We were meeting my friends in the city today to celebrate NCT's birthday.
They were leaving home around 8 so I wanted to leave Lloydminster by 7 am since it would take us a bit longer to make it to Edmonton and I wanted to make a stop before we me them.
So we were up early and stopped in for one last breakfast.
I had some oatmeal (which I love) with lots of almonds slices and cinnamon.
It was so good.
I also had some eggs and ham.
There was no bacon today, bummer!
It was a good breakfast though.
I had one last cottage cheese.
Look at all those little flecks of vanilla in there - it was so good.
We were talking to the lady that worked there telling her how much we liked it and that we'd gone searching for it last night.
She said it was only available at Coop stores and only in Saskatchewan, not Alberta, that's why we had so much trouble finding it.
She did tell us to take some with us so we did.
One last trip through the big border 😉
Then we were back in Alberta.
They had signs like this every where.
It was nice to see the pride.
Had some good tunes on the way.
We stopped at the Home Reusables like I wanted.
I bought a bunch of stuff including a door, some decorative metal grate covers and some old decorative trim.
The others texted to say they were heading to One Man's Treasure so we headed over there to meet them.
Amazingly, I didn't find anything there that I wanted but a lady in there gave us the address for another antique store that I'd never heard of so we headed there next.
It's right on Stony Plain Road and we've passed by it countless times but I had no idea it was there.
It was a great spot.
I did get a few things there.
We looked around the pawn shops there and this second hand furniture place which was also great - they had very reasonable prices and I got a tv table there for $5.00 made of solid wood.
I will definitely be going back there!
From there we headed over to the Muttart Conservatory.
We'd never been there before and thought it would be something fun to check out.
There are so many interesting things right in your own backyard if you only care to check it out.
The others were meeting us there but had another stop to make first so My Honey and I decided to have lunch in the little cafe there in the Conservatory.
It was a really cute little place.
We shared the lunch which came with coconut curry shrimp soup.
It was fantastic.
I kind of wanted to lick the bowl (I refrained).
It also included a veggie sandwich that was loaded with all kind of stuff including beets and roasted sweet potatoe.
I've never seen that before on a sandwich and it was super good.
Love her jet pack!
They had sticky toffee pudding so you know I had to get it and it was divine.
The others showed up as we were having dessert and decided they wanted to have some too.
They ended up ordering meals and we moved and sat with them while they ate.
They ordered the sticky toffee pudding too and they were all really impressed with the food.
After we ate, we headed to check out the conservatory.
There are four pyramid shaped greenhouses each with a different climate inside.
You could feel the humidity hit you as soon as you walked in through the doors.
It felt so nice!
Everyone just kind of took off and went exploring.
My Honey & I stuck together though.
It wasn't a huge place so we did keep running into one another.
There's NCT and KT!
There's BH and SV!
Just lush and green every where you looked.
There were tropical plants.
And tropical flowers.
So many varieties....
and all very beautiful.
It was so warm that most of us ended up taking our coats off.
More pretty flowers.
The yellow with the pink looked so nice.
Pink against the white looked beautiful too.
I was so in love with this tree!
White might seem plain but I thought these were just as gorgeous as the others.
Wouldn't this be great to have in your backyard?
Just some yellow ones before we go.
Waiting for everyone to catch up.
We headed to Feature Pyramid next.
This is a themed one that changes up every few months.
The current theme was "Once Upon a Time"
The description read that it was a fairy tale world full of tulips, gardens and surprises.
The tulips were in bloom and looked so good.
There were all kinds of little fairy gardens.
I just loved them.
Interesting and beautiful tulip.
All the little details in the fairy gardens were lovely, like the flower lamp post
The leaf canoe was cute too.
There was even a chest full of treasures.
These tulips were just stunning.
There was even a hobbit house.
I want to build one of these on our property.
A little pond.
More fairy gardens.
BH's grand daughters love fairy gardens so she was taking lots of pictures for ideas to recreate later.
A couple was trying to do a photo shoot with their twin baby girls.
They even had an awesome dragon.
More beautiful tulips.
So many colors and varieties again.
Little fairy gardens were hidden every where.
I think every one was really enjoying this one.
I think the hues of purples and pinks are my favorite.
I've never seen a furled tulip like this before - not sure honestly that it is a tulip but it is really pretty.
There were daffodils too.
No fairy tale world is complete without a knight in shining armour.
Another little fair garden.
These things were just so whimsical, I loved them.
We hit up the Arid pyramid next.
It was like we walked right into the desert.
I'm not sure if I would call the plants in here pretty, but they do have a charm all their own.
So many varieties of cactus.
Wouldn't want to sit on one of these accidentally.
These looked like little tarantulas or some other kind of scary giant insect.
The bulbous bottoms of these trunks looked so interesting, I've never seen anything like that before.
The needles sticking out of these ones looked down right dangerous.
They even added some eyes to this hairy cactus.
There happened to be a little color in there.
These looked like aloe vera plants.
When I think of a cactus this is what I imagine in my mind.
Just like straight out of an old western movie.
Succulents seem to all the rage lately and the arrangement in this bird bath fountain was fabulous.
Made me want to run out and start my own succulent collection.
Yet another cactus variety.
Another one that looked like something you would definitely not want to bump into accidentally.
Ran into jet pack girl again.
She was having a grand time.
Silver Torch.
The wall display was interesting.
I really liked this plant that looked like roses.
This one was pretty too.
These looked cute but also like little balls of torture.
The flower blooms on this one make it much softer and prettier.
All in all, I enjoyed the Arid pyramid more than I expected that I would.
Just some artwork on the wall.
The Temperate pyramid was the last one for us to visit.
We had to wait to go into it because there was a bridal party in there taking pictures.
They were still finishing up when they opened it back up to everyone.
This is more of the kind of plants and climate we are used to.
There were flowers in bloom.
The trees were right up to the roof.
It was a different activity for all of us and everybody was thoroughly enjoying it.
They had this structure built, not sure what it was meant to be?
There were some pretty flowers in here too.
I used to think white was plain but it's really grown on me lately, I think a flower bed full of these would be elegantly beautiful.
More blooming flowers.
Seems as though each flower is just as pretty or even prettier than the last.
We came across that couple taking pictures of their girls again.
Aren't they just darling?
As much as I love flowers, I love green shrubbery too.
These reminded me of flowers that should be on a pond, like water lilies or something.
I thought this looked pretty cool.
Kind of like a more refined mud head.
Pretty.
There can never be too many pictures of flowers as far as I am concerned.
It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.
There was a piece of glass artwork that looked similar to the ones we saw at Chihuly Gardens in Seattle.
I wonder if it's the same artist?
We had some time to spare before our supper reservations so we went to the casino.
I didn't win but it was still fun.
Around 6:30 we headed over to Japanese Village.
We'd never eaten there before and figured NCT's birthday celebration would be a perfect time to do it.
SV's hubby had to work so he couldn't join us.
One of our foreman had heard the girls making plans on Friday and asked to join us.
So he and his new lady friend came as well.
BH, JH and KT.
SV took a picture of the group.
SG comes here all the time and she said that the Chi Chi's were delicious so I had to have one.
It is basically pineapple juice, coconut milk/milk and vodka (I skipped the vodka though).
It was so delicious that I ordered a second giant one.
The meal started with egg drop soup.
I liked it.
Then our cook arrived and started the show.
You could tell that he was new, he had to keep looking at his notes, but he did a good job.
He made a little volcano out of onions and it had steam coming out of it.
That was pretty neat.
Wasn't long before he was chopping and the sauces were flying.
It was entertaining.
My Honey and I.
The food was really good but I'd drank so many chi chi's that by the time my food came, I could barely touch it because I was so full.
I packed it up and took it home with me.
At the end, they brought a nice rubber wig and vest out for the birthday girl to put on.
She was a good sport about it.
Then they sang a Japenese birthday song to her.
It was cute.
It was an enjoyable evening and I'm glad we finally got to eat there.
After dinner, we all headed back to the Hills.
Meanwhile today, Miss A had another Dance competition in St Albert.
I think they are strategizing here.
They danced well - I would have liked to be there.
She also did a second performance with her other dance partner, SV's grand daughter.
Waiting for their turn in the spotlight.
They won silver.
With their dance instructor.
That is all for today, until next time, be happy!
No comments:
Post a Comment