Monthly Archives: February 2012

Let’s All Go To Victoria!

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Over the past couple years, instead of Christmas gifts, Andrew and I exchange experiences with his brother Alex and his wife Anna. One year we went out to fancy a dinner at Canlis (and now I am drawing a blank on where we went the year before or last year – it might be my early on set Alzheimer’s – just a joke, but more on that later). In any event, this year we decided to step it up a notch and take a trip. We decided to head north and visit the beautiful Canadian City of Victoria, BC. We took the Clipper up early Saturday morning, it was windy and rainy and Anna and I took our motion sickness medicine to make sure we didn’t start the trip off getting sick. Which seemed to work, since the girl sitting next to me was a light shade of green mid-way through the trip and then had an extended visit in the loo – she should have invested the 25 cents! Once we arrived in Canada and made it through customs we were greeted with a lovely downpour of rain (likely so we wouldn’t be homesick). Luckily, we were staying at the Hotel Grand Pacific, which is almost directly across from the Clipper dock. After we dropped our bags off our first task was to eat! This was sort of how the weekend went: eat, drink, walk, museum, repeat. Literally, that is what we did all day. We did mix it up a little, we ran one morning which was lovely (making the eating a little less guilty), drank coffee or tea and we also did a little shopping. But really our main objective for the trip was to eat. Our first dinner out was amazing, The Black Olive. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Victoria. Andrew found this by googling where to find good Olive Oil in Victoria (Olive Oil is currently his latest passion – I will give him & Google credit, it was very good too). This is a little family owned Greek restaurant off the beaten track. As the Google review said it caters to a lot of older people, but we didn’t mind. We got in because some of those older folks cancelled their reservations. We enjoyed lovely wine, olive oil, I had a delicious white fish, Andrew had rack of lamb and Alex & Anna had delicious pastas. Unfortunately, the Baklava we had at the end was not the best I have had, but it did take care of my sweet tooth and since I was stuffed it was okay. We turned in early, since the day had started early. The next day Andrew and I went on a 4.5 mile run, I had an amazing massage and then we made our way over to the Fairmont Empress for Afternoon Tea. A must when visiting Victoria. These were just a few of the highlights of the trip, we also had an awesome lunch at an Irish Pub the first day, an amazing Italian Dinner the second night and visited some really cool museums – the Maritime Museum and the Royal British Columbia Museum, which was featuring an awesome Photography exhibit.

Overall, it was a great trip, it was relaxing, we ate a ton of great food and we saw some wonderful exhibits, movies and sights. Plus it was just fun to hang out with Alex & Anna for a weekend. I am happy to be able to put together a little recap of the trip. One of my secret dreams is to be a travel writer (not really a secret anymore), so here in my own little blog I can pretend that my whole trip was paid for by some great magazine that sent me away to write about the sights and culinary experiences of a new and exciting city. A girl can dream! Also, as I mentioned earlier, because (sadly) Alzheimer’s does run in my family, these little trip reports and this blog is really a way for me and my family to remember our trips and where we went. If I waited much longer to write, I am sure a lot of the details would be missing. So, until next time and the next adventure! Thanks for reading, kg

Almost One Full Month

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I decided that February 11th is the day this cleanse is going to end. I have been pretty vigilant about sticking to it. Only a sip or two of wine (not one full glass), maybe a bite of birthday cake to celebrate my friend’s 30th birthday and the occasional slip up of a white flour or sugar snack during some mindless eating during the Superbowl or while tailgating on ski days. But when a friend asked to go out for a night on the town, February 11th was the day she suggested, I felt since I was just shy of 4 days of making it a full month, that was a good ending point. What I have learned with this little exercise is that, for me, it is important to be conscience of what I am putting in my mouth – so by eliminating types of foods, etc. I try to really think about what I am eating. I also have realized that some types of foods are not settling with me as well others. Next on my list is to investigate nutritionists and see what types of food are right for me. I am a little nervous about not having ANY rules attached to my eating, drinking and other behaviours, but in the same sense having a ton of rules is not always the best way to move through life. My new way of thinking is to try to take everything in moderation and to be conscience of what I put in my body and how it makes me feel. These are not super bold ideas, but for me it will help me to stay in control and feel good for the most part. I figure if I can be good 80% of the time 20% of the time I can let loose and not really feel deprived. It’s really just about learning what works for me, at 37 I am not getting any younger, it is really time to figure out what makes my body work right and how I can get the most energy out of each day. Sadly, my goal of de-cluttering each day did not make it either. It didn’t really make it past day one of the program. Again, when there are too many rules it is really tough to stick to them all. As a mother of 2 young girls, working every day, after school activities and just the general every day life stuff, adding another project into each day I realized I didn’t have time, not even 10 minutes for the de-cluttering projects. It is not lost or forgotten though. It will be revived, every week I do try to make a trip to Goodwill and once the after school activities and weekend ski lessons calm down we will have more time to pick up other projects. Overall, I think I did okay. I kept with the important goal and I am learning a lot about myself, which is helpful. Again, at my age I should be figuring out what works for me and what doesn’t. And now I can move on to other topics for my blog :-). For those that are just coming into the middle of this train of thought, here is a recap of my self made cleansing program.  Thanks for reading and letting me open up my head to the world…

Until Next Time — kg