amtrak station into the marine park and back.
The umbrella in the back was fortunately never needed.
We drove down to Bellingham's scenic Fairhaven district and walked around for awhile before looking for a place to eat a light lunch. There are many choices in this neighborhood and we settled on Magdalena's Creperie fairly quickly for two reasons.
First, we discovered Trip Advisor rates it Number 2 of 382 Bellingham eateries. Second, we'd never dined there before. If not now, when?
Around 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon the smallish restaurant was packed and we were lucky to find a table for two next to the front door.
The service was very slow and we noticed a couple of fairly obvious inefficiencies, but the servers were friendly. We both ordered savory crêpes from the menu and, once delivered, they proved to be tasty. Brian's, in the foreground below, comprised ham, tomato, sun-dried tomato, pepper, olives, arugula, and mozzarella in a buckwheat crêpe (galette in French), and Kathy chose grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini, pepper), mozzarella, tzatziki in a whole wheat crêpe.
It made for a pleasant, if not spectacular, lunch, which we walked off a little with a stroll afterwards down past the Amtrak station into the marine park and back.
The umbrella in the back was fortunately never needed.
