Grotto, Portland

A place of peace and serenity.

Walking through the garden filled with different statue from the bible, listening to the birds singing, watching the flower blooming, smelling the fresh scent of the forest, one will be grateful how Lord creates this beautiful place for us to live. My childhood memory of the bible story returns. It's a place for us to immense into the nature and not think about our chores in lives. It totally worth the $3.5 admission to the upper level garden.

Grotto, Portland

The only negative thing is that, I saw a dead mouse in the middle of the trail. I guess that's also part of the nature. Good and bad eh?

Portland, again

This is the n-th time that I have been to Portland this year, or I should say, in these 2 months. I started to feel like it's closer now. It used to be my mini getaway location but now it seems like it's as close as I go to a near by town.

We went there to pick up my poor hubby's car, since the car is broken down earlier and towed to the Portland dealership. Now after giving up 3 grand and it's time to pick up.

We are lucky, as my hubby's friend A is giving us a "free" ride to Portland. Otherwise we gotta take a plane or train or just extra headache to get there.

At 6:15am Saturday, a bright red sport car stopped by our front door. It's certainly my hubby's dream car. Not much lineup at custom. And yeah, A is showing off the "power of the car" in the tunnel that I have to hold on to the handle. And we got to Portland (from border) in 4 hours! And even with a bit traffic congestion to the dealership place, we managed to arrive there in 5 hours! That is from my home to dealership! It's amazing! And by the time we got there...so little gas left!

After we pick up the car, we went to a camera store since A like to buy a new camera. We were browsing around for a camera bag but no good deals there. Anyway, after that we went to Brightport Village for lunch (pasta). It's already close to 3. It's a bit surprised that both A and me pick the same pasta dish! After lunch A head back home (I call him crazy to drive >12hr in a day!) and I continue to shop in Brightport Village for a while until we had dinner in Cheesecake Factory in Washington Square, our usual dining place in Portland.

In a way, A reminds me of a person. Maybe it's the way he talks (a Taiwanese with very fluent English), or the way he dress up, I don't know.

The next day, I did a bit shopping in Michaels and then went to Grotto for a visit. I've been there with travel agency many years ago but didn't feel as special as this time. Will talk about that in the next post.

Started to head home around 3pm but gosh...traffic is so busy near Tacoma area for no reason plus road work after 202exit which merges 3 lanes to 1. Finally get back to Vancouver in 10:30. That's 7 hour drive (with 2 washroom stops)! After dinner we got home just before midnight.

Exercise Log (week 22)

No exercise....again....

:(

My blueberry cake

For those who know me, they probably know that I'm not an adventurous person. I seldom try out new recipe (or other new stuff). One reason is the cost associated with it. I can't just buy the exact amount of ingredient. Say bake a cake, I probably need to "invest" $20 but what if the whole thing goes to trash, which is usually the case for first timer?

However, I'm lucky enough to have a few friends who are good cook and generous enough to share their recipe. Sometimes there are even step by step picture instructions so it seems easier for me to follow. That boosts up my confident level to try out some new recipe.

Tonight, I decided to try this blueberry pound cake recipe. I was drawn to it because it says "very buttery and moist" blueberry cake. I was never be able to make a very buttery and moist cake in my entire life. So I decided to give it a try.

The process goes smoothly except that I "think" I over blend the batter as it has lumps at one point (after adding the egg). I absolutely agreed that it IS a buttery cake. I can smell the butter during blending! The final product is very fluffy and moist. Although the texture is not as smooth, overall I'm satisfied! Finally I'm able to make a moist cake. Thanks CW! But can anyone tell me how to make the cake smoother?

From Blueberry cake

From this recipe.

Insomnia cures

I know it sounds a bit weird.

As I mentioned, my legs are so sore after Grouse Grind and I am expecting to walk limply for at least 2 days.

My legs are even so sore that I can't sleep well during the night. In addition, I almost can remember my dream (only when I sleep not deep enough I can remember part or my whole dream).

But out of my surprise, when I wake up the next morning, my soreness is gone, totally gone. Amazing!

This week (canada line + grouse grind and others)

Quite a few things happened this week:

Monday: lunch with ex-coworker (dim sum)
Tuesday: lunch with friend (also dim sum in the same place)
Wednesday: birthday dinner. A friend visiting from HK and we haven't actually met each other for many years.
Thursday: long meeting
Friday: not feeling well, don't even want to mention the things I have went through. I used to think that I have high pain tolerance level. I was wrong. Good thing is, I am still able to enjoy the good food @ friend's place.

Saturday, getting up late, I'm going to try out the Canada Line for the first time. So I took the skytrain to downtown, had a crepe and then go to Richmond. The skytrain is packed! I have the feeling of taking the HK MTR (the skytrain to downtown is underground). On the way back, since we are afraid that the train is packed so we just took the train all the way to terminal station and ride back to Vancouver.

Sunday, finally, things get better and I push myself (and my hubby) to go ultimate hiking in Grouse Grind. I have been talked about that for months. But before we go hiking , we need some "energy". First we have lunch in 告羅士打. Surprisingly the lunch special is quite good.

沙丹豬扒飯

After lunch, I went to visit a scrapbook store for the first time in Burnaby as it's kind of "on the way". Bought a few things there. It's like other local scrapbook store I guess I won't especially go there next time. It's quite far away.

I haven't been to Grouse Grind for a few years and I was hoping to finish in 2 hours because that's the timing of our first trial back then. My hubby was calling for break so often in the first 1/4. But once pass the half way mark, my legs started to get sore as the trail gets steeper. And one time I even went the wrong way that another guy gave me a hand to help me get back to the right track.

OK...final timing is, 2 hour 23 minutes. Starting 4:47 and finish 7:10. It's not too far off my target time. Well, I gotta admit that I am a few years older, plus 20 lb heavier...so...it's kinda expected to get worst. My legs are so sore now.

Dinner in Antons. Half an hour wait. Portion is still as large as before.

Exercise Log (week 21)

Monday: lunch with ex-coworker (dim sum)
Tuesday: lunch with friend (also dim sum, same place; also soccer was cancelled due to not enough people...
Wednesday: too busy...
Thursday: too busy...
Friday: not feeling well.

Sunday, hiking in Grouse Grind for 2 hours.