Sukhothai

This has been a long and trying summer. I had loads of fun in Calgary with my family, ate amazing food, and even sang some karaoke. The end of the summer, was, not so great.
Before I left for my trip to Calgary, I joined my friend at Sukhothai for some delicious Thai food.
We had pork larb. It was perfectly smoky and one of the best dishes of the night.

And these cream cheese crab filled things are an absolute must whenever I visit Sukhothai.

I’ve had papaya before, but I’ve never liked it. G convinced me to try the papaya salad; I was expecting the type of papaya that I normally see, which is softer and red in colour. This was completely different and was extremely spicy, and just as delicious.

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Where we could be…

This wanderlust that’s hit me has morphed into something insatiable. I find myself looking through travel sites, and gorgeous places all around the world. Wishing, willing myself to be there. But I can’t.
And it’s turned into this incredible frustration. Frustration because I’ve been set back another semester due to incompetency. Frustrated because I’m stuck where I am, and I feel like I’ll always be stuck where I am. Frustrated because even after I’m done school, which is what is holding me back at the moment, I have even more schooling left. Schooling that I’m not even sure I want to continue in.
This year has been one of the most frustrating. It has left me drained and unsure. I don’t know if this is what I want to pursue anymore. I’ve lost my passion and direction. Or rather, my passion is still there, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s enough to keep me going for another 7 years while I go through school.

Oh the places we’ll go…

I’v been hit with the traveling bug all of a sudden. It hit me out of nowhere and now I have an incredible urge to travel across the sea and visit places steeped in history, and places not so much, to take enough photos to fill up my hard drive and taste something new and yummy. Maybe it was because of an interesting chat with a fellow, whose name I never got. He told me about his fantastic adventures in southeast Asia and it’s sparked and kept my interest since then. I keep on thinking about the absolutely gorgeous places in Europe.
Rome would be lovely, I would get to see what I’ve been studying up close in real life, and vielleicht spreche detusch mit jemand? or france where I could consume crusty baguettes and buttery soft cheeses.
Sadly, with my pending trip to western Canada I won’t have enough money to just pick up and leave. Although I would absolutely love to.
So for now I’ll just have to sate my wanderlust with flickr and postcrossing.

Red Boot Drive-In

As I was driving around one day running errands with my mother, I noticed a sign that said “We Only Serve Old Country Hot Dogs”. I was intrigued and convinced my mother to pull a u-Turn so we could try it out. It turned out that it was a drive-in restaurant called The Red Boot In. Then I had a thought! I should get my friends together and we should do a tour of Winnipeg, sampling all the drive-in’s that Winnipeg has to offer. So began Drive-In 2009!
I’ve been back there twice and both times the food has been fast, the service wonderful and the food even better.

The first time I went there I tried their hotdog and karvy fries. The hot dog came loaded with sautéed onions, mustard, and a suspect-looking mystery meat concoction. Upon first bite, I really do think my eyes rolled into the back of my head. It turns out that the suspect looking meat was actually their own home-made chili sauce, and it was incredibly good. I started thinking of what I could slater this stuff on… The second time I had their hamburger, which again, came with onions and mustard, and their chili sauce. I have to say that I wasn’t too impressed with their hamburger, it didn’t seem to have anything distinguish.

And then I tried their karvy fries, which they boast as their specialty. It’s crinkle cut, home-style fries which are coated in a slightly spicy (but not really) seasoning, which is then fried. I think they are some of the best fries I’ve tasted. The taste is hard to describe – I really don’t like when people say this – but it’s just one of those things that you have to go down and taste for yourself.

And they even have a little place outside, complete with umbrellas if it’s raining or too sunny for you to sit at.

I’d have to say that Red Boot is definitely a place that I would go back to again and again – if for their karvy fries alone, and maybe the hot dog.

Cabin, Beach, Scrabble And Food, Food, Food!

Last weekend, on an spur of the moment decision, I joined a bunch of friends on the 1.5 hour drive down to R’s cabin. There was 8 of us altogether on the first day, and 6 the next. We spent the first night making the fire and having the first batch of smokies, drinks, and s’mores.

The second day was ALL food! Our lunch consisted of a delicious salad with mangos and sliced almonds, delicious grilled pork chops, and yummy noodles that had cream of mushroom soup as the sauce base, and was sprinkled liberally with sliced hardboiled eggs and green onions.



And there were yummy snacks

We spent the nights playing scrabble!


One of the best things about going away to R’s cabin is the daily trips to the beach. This weekend was no different for me, despite the weather being so cold (I don’t think it hit above 15 the entire weekend), I still managed to take the 10 minute walk to the beach each day that I was there. I find the beach very calming and relaxing.

It’s definitely one of my most favorite parts of summer.

Postcards!

Lately, I’ve been on a postcrossing streak. I’ve started to send more postcards and I’ve put three in the mail today. After receiving four in my mail the past two days. I’ve updated my page and included images of all the postcards that have been sent to me. I think it’s the lack of anything to do and in addition, not wanting to study for my class.
Which, btw, I’ve missed for this entire week. I skipped on Monday because I wanted an extra day at the cabin, and then on Wednesday, I managed to turn off my alarm and when I finally woke up I had missed my bus by 3 minutes.
I’ve been looking through my postcards, the ones that I’ve bought when I’m on vacation, ones that I’ve received from friends who were on vacation, and ones I’ve received from postcrossing. My favorite are the ones that I’ve received from friends, whether they’ve been sent or just brought back in luggage. I like when people have written on them, it adds a personal touch.

Out of my collection, this is absolutely the most beautiful one.

One thing I never realized is how expensive stamps have gotten, but the excitement from receiving a postcard in the mail, especially when it’s written in a different language and has a beautiful scene on the front is definitely worth the price.

VJ’s Drive-In

So one warm evening in May we decided to hit up VJ’s Drive-In. It wasn’t too busy when we went but there were a lot of people that came and went while we were there. Sadly, my camera died pretty soon after we got there, so there aren’t too many photos.
VJ’s had typical drive-in food, just burgers and hot dogs.

I got the VJ’s special, fries and a drink, R got the same except he got the VJ’s double special and O got the milkshake since he had already eaten. O said he enjoyed his milkshake, but it wasn’t anything too special.

The burgers were very good. They put their own chili on it. Just enough to coat the patty, not enough to overwhelm it. One thing I really liked was that they put a lot of lettuce on the burger, I tend to like lots of lettuce on my burgers, and there was just enough mayo so that the burger wasn’t too dry.

They put all the fires and burger into a box, and there were a lot of fries. I actually couldn’t finish all of them. The food was great, the fries were fresh and it was decently priced. I would definitely go back and try the other items on the menu.

Lying in bed

Him: I won’t die. I’ll just freeze myself. And then unfreeze myself.
Me: But then I’ll be old and wrinkly.
Him: And I’ll be younger one. But I’ll still lie in bed with you even though you’re old.
Me: That might just be the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.

The Cow In The Meadow Goes Moo

One of my most vivid memories of going to the zoo as a child were the elephant rides. I remember having to climb a wooden staircase and then having to wait at the top for the elephant to come around so that I could climb on. The elephant would walk slowly in a lumbering circle, flapping their ears and moving their trunks all around. They’ve since gotten rid of the elephant rides at the zoo, which is good for the elephants, but that also means I don’t get to see any elephants when I go to the zoo. Not that I’ve gone too often in the past couple of years. Actually I haven’t been to the zoo in, I can’t remember how many years. I had two chances to go last year as a work field trip, but somehow I was always at another center when the day arrived.
This time I convinced the boyfriend to go and L and C tagged along for the fun. It was a gorgeous warm sunny day and we had lots of fun.

We saw peacocks

And zebras

There was a huge crowd around the tiger exhibit

And there were even aquariums! One of my favorite parts were the odd little shrimp scurrying around

The zoo was fun, despite the rushing around we had to do, we got there a little late and had to rush in order to go through all the exhibits.