So when you work in a school over here you should know that half terms and Easter breaks don't exist!
You get your two weeks at Christmas, one week in March for 'spring break' and then that's pretty much all the time you get off during the year aside from public holidays! So that severely limits the amount of time we can get out an explore and do things! It leaves us one day in ever week, Saturday, that we are able to get out and about. So when spring break happened...I knew we were going to take full advantage of every spare moment we got!
Not only that but the colleague I work with had gone to Mexico for spring break and so had very kindly lent us his car while he was away! It was amazing! I knew getting around by bus was not so fun...but having the car made me realise how much I miss not having a car and how amazing our life would be if we had one! So it meant we got to go to lots of places we wouldn't usually get to see!
It was so awesome that I'm splitting it up into two blog posts because I have hundreds of pictures of all the fun we had!
First things first, we headed back to Steveston! I knew it wouldn't be long before we made our way back there. The last time we went I had spied a mammoth platter on the menu at Hog Shack for four people to share so when I told our pulled pork BBQ loving friends about it we planned a date night and headed out just in time to catch an amazing sunset.
We took full advantage of having someone else to take a picture where the two of us are actually together!
and we found ourselves in front of the largest platter of meat you've ever seen! Pulled Pork, Baby Back Ribs, St.Louis Ribs, Dino Ribs, Brisket, Sausage, Chicken Thighs...and a whole lot of tasty sides too!
I have never been so full at the end of a meal! It was an awesome night with awesome company.
The next morning I made By do an obligatory bakery stop! I have been wanting to check out The Last Crumb for a while but it's not a part of the city I ever go near so with out car we were able to drive there so quickly! It was awesome!
It's a really cool place inside, and there motto is 'Life is short, eat dessert first' which I love!
They had tons of delicious treats to choose from but we went for a bit of Saturday morning pie, yes we had pie for breakfast.
I didn't love my coconut cream slice but By's peanut butter pie with oreo crust was delish!
We made our way to a Ripcurl sample sale at the Ripcurl headquarters in North Van where By picked up 3 pairs of shorts for $60 - quite the bargain! and after that I suggested we carry on to Deep Cove, as I'd heard good things about this cute harbour town.
When we got there, we realised we'd left the memory card at home! Epic fail! but By snapped this pic of the view on his phone...
It was SO beautiful and I knew it would be even better on a sunny day, we also tried Honey's donuts because we heard they are the best. I wasn't that impressed, but it was still a fun afternoon!
The highlight of my week though had to be going Stateside again! You all know just how much I LOVE America.
I went with Cassie and I was even more excited when she told me to write down all the addresses of where I wanted to go and we would do them all! So I went crazy...tracking down cupcakeries and gelato and of course all my old usuals!
We went on a beautifully sunny day!
and our first stop of the day was Target! My fave!
I went crazy in the easter candy aisle!
What they lack in actual big size easter eggs (which apparently don't exist in North America) they make up for in their varieties of M&M!
I was so happy throwing fun seasonal stuff into my basket that we don't get in Canada!
I had read about a cute little coastal town called Fairhaven, just 10 minutes south of Bellingham that sounded like it was worth checking out.
Co-incidentally, it was home to a cupcake store too! and one that had won the tv series 'Cupcake Wars' so I was sure the cupcakes were going to be great! Unfortunately they were a big disappointment, and we ended up throwing them away they tasted so bad! but I did like the cute polka dot plates they were served on!
Fortunately, the gelato shop across the street more than made up for our bad tasting cupcakes because it was amazing! Seriously, some of the best gelato I've had!
Of course I had to go for Oreo flavour, this tasted like Oreo frosting but in gelato form. I need to take everyone I know to this shop to try this flavour one day because if you love Oreo you need this in your life! I also had some coconut which was amazing!
We were seriously impressed!
Of course, we ate lunch too, to balance out all the sugary stuff we were consuming! We were recommended to eat at Skylark's Hidden Cafe.
It was quite traditional and reminded me of England actually. It was like an old English pub inside, mixed with a grand English house! Like all these random mirrors on the wall!
I had pulled pork and chorizo stew which was so tasty!
Outside, we found this English phone box so of course I had to be a tourist!
Luckily, there's always more than one cupcake stop when I'm involved so we stopped in at Cupcakes Like It Sweet after another candy stop at Walmart!!
I had tried these cupcakes once with Byron the first time we came to Bellingham and they were so good, plus their flavour of the day was S'mores so I knew I had to stop by!
That's just the way we like it!
The cupcake I came to try!
and the mini's that helped us enjoy that border queue a little bit more!
They were seriously tasty!
As we were driving slow enough, I managed to snap a picture of the peace arch...to show peace between Canada and America - maybe they should build one of these on the Scottish/English border! Haha
and the international boundary line! As our car crossed past this point I guess you could say we were in two places at once! How very 'Walk to Remember'!
I've never taken a picture of this sign before...as I'm usually more excited about the sign welcoming you the other way!
As we came back towards Vancouver, we crossed over the Alex Fraser Bridge and it was a pretty cool sight with the snow capped mountains ahead of us!
It's no America, but I'm still a fan!
and we enjoyed one last sweet treat as we crossed the bridge home - a piece of root beer float fudge! It was amazing! You just can't get stuff like that back home!
So that night I laid everything out when I got in, when I had left that morning By had told me 'don't buy too much candy'. As I walked in the door with two brown bags full of the stuff that night, he told me 'you bought too much candy'! but we have been enjoying it ever since so it's all good...because how could I turn down Coconut Oreo's or Root Beer Float flavour gum! or peanut butter easter egg shaped M&M's!!
Can you believe that was only part 1! Man, I love spring break!
