Friday evening, Bear dropped me and our "luggage" off at Andre's. He got to ferry terminal by transit. We (with the car) picked up India pizza for dinner. Ferry to Salt Spring Island was 2.5 hour, we arrived Long Harbour at 10:45 pm. The camp site is about 5~6 km from the ferry terminal. Bear jogged there, due to several reasons (darkness, miscommunication, poor cell phone reception, and Bear personality) Bear ended walking extra 2~3 km. Thanks to Deb who at the end went and fished Bear out from the dark. It was past midnight when we went to bed.
Saturday morning it was raining when we woke up at 8am. Due to the rain, no one was super eager to get on the water. Bear and I cooked bacon, and used the bacon oil to deep fried veggies, then mixed in egg to make deep fried veggie bacon oil egg soup....and Bear took more than an hour to make his Bearish coffee (ie. Bearish coffee is the type that takes very long to make :P). Cleaning up the bacon grease on the pot and pans was a lot of effort, as a result we didn't get to the kayak rental until noon, but luckily the rain had stopped at that point.
It took us about 2 hours to pack everything into the kayaks, Deb prepared us a quick lunch (we didn't finish everything they got for us for lunch, which resulted huge (yes, I really mean "huge") lunch meals in the subsequent days. We launched from Ganges at 2:30 pm, headed to James Bay on Prevost Island.
The current was going in the opposite direction, so it was a bit more tiring to paddling. After 2.5 hours of paddling we finally arrived our destination. Shortly, after we arrived, Soroosh and Kevin went out to put a crab trap in the water. While everyone was setting up the tent, Deb was busy cooking dinner and feeding us cheese, chips, tomato, avocado, cucumber and bread (left over from lunch). Deb made us mushroom, onion risotto and steak!! It was so delicious, all the snacking before dinner didn't prevent us from finishing everything for dinner. After dinner we had hot chocolate, tea (for Kevin who claims he doesn't eat chocolate because his parents were buried by chocolate) and waffle cookies for dessert. It was unbelievable that we had been eating 4 hours continuously.
It was cloudy on Saturday night, I wasn't able to see any stars in the sky. The ocean view was still very pretty. There were a few boats parked near the island. The night was quiet and peaceful, except we were quite loud :P. I had a very good sleep that night, the tent was exceptionally warm compared to my past experience. In fact, I would say that was probably the warmest night I had ever spent in that tent.
Sunday morning turned out to be warmer and sunnier than expected. Deb prepared us bacon then bacon oil poached eggs while Kevin dared Soroosh to climb a dead tree on a cliff. All my friends are so mature :) and guess what Bear was doing? of course he was busy making his coffee :) I was first helping with cutting green onion with my bone like fingers nails, but finally distracted by the tree climb on the cliff. I also climbed it after Soorosh did. After the relaxing breakfast, we decided to paddle around the island and go fishing as well. We also found out that we didn't catch any crab at all.
We paddled along east shore toward south end of Prevost Island. On the way, we saw lots and lots of seals, they were so cute!!!! Shortly before we landed for lunch, Andre and Deb caught a big fish (it's big by my standard, about 50 cm long). We served pizza and blueberries for lunch. Andre and Deb contributed a watermelon. The shore on this part of island had a very exciting bouldering problem, both Bear and Soroosh tried it. My attempt only went as far as I felt the texture of the rock were way too sharp and cutting into my skin a lot. It was sunny on and off, we sat around and enjoyed the sun until 3:30 pm. We paddled back to James Bay along the west shore. Most of the time the current direction was in favour of the direction we were traveling, therefore the looping around island wasn't super hard.
I prepared pork belly kimchi udon soup for dinner for everyone. By preparing I meant I boiled water and reheated everything. I didn't realize the difficult of serving soup while camping. Luckily we have tones of empty tupperware. I really lack experience in cooking meal for large group of people, never know what the amount is right. As a result, I ended up cooking too much food, we (especially Soroosh) were stuffing our face until we felt an explosion might occur. Andre and Deb cooked us the delicious fresh fish. Soroosh went out and put the fish head in the crab trap as a bait. The dinner felt a lot like a Korean meal, except none of us is Korean :P. Dinner was followed by hot chocolate and dessert again. Everyone of us agreed dessert goes into a different stomach, so we were able to consume dessert even after a more than satisfying dinner.
Monday morning, Kevin and Soroosh got up early to prepare oatmeal for us. Kevin was so nice and made Bear coffee. We finished breakfast early and started packing. We started paddling around shortly before 10 am. We caught 2 crabs with the help of the fish head. On the way back it started to become sunny. We had a bit of water flight with the very mature group of two (Kevin and Soroosh). We arrived Ganges around noon. The ferry we were aiming for departs at 3:25pm, however, the ferry was fully booked, Bear was walking on, so he was the only one ended up on the ferry going directly from Salt Spring Island to Vancouver. We drove to Fulford, lined up for the ferry to go to Vancouver Island. While waiting we had lunch, lunch was everything left in everyone's food bag. Some of the food looked and smelled a bit sketchy. Andre and Soroosh were brave (or hungry) enough to eat everything. We all "drank" the yogurt that was sitting for 3 days.
Fortunately, we got on the 3:50 pm ferry without any problem and arrived Vancouver Island at 4:30 pm. Because the kayak sitting on top of Andre and Deb's car, our vehicle was considered over sized which meant we got to line up in the very short oversized vehicle line and greatly increased our chance to get on the ferry. We were lucky to got on the ferry at 5pm. We arrived Andre and Deb's house before 7 pm, it was 5 min faster than Bear :)
At night, we sat in Andre and Deb's back yard enjoyed bubble tea, delievery Taiwanese food, and Andre cooked us the crab. The long weekend ended pleasantly with a lot of food in my tummy. It was a nice get away from the city. Thank you for the good time everyone!!! For Deb and Andre, thank you for planning the trip and inviting us!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Kayaking Trip I (planning)
We were originally thinking of going to San Francisco to visit Bear's Uncle, unfortunately (or fortunately) Canucks was playing in San Jose, it was impossible to go to California for less than $1000 per head. After determining that we were not spending $2000 to go to San Francisco, we happily decided to join the Gulf Islands kayaking trip Deb and Andre were planning.
There were 6 of us in the group, Deb, Andre, Soroosh, Kevin, Bear and myself. Because it's a long weekend, it was almost impossible to get on the ferry with a car without reservation. We decided to only take one car, and Bear would do a combination of walking and busing. The overall plan was:
Friday: catch 8:35pm ferry to Salt Spring Island (ferry spot reserved), camp near Ganges
Saturday: Launch our kayaks from Ganges, paddle to James Bay on Prevost Island
Sunday: Paddle, Eat, Paddle, Eat, Paddle...
Monday: Paddle back to Ganges, line up for the ferry from Salt Spring Island (Long Harbour, close to Ganges) to Vancouver (since there was no reservation spot left), back up plan is to go to Southern part of Salt Spring Island (Fulford) to catch the non-reservable ferry to Vancouver Island then catch the ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver.
We planned for group of 6 meals. Bear and I were responsible for one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner. I have only been on one kayaking trip prior to this one, so I didn't have much idea as to what kind of food was appropriate for a kayaking trip. Deb said it's somewhere between backpacking and car camping, by that she meant weight is not as much a problem, but it's important to remember to bring food that will keep without refrigeration.
We decided to bring our (famous??) homemade cinnamon bread, veggie omelet, and bacon for breakfast. Homemade pizza was our favourite choice of lunch (feasible for any type of camping). Bear suggested pork belly kimchi udon soup similar to what we did at our last winter trip, except we needed to somehow figure out how to make it not as deadly salty.
Thursday evening, Bear and I were busy preparing the kayaking trip meals. Bear made the pizza dough, and a dough for cinnamon bread. For some reason the bread dough didn't rise at all, so we had to buy some cheese scone to substitute for the bread. We made Caramelized onion and prosciutto pizza. I prepared (pre-cooked) all the veggies for the kimchi udon soup. As for pork belly, I washed and washed it, then boiled it to get as much salt off as possible.
There were 6 of us in the group, Deb, Andre, Soroosh, Kevin, Bear and myself. Because it's a long weekend, it was almost impossible to get on the ferry with a car without reservation. We decided to only take one car, and Bear would do a combination of walking and busing. The overall plan was:
Friday: catch 8:35pm ferry to Salt Spring Island (ferry spot reserved), camp near Ganges
Saturday: Launch our kayaks from Ganges, paddle to James Bay on Prevost Island
Sunday: Paddle, Eat, Paddle, Eat, Paddle...
Monday: Paddle back to Ganges, line up for the ferry from Salt Spring Island (Long Harbour, close to Ganges) to Vancouver (since there was no reservation spot left), back up plan is to go to Southern part of Salt Spring Island (Fulford) to catch the non-reservable ferry to Vancouver Island then catch the ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver.
We planned for group of 6 meals. Bear and I were responsible for one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner. I have only been on one kayaking trip prior to this one, so I didn't have much idea as to what kind of food was appropriate for a kayaking trip. Deb said it's somewhere between backpacking and car camping, by that she meant weight is not as much a problem, but it's important to remember to bring food that will keep without refrigeration.
We decided to bring our (famous??) homemade cinnamon bread, veggie omelet, and bacon for breakfast. Homemade pizza was our favourite choice of lunch (feasible for any type of camping). Bear suggested pork belly kimchi udon soup similar to what we did at our last winter trip, except we needed to somehow figure out how to make it not as deadly salty.
Thursday evening, Bear and I were busy preparing the kayaking trip meals. Bear made the pizza dough, and a dough for cinnamon bread. For some reason the bread dough didn't rise at all, so we had to buy some cheese scone to substitute for the bread. We made Caramelized onion and prosciutto pizza. I prepared (pre-cooked) all the veggies for the kimchi udon soup. As for pork belly, I washed and washed it, then boiled it to get as much salt off as possible.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Makeup Trial
It sounded silly to have a makeup trial with a local makeup artist since I will hire the artist in Dubrovnik on my wedding day. I have been worrying about that the Croatian makeup artists might lack experience with Asian faces, and have been trying to figure out a solution. After a bit of research, the suggestion is to bring pictures of yourself with the makeup on that you really like or a picture from a magazine. So I came up with the idea, to get a local Asian makeup artist to do my make up, take pictures, and bring those pictures to Dubrovnik to show the makeup artist there. Since we were doing our engagement photo, I can just wear the same makeup for the photo session. I convinced myself it's worthwhile (kill two birds with one stone) to spend money for a makeup trial.
The makeup trial also included a hair trial. I was really lost with the hundreds and thousands of hair styles I found online. After talking with a few friends, I decided to do a loose curly updo. At the trial session, the makeup artist convinced everyone (my maid of honour and Bear) that I looked better with a bit of hair down, because I have a big head (according to Bear very squared head too) and chubby face. So she ended up doing a halfup-halfdown for me. She said it's very important that I respect my features :P. And if you look at the third picture, you will see she set my hair a bit high on the top of my head. That's a very common way to create an illusion of a longer skinnier face.
As for make up, she tried 2 different colours of eye shadow for me. One is the earth tone (brown) and the other is purple (to match my theme colour). We decided that purple looked better. And of course, we can't forget false eye-lashes which I think is probably the most important item for Asian makeup. Since I have very obvious double eye lid (it's a crease on the eye lid that a lot of Asian don't have) already, she decided to leave out the taping eye lid technique. Hahaha, you must be thinking what the hell is eyelid taping?? basically it's using adhesive or a small piece of tape to create a crease on the eye lid, here is a example. I did that for a bit when I was in university. Because the lack of sleep, sometimes my eyes were puffy, and the creases on two eyes wouldn't look identical, then I would use the technique to fix them. Anyway, it is doubtful that an Croatia makeup artist knows this technique, but I am lucky that most of time I don't need it.
The makeup didn't seem to be heavy enough, the foundation didn't have much coverage. The eyeshadow was quite light that on the our engagement photos it's hard to see I have eyeshadow on. Most of the work she did on the eyes were very similar to the ones that I used to do on myself anyway, but I am very out of practice now (since I don't climb rocks with false eye lashes or snowboard with eye shadow on). The end conclusion both Conny and I drew was that my features are not very typical Asian, so I don't need to worry as much. I will have a makeup and hair trial on Sept 19th before the wedding. I think I will only show the hair pictures to him. I will not show the makeup picture and encourage him to do what he thinks would look good on me. And if it ends up he has really bad taste I still have the pictures to guide him.
The makeup trial also included a hair trial. I was really lost with the hundreds and thousands of hair styles I found online. After talking with a few friends, I decided to do a loose curly updo. At the trial session, the makeup artist convinced everyone (my maid of honour and Bear) that I looked better with a bit of hair down, because I have a big head (according to Bear very squared head too) and chubby face. So she ended up doing a halfup-halfdown for me. She said it's very important that I respect my features :P. And if you look at the third picture, you will see she set my hair a bit high on the top of my head. That's a very common way to create an illusion of a longer skinnier face.
As for make up, she tried 2 different colours of eye shadow for me. One is the earth tone (brown) and the other is purple (to match my theme colour). We decided that purple looked better. And of course, we can't forget false eye-lashes which I think is probably the most important item for Asian makeup. Since I have very obvious double eye lid (it's a crease on the eye lid that a lot of Asian don't have) already, she decided to leave out the taping eye lid technique. Hahaha, you must be thinking what the hell is eyelid taping?? basically it's using adhesive or a small piece of tape to create a crease on the eye lid, here is a example. I did that for a bit when I was in university. Because the lack of sleep, sometimes my eyes were puffy, and the creases on two eyes wouldn't look identical, then I would use the technique to fix them. Anyway, it is doubtful that an Croatia makeup artist knows this technique, but I am lucky that most of time I don't need it.
Monday, May 02, 2011
Engagement Photo
Originally, I wanted a pre-wedding photo session in Taiwan. This studio interested me a lot. One thing I really like about this photographer is her composition. I think that's one thing I care the most about photos. Also, their price seems to be quite reasonable. But due the limitation on time and money, we gave up on the idea of pre-wedding photo session.
One day I was surfing online, I saw some really nice hiking-engagement photos. After some research, I realized that engagement photos are not as pricey as pre-wedding photos. They usually are done more casually which means we can do it in any setting we like. I mentioned the idea to Bear. We both thought it would be very meaningful if we can have some photos that show the things we like to do together. Since it's winter time, we decided to do snowshoeing engagement photo session.
We found our photographers online, Pure Souls Photography, their adventure photos caught our eyes. After talking to them , we found out that Josie and Ian love the mountains as much as we do. And their photos look fun and natural. Because of all that, we believed they would be able to produce the best pictures for us.
On Easter Sunday, we finally went to Mount Seymour and got our snowy engagement photos done! It was a raining day. I have been trying to line up my make up trial with our photo session, so it was impossible to change the day. We went up to the mountain despite the rain. We took some normal photo with our snowshoeing outfit. After that, we changed to our vintage dressy outfit to create a bit of "out of place" theme. The photo shoot lasted almost two hours, it was a lot of fun. Our awesome photographers made the whole experience very interesting and worthwhile.
We are still in the process of picking our favourite 50 photos out of 151. It is so hard, because all the photos are awesome. I will share the 4 teasers they sent us.
One day I was surfing online, I saw some really nice hiking-engagement photos. After some research, I realized that engagement photos are not as pricey as pre-wedding photos. They usually are done more casually which means we can do it in any setting we like. I mentioned the idea to Bear. We both thought it would be very meaningful if we can have some photos that show the things we like to do together. Since it's winter time, we decided to do snowshoeing engagement photo session.
We found our photographers online, Pure Souls Photography, their adventure photos caught our eyes. After talking to them , we found out that Josie and Ian love the mountains as much as we do. And their photos look fun and natural. Because of all that, we believed they would be able to produce the best pictures for us.
On Easter Sunday, we finally went to Mount Seymour and got our snowy engagement photos done! It was a raining day. I have been trying to line up my make up trial with our photo session, so it was impossible to change the day. We went up to the mountain despite the rain. We took some normal photo with our snowshoeing outfit. After that, we changed to our vintage dressy outfit to create a bit of "out of place" theme. The photo shoot lasted almost two hours, it was a lot of fun. Our awesome photographers made the whole experience very interesting and worthwhile.
We are still in the process of picking our favourite 50 photos out of 151. It is so hard, because all the photos are awesome. I will share the 4 teasers they sent us.
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