Saturday morning I was apparently still on Eastern Standard Time, and woke up early. I let Gail and Socar sleep in and went for a long walk around the area in the morning cool, mainly up and down Davie and Granville streets. Eventually I began to look for a shoe shop, when my new sandals began chafing my feet, but couldn't find one and came back for a bagel and coffee at a shop near her building. Later in the day Gail and I met her friend Eliza for dim sum at Kirin, a posh Chinese restaurant in City Square - which is a foursome of brick heritage buildings, joined into a beautiful enclosed space with modern glass roof. Eliza helped us order, and all of the food was amazing (although we shied away from some of the menu items - one rare type of soup was $288.00, and another was tagged at $600.00!) Gail and I continued our unplanned crusade against the wily squid; more great calamari, mmm!
After I had my sandals adjusted by a friendly cobbler, we made our way back downtown, stopping for a few touristy photos of me by City Hall, and some minor shopping. Gail's dad was out at a picnic, so we passed the time in the city the best way - more eating! Last time I was here, we missed out on tapas and sangria at La Bodega, one of Gail's favorite haunts; so we trotted over to correct the situation. The cool, fruity sangria hit the spot, and everything was delicious, including - you guessed it - the calamari! Whee! Greek, Japanese and now Spanish calamari, within 24 hours! Later, back at Gail's father's, we dried off from the daytime heat and spent the night.
Sunday was the big Allan-and-David Birthday Bash; Gail's older brother and I share a birthday, May 30th - it was his 34th and my 38th. Gail, her father and I did some food shopping in the morning and went over to Allan and Cheryl's new place, where I also got to meet Gail's younger brother Alvin. We sat down for a lively meal, all of us and the five Ms, and then I got to spend some quality time with the kids out by their new swingset. When my energy reserves began to run low, we all went back inside for cake and coffee, and the exchanging of gifts and cards.
gailontheweb: Joint Birthday Bash
Since we had filled up at the birthday party, we pushed dinner back an hour or so, and made plans to meet with Gail's cousin Tosca and her husband Mike. They picked us up and we drove to the Thai House restaurant, where we appetized on spring rolls (natch) while waiting for the rest of our party, Gail's friends Erich and Caroline. (Gail took a raft of great photos at their wedding last year, so I felt as though I'd already met them!) When they arrived, the six of us decided that we would all order different entrees and appetizers, and share everything in one big Thai smorgasbord, to mix cultural references. And we did, and it was all delicious - including the calamari! Hee! That made four times - Gail and I were devouring squid like a medium-size thresher shark!
