Fifty By 50: Off to the City We Go (Mar.10, 2018)

We got a late start into the city this morning.

As soon as I set my suitcase to start packing, Paddington jumped right in.

The fireplace is coming along.

My Honey put a coat of stain on the mantel.

I like it but I think it's going to need a few more coats.

I want it to be a bit darker still.

Scrambled up a few eggs and had them with some chimichurri - great combo!

I think it was around 11 when we finally got on the road but we had no set agenda so it didn't really matter.

We saw some buffalo on the way.

I realized when we saw them that some people never see buffalo unless they go to a zoo so I thought it was pretty cool.

The vet had called me yesterday to let me know that Max's ashes were back and ready to be picked up so we stopped and picked those up on our way.

When we got to the city, the first thing we did was go for lunch - My Honey's favorite - Pho.

We ordered some spring rolls first, I only tried a bite.
It was good but I wanted to be careful with my points.

When the bean sprouts and thai basil arrive, you know the soup isn't far behind.

I asked for less noodles in mine but they still gave me the same amount which in my opinion is too much.

I ate all of the broth and just left the noodles.

It was really tasty - I love pho too, just maybe not as much as My Honey.

His orders the one with the tripe in it - I've tried it but the idea of it turns my stomach a little so I just order the rare beef.

He is always so happy when we go for pho, like a kid on Christmas morning.

After that we hit up the home building supply stores.

First stop was Lowes.

My Honey was picking up a water tank for his folks and I went to the paint section and picked out paint colors.

I am going with white and blue - classic, clean and bright.

We were looking at counter top options and man are they ever expensive.

The bottom of our fireplace has a section that comes out from the wall - it was tiled before but I didn't really like that.

I wanted it to be covered in one solid white piece of stone or quartz or something but it is about 6x 1.5 feet which means we would have needed to buy quite a substantial piece and I wasn't willing to drop that much money on it.

We did find another option for counter tops that was much less expensive but I didn't like how the sides looked.

We came across a wood countertop, kind of like butcher block and even though it isn't white, we decided to go with it.

It is one solid piece, a fraction of the price of the other options and I could paint it white if I want but I found it in a darker wood stain so I think I am going to leave it as is.

It will match the beam that we are going to be using for the mantel.

We didn't pick it up today because we didn't to leave it in the back of our truck which is uncovered.

We will grab it on our way home tomorrow.

We decided that we want the fireplace to be covered with brick so that is what we were on the hunt for. We tried Totem, Home Depot, Lowes.

We had no luck at all.

We made a few other stops too.

I wanted to get a navy bed skirt and white curtains for my bedroom but had no luck with the navy bedskirt.

I settled on a white bedskirt and navy and white curtains.

I think it will look good once it is up.

I tried Homesense but ended up finding what I wanted at Walmart of all places.

We were kind of shopped out by that point so we went for supper.

I picked Famosa.

We had mozza wrapped with prosciutto.

The tomato sauce there is so good I could just eat a bowl of it by itself.

I was in the mood for a salad so ordered one of those too.

I had my favorite brussel sprout pizza.

It was so good.

My Honey shook things up a bit and swayed from his usual to try this mushroom pizza.
He will be going back to his regular choice next time!

Then we headed over to the new movie theatre in St Albert (because the recliner seats are awesome) and picked up tickets for the 9:20 showing of the Black Panther.

We went back to Walmart again which was right next door and shopped around until it was time to head over to the movies.

I couldn't resist the popcorn but skipped the butter and only ate about half the bag.

The movie was ok, not the best super hero movie I've seen but not the worst either.

After the movie we checked in to our hotel and called it a night.

Saw this on Facebook and my niece commented that this looked so like something My Honey would build for our kitties.

I think she is totally right.

Isn't it awesome?

The winter carnival activities continued back in town and my boy posted this picture of him, his honey and her little sister enjoying our awesome town hill.

Looks like it was a great day for some sledding.

Some more memories popped up from our Fort Lauderdale/Caribbean Cruise trip in 2015

We were meant to go on a cruise back in October but it was cancelled at the last minute due to propeller problems.

They ended up refunding us the cost of the trip plus they gave us credit to go on another cruise on a later date.

So when we booked, we paid a bit extra and upgraded to a room with a balcony.