Anniversary

It feels like yesterday; yet it's been a year already, since my wedding day.

Any significant changes or transformation? Not really.

The difference I would say....before and after, is that, I cooked dinner on a regular basis. (i.e. 99% on weekdays)
I used to cook enough for a few days. Now I would cook on a daily basis. Sometimes it's not that easy to think of new dishes, especially my choice of ingredients are rather limited. My hubby has higher level of 尿酸, together with his problematic skin, he's not supposed to have too much meat, beef, tofu, spinach, seafood..... the list go on and on...basically anything high purine is not good for him. Therefore, the main dishes are "rotated" between meat, fish and chicken.

Another difference is ...rather sad..but I have gained 10 pounds since last year. I'm sure it's very noticeable. Why? I have no idea...I'm not on any medication, perhaps I cooked too much? But my hubby on the other hand, maintain his weight pretty well. So I don't know.

Victoria Trip (June 23-June25)
Our anniversary day falls on the Monday this year so we just took that day off and enjoy the long weekend. At first we planned to go to Las Vegas but the hotel in that weekend is just ridiculously expensive due to some convention. Together with the desert heat, we finally give up this destination. In the end we went to Victoria for 2 days.

It turns out to be not a very relax trip and almost feels like joining a tour! Here's the list of places we have visited:
Butterfly Garden
A must see! What a unique experience that plenty beautiful butterfly flying around you? My favourite spot!

Royal BC Museum (Titanica exhibition and the IMAX movie)
An exhibition worth to see.

Miniature world to see miniature railway
Henry loves it since he is a fan of miniature railway.

Undersea garden
I wouldn't want to go again, nothing much to see except the giant octopus in the dive show.

Butchart garden ,
A must see for all tourists. We had high tea there (as lunch) too. $26/person, a pack of tea bags as gift. I like the food in this high tea more than the one inthe Empress Hotel. However, the tea is just so-so.
And needless to say, the garden is just spectacular. I wish I could stay longer!

Whale watching tour
It is not part of our plan to join whale watching tour. But as we pass by the booth, we were attracted by the "95% success rate" so we decided give it a try. And yeah..we saw TONS of whales, dolphin etc. OK not tons but groups. The tour is around 3 hours, including about 1 hour travel time to the whale watching spot. The ship is quite comfortable and they give out big jacket. On the way back we go back to the covered deck to enjoy our hot chocolate :P There are different companies organizing whale watching tours. Some with medium size cruise (that's what I called) and some with "boat" (like the big one you go with rafting). As I saw the other boat going up and down in the sea as it travels...I imagine I would throw up at once if I'm in that boat! At first I thought that the tour with the bigger ship cost more (the one I joined is $89/person). Surprisingly the "boat" one costs $85 too!

High tea in Empress Hotel.
It's $46/person and seriously, the food is not impressive for this price tag but the tea scores a bit. I like both tea that Henry and I chose. Of course, the $46 includes the cost of sitting in the grand dining hall of the Empress Hotel...

Dinner in the Marina restaurant by the Oakbay
How come we don't have these kind of restaurant by the marina in Vancouver? This venue made me think of the wedding of my Seattle friend, whose wedding also held in the Marina restaurant last August.
The 2nd night, we had fish and chips in Fisherman Wharf as dinner.
It's 8pm on Sunday, people just keep coming to order fish and chips. Can tell by the fresh fish, and the light and crisp batter.
Thanks to Perry's post about Victoria so we got some nice idea about where to look for nice food. And of course, we took his recommendation of staying in this hotel (we were choosing between Delta and Marriot).

Of course, we manage to rush back to the hotel for the FREE hor'devours which serves between 5pm and 7pm!

Why no pictures? My computer is down (broken CPU?) so please stay tune for the pictures.

June 25, 2005.
After coming back from Victoria, we had dinner in the UBC Golf Club. It's been one year since our last visit. I had my wedding ceremony in the ballroom there and now I had dinner in the restaurant across the ballroom. This place certainly brings back lots of good memories. It's funny that I keep checking out the time today and think about the things that I have done in the same time last year. One thing in common: on wedding day I'm tired, after the Victoria trip ....also tired!

But overall, we had a great time and happy anniversary!