The Second Supper
 

Since we had not planned ahead, a weekend dinner spot ANYWHERE worth eating at would be filled to capacity and beyond. Our first choice had a 30 minute wait--so they say, what if it ends up much longer? :p And I thought we'd make it an early night so that we'd get enough rest for the longer day tomorrow. Then our next choice, we drove by and found that there were already people all lined up outside so I'm assuming the inside waiting/lounge area was filled with hungry people also. This would have been a fun place to take Yodi since the owner encourages hands-on dining as that's the Indian way.

We wandered the blocks of Broadway to narrow down a place to eat. Closest to where we parked were two decent looking patio dining spots. Through some amount of debating, we decided we'll have Yodi try some casual French cuisine at Mistral French Bistro.

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So we figured we'd give patio a try. This will be Pichu's first patio experience. She will not leave Yodi alone in the bag.

Secrets
 

Things were looking good. The girls were whispering sweet nothings to each other. That's what friends do, right? So we had let our guard down.

Food.
 

We didn't notice when a pedestrian crept up and came by with her little dog. Shortly after they went out of sight and our peace still has not yet returned, a skateboarder comes zooming by. That did not help matters. Suffice it to say, Pichu was not invited to share our table with us. Yodi rose to the occassion and tried her best to set a good example by not following Pichu's suit.

Main Course
 

I wasn't very hungry so I shared some of my seafood bouillabaisse with Yodi as hubby figured the side plate of greens was good enough for our little guest. :rolleyes: However, neither Yodi nor I ate much of the dish because the curry tasting sauce just didn't work out. Since when has curry made it into traditional French cooking? Shows how little I know, I suppose.

The hubby just had to tease Yodi with a cut of his steak frites. He didn't give it to her... He's such a meanie.

Dessert.
 

Since we had skipped dessert yesterday, we figured we should at least treat Yodi to dessert this time around.

Upon leaving, the very sweet Mrs. Owner was startled that our "dog" wasn't moving and seemed a bit different from when we arrived with her... Yes, Yodi fooled yet another human. This time, Yodi got mistaken as Pichu. LOL

Lions Gate Bridge
 

We ended the evening with a slight detour to the Lions Gate Bridge. We wanted to show Yodi the downtown city lights from there in case she never gets the chance to see it again... ;)

Terrible pictures, I know. :(

Is Yodi getting fat? Lol. I'd be surprised if she wasn't with all that tasty food she's been treated too! :p

Pichu just cracks me up. I love that first photo with her paw up in the air. So cute. :D

The bridge is very pretty.

Yeah, Yodi is getting spoiled! How will we ever get her back onto plain ol' dog food when she comes to visit us?

You pictures are so great! You are definitely spoiling Yodi, and Pinchu is adorable!

Day 3 - Brunch
 

Our day started off early. We had a prior engagement to attend to at 8:30am. That unexpectedly lasted until 10am. By then, rather than beginning our approximate 2 hr drive to our planned destination, we just had to feed our bellies first. Since our morning appointment was in the city of Richmond, we decided it was most convenient and quick to do a Richmond brunch. The most bustling part of this city has a large concentration of south Asian immigrants--mainly from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. This is where you would go to choose from a wide variety of Chinese seafood restaurants if you wanted a nice dim sum experience. Sure, there are some scattered around Vancouver and surrounding municipalities, but those are few and far between.

The outside of one of my favourites looks cheesy as they had not updated their signage for well over what feels like 20 years now however, I do not recall exactly how long they had occupied that spot for, but it has been a long time. They do regularly update the decor inside which is rare for any Chinese restaurant outside of Asia. I love their English menu as they keep it updated with their new dim sum items and the numbers of each match up with the order sheet! How convenient for those who cannot read understand or read Chinese. :thumbup:

This is not a cart-around place. The ones to go to for FRESH yummy dim sum are generally steamed-to-order locations. Occassionally, trays of some daily feature makes its rounds carried by a server and/or manager.

Day 3 - Brunch continued
 

We tried to order picnic-able foods we can snack on during the long drive scheduled for later, hence some of the spongy baked items. Now, we ordered for 2.5 diners--my husband, Yodi, and myself while Pichu was taking her nap. However, as soon as I had submitted our order sheet, I found out my dad, his sister and her husband were joining us as they were already out and about shopping but hadn't eaten yet. My old man said he was starved and didn't have a penny to his name--in his pockets--so he thought he had to wait until my mom joined him at noon before he got to eat. So Yodi got to meet my relatives for the first time. :) That was unplanned as I wasn't sure why it never occurred to me to introduce them. :rolleyes:

So our "picnic" snacks were downsized pretty much to just the cakes since none of them ordered anything additional except for what we already had on our table, save for one new feature on the menu that caught my father's eye.

Yodi, of course, once again went into disguise so she was able to share the table with us while attracting little to no attention. It's amazing how much difference it makes when she becomes a masked caper. :cool:

Day 3 - Detour
 

So we ate as quickly as possible and packed the items we wanted to take with us, left enough monopoly money behind with my dad to cover the meal and proceeded to zoom back on route to do the touristy thing.

As we came back into our neighbourhood of Vancouver to get to the other end towards West Vancouver and beyond, I noticed some tents up at our local community centre. So we just had to go check it out as it was that time of year for the local fair here.

So we got the two kids to pose in front of the sign to mark their visit to this event.
Attachment 279831

:sidesplt: that batgirl mask is so funny... I can only imagine what the people around you were thinking...my guess, what a whack job, taking pictures of a stuffed yorkie in a batman mask! No offense of course, we are all enjoying the pictures and the stories behind them. If only the strangers amongst us knew it was for YorkieTalk!

All I have to say is I hope it is a while before Yodi comes to visit with me... I don't know how I could do as good as what you've done here!

Marpole Community Day
 

So here we are at the Marpole Community Centre playground. We thought Yodi might enjoy some time on the slide until we noticed the evil eye Pichu was giving her while Yodi was trying to calm her nerves before diving down...

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We had to remove Yodi from such a dangerous situation immediately. The hubby took Pichu with him as she's afraid of heights while Yodi and I went over to the toddler swings.

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Unfortunately, these were too high/big for our little guest. :(

Day 3 - Playgrounds and Dogs...
 

Okay, so I grab Yodi as that was obviously not working out. Hubby had chosen this time to wave me over to where he was standing amused by something because he just loves putting a further damper on my fun. :rolleyes:


Now... he enjoys pointing out the obvious. While I bulked at the sight of the dollar figure... I said, "No problem. That's why we have the Yodi disguise." Fortunately for us, we had neglected to remove the cape from Yodi after the incognito brunch experience. She was still wearing it around her neck.

I say problem solved. I will not let stuffy signage ruin Yodi's fun while she's with us. Hrmph. :mad::mad::mad: Attachment 279839

Day 3 - Bird Watching
 

As soon as we hit the fair grounds where The Happening place is, Yodi spotted the suspiciously over-sized seagull amidst the crowd of children. Now that Yodi's in superhero mode, she proceeds to fly over to inspect the suspect. She wants to make sure the innocent little children were not being used as bird feed.


Though the bird watching continued for a little longer at the duck pond... Attachment 279843

Yodi was barely able to enjoy her duck watching and was actually being suspected of duck hunting, hence, the firm grip on Yodi's tail the old man has. :eek: :( We couldn't do anything about it, Yodi, so sorry! But luckily, I think Yodi wasn't really bothered by it as she was simply captivated by the swimming duckies.

Day 3 - Inflatable Fun
 

We were curious to see if Yodi would be capable of flying/floating around in the bouncy room with balls being blown around. But as it turned out, Yodi was a little heavier than we had thought--must have been the brunch.
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Day 3 - Inflatable Fun continues
 

After observing some more inflatable fun like junior sumo wrestling... Attachment 279852

...baton/stick boxing (?)... Attachment 279853

Yodi started looking longingly at the bouncy castle... Attachment 279854 However, there was no way we could let our tiny little guest take part. The children would surely have stepped on her without giving it a second thought. :(

We left the fair grounds to cheer Yodi up as we heard the music coming from an ice cream truck half a block away! So with the promise of ice cream, we had two happy furkids again.

Day 3 - The Ice Cream Truck
 

Wow. And I say, WOW. I fully expected some inflation in an already overpriced market, but WOW. The last time I bought from an ice cream truck... so long ago, I can't even recall anymore, creamsicles were still just under $1, wasn't it?! When you can get it for pennies in bulk from your local supermarket and this is not even counting Costco. Now they're $2.50+?? What I used to think was expensive, $2, is now $3.50!! OMG.

Okay, not to disappoint the kids, under the guise of "too much sugar is bad for you" so the two of you can share a stick. As a matter of fact, daddy can share with them also. :cool: ;)

Day 3 - On the road again...
 

Now with the two little ones satisfied and one bigger one also, we went on our way again back to the original plan. Off to see the Whistler!

It's just under a 2 hour drive however, we took a potty and short shopping break at the town we must pass through at the foothills of Whistler, called Squamish. The last time I was here was for an elementary camping trip. And that was a LONG time ago. :)

Since we were here already, I figured I might as well check to see if this particular location of Canadian Tire had in stock the picnic table I had my eye on.

Day 3 - Whistler!
 

Here we've reached the outskirts of Whistler. We stopped by to stretch our legs and drop into the grocery store they had here.

Day 3 - Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre in Whistler
 

We had finally arrived at Whistler! This was our stop before driving up to the village.

Outside of the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre, Yodi poses for a picture. Attachment 279871

We then had Pichu join Yodi... Attachment 279872

However, Pichu had something up her paw once again. :(

Yodi is going to need a long nap after all of her (?) adventure!!!

I love how everyone is so accepting to let you take pics with Yodi. What fun!!!!

I am so loving this.

Day 3 - Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre - Pichu's mischief
 

Now why we thought Pichu would extend her kind and generous hospitality to our honored guest is beyond me...

roflmao

Day 3 - Pichu The Queen
 

I know there's that saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie." But in this situation, if we leave them be, Pichu would have kept Yodi pinned down for the rest of the day while employing poor Yodi as an armrest...


However, oblivious to Yodi's plight, Pichu continues to just lounge there on her royal armchair with a grin on her mischievous face.

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"Ahh, this is the life..." Attachment 279892

Me too, I wonder what they must think... "can you hold this stuffed dog please while me and hubby stand and take photos?" :cool:

:lol2: Pichu's face!!!! :lol2:

Day 3 - Lost Lake Park
 

So here we are at the Lost Lake Park trails for cycling/hiking/cross-country skiing and apparently, once upon a time, nude beach by the lake. We didn't go as far as the lake as we needed to just take Yodi through a quick short tour of the start of the trail and then make a run for the village as our drinks were catching up to us. The one by the lake was a fair distance away and I didn't want to risk it as the car was closer. :p

Day 3 - Lost Lake trail continued
 

Finally, a picture of the two together without Pichu mauling Yodi.
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But Yodi didn't need Pichu's help to get into a little mischief herself. She really is such a pure sweet angel, she took it to heart when we told her she's a superhero named Batman. Sure she gets herself confused with Robin sometimes, and role plays as such, but I wasn't expecting her to act the part of Spiderman, too! So when Yodi fell behind, she thought she'd take the short cut to reach us... well, that's my version of it anyway, while the hubby says Yodi was baiting bears. :shocked7q

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When Yodi finally caught up to us, we had them pose for some stress-free pictures by the rock cliff overlooking the creek. :D

Day 3 - Whistler!
 

With searching for the ladies' and men's room as an excuse, we turned around and headed back to the car to get to the Whistler Village a.s.a.p.! I'm not going to admit to running away from the place overflowing with the biggest ants I've ever seen. Some solid black and the rest are shiny red with dark deadly looking black tail ends. :eek: I don't want to see the size of the other critters after seeing these!

In the picture Yodi is relatively deep into the village where there are lifts going up and cyclists coming down the mountain on the bike run. Couldn't get a good shot of this as everyone that was down just went back up the lift again.

Now this brings a pretty anti-climactic end to the day's journey up to the mountain displaying the beauty of British Columbia. I could not feel inspired to take village pictures as there were a ton of shops, beautiful, yes, but it'd just bore you to share with you my crazy shopping frenzy as I am a sucker for cute! Yodi did pick up a couple of souvenirs for her next host family while I picked up a few things I came upon that just shouted for me to buy them for a few special people. ;)

The day ended sooner than we had planned but in retrospect, it was good that we left the mountain while there was still daylight (8pm-ish) because then we wouldn't need to drive in the darkness through the mountain highway as it's NOT lit where it ought to be lit for nearly the entire ways down towards the next town of Squamish. We did grab a quick bite for dinner at Squamish's McDonalds. :)

By the time we got home at about 10:30 pm, I couldn't make it through resizing all of the pictures we had so I had to leave it to this morning. :( Sorry for the wait! And this is the end of yesterday, and now we shall start this new day! Check back maybe tomorrow for updates? I believe Yodi is scheduled to leave Monday. :( And I wasn\'t even told to where yet! Maybe we\'ll get to keep her here forever. :D :p