And now the conclusion! Part 1 containing Saturday through Tuesday are in the post before, so please check that out if you haven't already. Broken up because the post got too big, and I ran out of time...
Oh, Canada! Wednesday, Nov. 25
Apparently eating at Gorditos ended up being a terrible idea because I didn't think ahead and remember that I was going up to Canada the next day with Hilary and Ruth. I hadn't had great experiences in Canada because I had always gone with my family (no knock on them, but come on... family trips!), so the ladies had promised that they would show me Canada could be fun. When I had asked what was on the agenda, I was simply told, "lots of eating." And my oh my, there was lots of eating. Mainly on their part. They kept eating, and eating... and eating.
We started at dim sum, went for some Asianic dessert (I can't for the life of me remember what it was despite being told multiple times), drank some bubble tea, ate a single macaroon from the mall, engorged ourselves at an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet, went to an ice cream parlor that put Baskin Robbin's to shame (218 different flavors!), and ended it with cheesecake at a cheesecake/coffee place. One would assume that I would be prepared for this amount of food consumption from living with my sister for so many years, but I can't say that I made her proud. I'm still going to blame Gorditos, but it got to a point during the all-you-can-eat-sushi that my vision started to get darker -- i was blacking out from so much food. Hilary said my face was really red, and I thought my hands were shaking but I was assured they weren't -- so I guess it was my vision again. Thanks to my two friends for showing their concern by continuing to eat more sushi.
It was an interesting day in that I threw away many of my inhibitions. Dim sum I had never seen before nor could identify it's ingredients? Check. Chinese pudding desert thing? I ended up giving most of it to Hilary, but at least I tried it. Grass jelly, bubble tea, and tapioca? Eh. Cow tongue and mango pudding at the sushi place? Why not. And the ultimate: cheesecake. A secret was conned out of me during the trip: there are some things that I've never tried before but tell people I don't like for whatever reason. Cheesecake is one of these. Though I have never had some before, I've seen a decent amount of it and the texture looks... gross. But throw some pears onto a vanilla cheesecake and drizzle some chocolate on it? It'll at least get me to try... and then confirm that no, in fact I do not like cheesecake at all.
Only picture I have from the drive up: Guess Pizza Hut is much classier in Bellingham.
Oh, more Canada? Thursday, Nov. 26
Then, the ridiculous happened. Upon driving back to Ruth's place in to drop her off and begin heading back home, I uttered the customary, "We should go karaoke" line. Unfortunately I forgot who I was with and that my "suggestions" had actually been accepted the past few times. We had also been joking of staying through the entire weekend most of the day. So after pulling into a parking structure to gauge how serious people were about this, it was decided that we would stay for another half day in Canada. I had a painful phone call with my mother who I had neglected to tell that I was in another country (for a terrible joke gone horribly awry), and afterwards the three of us went around looking for a karaoke place open on Wednesday night/Thursday morning at 12:30AM.
We found the Karaoke Box in Richmond. Box it was not -- it was a freakin' karaoke palace. A stand alone building with colorful lights streaming from the exterior, it was a two story structure with at least twelve rooms just on the bottom floor. The booth we were situated in had two monitors: one a large flat screen TV for the words, and the other a touchscreen tablet (complete with stylus) that we could search for and select the songs we wanted from. Despite claiming to be open until 2:30, we were booted out at 1:45.
We made our way back to Ruth's house (who had so graciously offered her place for us to stay) and had a good 'ol old fashioned slumber party! Well, not really. Luckily for me I keep in my car a decent amount of emergency supplies. One of these is a bag containing a change of clothes, jackets, towel, and small toiletries. While originally intended to be put to use if I ever flipped my car over in the mountains and had to survive awaiting help (or if the clothes I was wearing ever needed to be replaced on the spot), I was set for this impromptu stay over. Also fortunate was because I had visited the dentist recently I had an extra toothbrush for Hilary. However, having to bust the supplies open brought to my attention that my kit was not yet complete: it needs a better flashlight, a pair of comfortable pants, space blankets, food, and a charged old cell phone.
We awoke and went to a place in Richmond that apparently had both western and eastern breakfast/lunch choices for brunch. I ordered this thing that had melted cheese mixed with ham and chicken over rice. It was absolutely delicious, but I felt terrible that I could finish only maybe 3/5's of it -- residual affect of the previous day perhaps? That excuse didn't seem to stop my two companions. And what better way to finish our trip but to go to Tim Horton's to grab doughnuts? Playing it smart this time, I got nothing. Hilary got forty doughnut holes -- sorry, Tim Bits. She claims it was for a Thanksgiving party she was going to later, but I can't say I believed her.
And with that, we finally made our way to the border. Smartly, Ruth quizzed me with the questions the border patrol would be asking (because if I had been graded on the first go around while crossing into Canada, I would have given myself a C-. Perhaps good enough for my college days, but not for matters of national security) and we were able to breeze through the checkpoint back into the states. I only messed up when I was asked where my friend lived, and I said "burberry" (a mistake I made earlier). Fortunately Hilary was able to quickly correct me, and we were able to sail through the nice weather with wide ranging conversation into Shoreline before it started raining. I made it back in time to join my family for a small dinner in Chinatown with a few of my mom's relatives.
Lack of pictures from Canada because my camera broke a few weeks ago and I while I took my dad's up it was rather unwieldy and forgotten in the car-dy (the latter being a similar trait with my phone). I should also mention my gratitude to Ruth and Hilary for being great company and changing my mind that yes, Canada might just be a decent place after all.
Eh screw it, Canada deserves its own post. Let's make this a trilogy! To be continued...
Oh, Canada! Wednesday, Nov. 25
Apparently eating at Gorditos ended up being a terrible idea because I didn't think ahead and remember that I was going up to Canada the next day with Hilary and Ruth. I hadn't had great experiences in Canada because I had always gone with my family (no knock on them, but come on... family trips!), so the ladies had promised that they would show me Canada could be fun. When I had asked what was on the agenda, I was simply told, "lots of eating." And my oh my, there was lots of eating. Mainly on their part. They kept eating, and eating... and eating.
We started at dim sum, went for some Asianic dessert (I can't for the life of me remember what it was despite being told multiple times), drank some bubble tea, ate a single macaroon from the mall, engorged ourselves at an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet, went to an ice cream parlor that put Baskin Robbin's to shame (218 different flavors!), and ended it with cheesecake at a cheesecake/coffee place. One would assume that I would be prepared for this amount of food consumption from living with my sister for so many years, but I can't say that I made her proud. I'm still going to blame Gorditos, but it got to a point during the all-you-can-eat-sushi that my vision started to get darker -- i was blacking out from so much food. Hilary said my face was really red, and I thought my hands were shaking but I was assured they weren't -- so I guess it was my vision again. Thanks to my two friends for showing their concern by continuing to eat more sushi.
It was an interesting day in that I threw away many of my inhibitions. Dim sum I had never seen before nor could identify it's ingredients? Check. Chinese pudding desert thing? I ended up giving most of it to Hilary, but at least I tried it. Grass jelly, bubble tea, and tapioca? Eh. Cow tongue and mango pudding at the sushi place? Why not. And the ultimate: cheesecake. A secret was conned out of me during the trip: there are some things that I've never tried before but tell people I don't like for whatever reason. Cheesecake is one of these. Though I have never had some before, I've seen a decent amount of it and the texture looks... gross. But throw some pears onto a vanilla cheesecake and drizzle some chocolate on it? It'll at least get me to try... and then confirm that no, in fact I do not like cheesecake at all.
Only picture I have from the drive up: Guess Pizza Hut is much classier in Bellingham.Oh, more Canada? Thursday, Nov. 26
Then, the ridiculous happened. Upon driving back to Ruth's place in to drop her off and begin heading back home, I uttered the customary, "We should go karaoke" line. Unfortunately I forgot who I was with and that my "suggestions" had actually been accepted the past few times. We had also been joking of staying through the entire weekend most of the day. So after pulling into a parking structure to gauge how serious people were about this, it was decided that we would stay for another half day in Canada. I had a painful phone call with my mother who I had neglected to tell that I was in another country (for a terrible joke gone horribly awry), and afterwards the three of us went around looking for a karaoke place open on Wednesday night/Thursday morning at 12:30AM.
We found the Karaoke Box in Richmond. Box it was not -- it was a freakin' karaoke palace. A stand alone building with colorful lights streaming from the exterior, it was a two story structure with at least twelve rooms just on the bottom floor. The booth we were situated in had two monitors: one a large flat screen TV for the words, and the other a touchscreen tablet (complete with stylus) that we could search for and select the songs we wanted from. Despite claiming to be open until 2:30, we were booted out at 1:45.
We made our way back to Ruth's house (who had so graciously offered her place for us to stay) and had a good 'ol old fashioned slumber party! Well, not really. Luckily for me I keep in my car a decent amount of emergency supplies. One of these is a bag containing a change of clothes, jackets, towel, and small toiletries. While originally intended to be put to use if I ever flipped my car over in the mountains and had to survive awaiting help (or if the clothes I was wearing ever needed to be replaced on the spot), I was set for this impromptu stay over. Also fortunate was because I had visited the dentist recently I had an extra toothbrush for Hilary. However, having to bust the supplies open brought to my attention that my kit was not yet complete: it needs a better flashlight, a pair of comfortable pants, space blankets, food, and a charged old cell phone.
We awoke and went to a place in Richmond that apparently had both western and eastern breakfast/lunch choices for brunch. I ordered this thing that had melted cheese mixed with ham and chicken over rice. It was absolutely delicious, but I felt terrible that I could finish only maybe 3/5's of it -- residual affect of the previous day perhaps? That excuse didn't seem to stop my two companions. And what better way to finish our trip but to go to Tim Horton's to grab doughnuts? Playing it smart this time, I got nothing. Hilary got forty doughnut holes -- sorry, Tim Bits. She claims it was for a Thanksgiving party she was going to later, but I can't say I believed her.
And with that, we finally made our way to the border. Smartly, Ruth quizzed me with the questions the border patrol would be asking (because if I had been graded on the first go around while crossing into Canada, I would have given myself a C-. Perhaps good enough for my college days, but not for matters of national security) and we were able to breeze through the checkpoint back into the states. I only messed up when I was asked where my friend lived, and I said "burberry" (a mistake I made earlier). Fortunately Hilary was able to quickly correct me, and we were able to sail through the nice weather with wide ranging conversation into Shoreline before it started raining. I made it back in time to join my family for a small dinner in Chinatown with a few of my mom's relatives.
Lack of pictures from Canada because my camera broke a few weeks ago and I while I took my dad's up it was rather unwieldy and forgotten in the car-dy (the latter being a similar trait with my phone). I should also mention my gratitude to Ruth and Hilary for being great company and changing my mind that yes, Canada might just be a decent place after all.
Eh screw it, Canada deserves its own post. Let's make this a trilogy! To be continued...
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