Boy's Birthday Weekend

It was the first time I ever celebrated a boyfriend's birthday, let alone have the honour of spending the entire actual birthday with said Boy, so I wanted to set the bar high. This meant that music, food, and surprises would be involved. Lucky for us, there were also fireworks...since the Honda Celebration of Light was on.

The festivities started on Saturday afternoon. I went to Tartine to pick up a pre-ordered bumbleberry pie, only to find that someone had misfiled the order. This worked out to my benefit since I got free butter tarts as an (unnecessary) apology and I would have a freshly-baked pie in 1.5 hours. As Mr. Burns would say, "Exxxccccellent".

Tartful and pieless, I went to Boy's house where I tested out his old bicycle. Unfortunately for an inexperienced cyclist such as me, I could neither start nor function his bike since the seat was too high. Embarrassed and slightly dejected, and with our plans for bike riding now failed, we decided to hop in Argentina to do a few car-related errands. These included getting art supplies for Boy's newly added art table and to surprisingly pick up his birthday pie.

After devouring a slice each back at his place, we walked from Kitsilano to English Bay (1.5 hours!) to catch some of SHOREfest atop the Bathhouse. We were able to hear the last of Hannah Georgas' set and the beginning of Said the Whale's before securing a spot to watch the fireworks on the rocks that were visible at lower tide. It was the first time I had ever sat there (I didn't even know it was an option!) and I can easily say that we had the best seats. Away from the crowds and with nothing blocking our view, I could finally understand why people like fireworks.

Eventually this guy moved and we took his rock

The walk back was a tiresome one with a much-needed late dinner stop at Siegel's Bagels. Their Montreal smoked meat sandwich tasted especially delicious accompanied by my peach Snapple (a Giosian standard).

My favourite moment of the night was when it hit midnight. I gave him a birthday kiss and then noticed that we just so happened to be on the street where we met on our first date (though not the same intersection). Serendipitous indeed!

When we got home we celebrated with some Moscato d'Asti (courtesy of my Italian relatives) before calling it a night.

Sunday was Boy's actual birthday and we had a fully packed day ahead of us. It involved pancakes at his favourite breakfast place, Café du Soleil on the Drive, followed by a stop for coffee at Le Marché St. George (his first time there). We timed it so that we could then walk along Spanish Banks at low tide (my first time there) before going to his birthday surprise, which until arriving was also known as "secret activity". I told him we'd be driving through downtown, and then I said that I got us cricket lessons in Stanley Park and that he'd need to park by the Vancouver Aquarium (well, it was more that he would play cricket and I would sit on a lawn chair in a white dress and a parasol while sipping pink lemonade).

In actual fact, his gift was a one-year membership to the Vancouver Aquarium. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and looking at all of the sea creatures. My favourites were the sea otter (a sea-teddy bear!!!) and Jack the porpoise. I was not a fan of the humidity surrounding the butterfly area.

His parents treated us to a yummy Indian dinner at Handi (his favourite restaurant) and then we shared some birthday pie with them back at Boy's place before watching Princess Mononoke with the rest of the Moscato d'Asti.

I hope that this was a birthday he won't soon forget!