Diary of an Urban Housewife: Canada Day Weekend Recap

This weekend in Vancouver was a beautiful one! It was in the 20’s all weekend (for you Fahrenheit-ers out there that’s in the 70’s), but due to our local it felt way warmer than that! So, I've come to the conclusion when we get into Florida on Friday my dad should just bring three buckets with him when he comes to get us at the airport as I am pretty sure we are all going to just melt upon stepping off the plane!

Anyway, for our New Restaurant Friday we just sort of winged it and walked around in the more West End area, about a 10 minutes’ walk from our house. We weren't too impressed by anything (prices seemed sort of high as some of the places) until we came across Rio Brazilian Steakhouse. We love these places. They typically have an amazing salad bar, amazing meat, great customer service and some even have great entertainment. Sadly, this place was severely lacking in all of those area. Which, is unfortunate because it’s the only one of its kind in the area (that I know of at least) so it has the potential to be quite successful. But, we walked in and were seated right away but didn't get a waitress until 20 minutes later. We placed our drink order and I went to the salad bar. It was okay. They had great paella; otherwise I honestly would have liked to have seen a bigger selection of cheeses and greens. I’m more of a spring greens type of gal and the greens they had were a bit tougher. There were quite a few hot dishes that I had never seen at a salad bar at other Brazilian Steakhouses, so that was unique which is why I would love to see this place succeed! So, after the salad bar it was still another half hour (so we are now 50 minutes into our dinner) before we saw any meat come to our table (we were honestly ready to leave by this point). The meats came around and they were okay. We've definitely had better. I think we got to try one of everything and I think hubby even got the top sirloin twice. But, that was it really. For the cost, it definitely was not worth it like it usually is at the other one’s we've been to in the states. I've emailed the restaurant so I hope they take what I have to say seriously as we are huge fans of these types of restaurants and to have one just a 10 minute walk from our house, they would see a lot of business from us! Plus, they had great entertainers and they have a fantastic patio area!

On Saturday we just did some shopping. I had never really got a summer wardrobe going on and with Canada day around the corner the kiddo talked me into doing some shopping…was I ever glad I did! I picked up a bathing suit, a couple of great, bright shirts, a nice pair of white shorts and a super cute bohemian top, the kiddo also managed a few cute things for herself, and the Mr. even bought a new pair of shorts which is shocking because he hates buying clothes!

Sunday we started the day with a great vinyasa class as Lulu Lemon. The kiddo always comes with me when I go. She has never been to a hot yoga class though and this class they did have the heat on (keep in mind it was already 19 degrees by 8am) so she moved a bit slower as she wasn't prepared and the heat bothered her a bit, but she was glad for it after once I explained what it was to her, I just think being mentally prepared for that sort of thing is key. I then treated hubby and the kiddo to doughnuts and we just did a few household things before heading off to the food cart fest. I checked online and it says it is open until 6pm, however, this is not the case. It is only open until 5pm and most of the stuff was sold out by that time anyway. So, when we get back from vacation we will choose an overcast day and go at noon, when they open. We closed the day with strawberry lemonade martini’s at sunset on the balcony…..

Look at those colours! It was such a beautiful night!

Keep in mind sunset here is at 10pm ;) …can’t beat long summer nights!

Monday

Some of you may be wondering why Monday is included in my “weekend recap” well, that would be because Monday was Canada Day! Canada Day from what we've read online is a fairly recent holiday starting at some point around the 60's and celebrates the four maritime islands becoming part of Canada; there is some speculation as well that it celebrates Canada becoming independent of Great Britain, but I'll have to do some more research as that's a bit iffy from what I have been taught in University and what not. Anywho, enough about what I don't know I will say I’m really fortunate we got the chance to move here because prior to moving here I obviously knew pretty much nothing about Canada except for it was part of North America and a part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Sad, but true. I know a bit more now, though. ;) Anyway, we live in the most perfect area- I think-so we were able to get in some breakfast on the patio....