Vancouver x2x
This is almost 2 weeks late but I feel like I need to do a post about the weekend my family spent in Vancouver before Dad and my birthday. This was titled the “x2x” weekend because we were celebrating the birthday when I turned x years old and Dad turned 2x years old.
The first weekend event was Bard on the Beach on Friday Night. Bard is a very cool experience. We had tickets but there are no assigned seats so we got there early to line up. While we were in line we had a delicious picnic packed by Allison and Michelle. While waiting we given a brightly coloured pieces of paper on which to write our names. Then when the doors we went into the tent and taped our names onto our seats of choice. Then we had time to enjoy a glass of wine and the view. On Friday night we saw Titus Andronicus (a play none of us had seen before). It was, um, a very good presentation of the play. The truth is that it’s not really a happy story and there are a lot of deaths. I’m more for the use of a red handkerchief to represent blood than actual fake blood so I spent a good part of certain scenes looking away from the stage!
Saturday morning started with watching the Individual Time Trial in the Tour de France. We had a lazy morning and then in the afternoon we did birthday presents. Normally birthday presents would take about 10 minutes but not this year. My family went way overboard! Inspired by my “30 on 30″ theme they got me 30 presents! On top of that, all the presents had something to do with the number 30. The full list is here. Some of my favourites were: a fleece blanket that was 30 square feet, 3 pairs of toe socks for running (for 30 toes), an SPF 30 bucket hat and 30 Lindt chocolate eggs. It was so much fun. Apparently my they’d been working on this for months and it involved many emails, cross-country shopping and I can only assume a spreadsheet. Here I am very excited about getting to open 30 presents!
On Saturday evening we went back to Bard on the Beach to see The Tempest. Things were a bit different this time around because it was one of the “Bard-B-Q & Fireworks” night. At intermission we were treated to a salmon barbecue dinner and then after the performance we had coffee, dessert and a prime private seating area to view the Celebration of Light fireworks. It was such a cool night. We also managed to take a nice family picture before the show.
On Sunday morning (after watching the last stage of the Tour) Mom, Dad, Matt and I headed to Granville Island. Matt and I did a nice easy 5 mile run while Mom and Dad went for a walk. Then we poked around some toy stores, a seafood store and stopped for a morning coffee. We ended up sitting around long enough that it was time for lunch. So we headed over to our favourite Granville lunch spot for sandwiches and yam fries. The afternoon was pretty low-key as everyone was in need of a rest.
Sunday evening was Dad and my “official” birthday dinner. We went to the Watermark Restaurant on Kits beach. We had a nice meal with a lovely view of the sunset. It was a wonderful wonderful weekend. The full set of photos are here and of course it couldn’t end without taking another Cotton Cousins (and friends) photo.
