Family Visiting

Christopher did a whirlwind trip to Vancouver and Kamloops to see Our Accountant and family friends Gary and Marie Fenton, the nephews (Wendy's new one Sidney) and siblings.

Here is our new little nephew Sydney George Bishop (Syd for short)...

 

Syd, Mom, Dad, Older Brother Murdoc and extended Bishop family were all found to be well.

 

Christopher and Drew's family all road tripped it up to Kamloops for a short visit.  Once recovered... there was visiting, hiking, trips to the park and lots of fun had...

 

 Daxton (Drew's Girlfriend Kylie's little one) ran so fast I only got this picture of him!

 

Christopher and Drew went to RONA and Home Depot so Christopher could get his fix (None in Whitehorse yet :-(  They checked out sheds and vanities for the rental house bathroom and did the annual visit to the rental house in Kamloops.  The new cedar fence looks great.

 

Dreams Puerta Vallarta 2013 Review

This is not a review of the Dreams Villa Magna...

We went to the Dreams Puerta Vallarta with the expectation that it would be as wonderful an experience as our trip to Dreams Villa Magna 3 yrs ago... not so much. 

Context:
It was a long cold winter and an even longer, cold spring in the Yukon.  We chose the high end tower for the nicer rooms. Sarah has the rather unique life experience of once working in a 5Star Hotel and now (after much hard work and sacrifice) is able to stay in them.  She knows how these hotels/resorts should be run.

Here were some of the notable negatives...
- They don't call it a time share but there is a lot of pressure for you to waste 1-2hrs of your precious vacation time to try to get you to buy into their Dreams 'vacation club'
- This all inclusive is not service oriented... the staff nearly all have attitude problems.
- The drinks are all from cheap mix and full of sugar... no fresh, real ingredients.
- The bathroom smelled like sewer gas the whole time we were there.  We complained a couple of times... the smell was reduced but was still there.  There was no offer to move rooms... give $$$ back... nothing.
- All employees seem to expect you to tip even when service is not good (which is the majority).  You get even worse service if you don't.  I don't know about you but when we choose to go to an all-inclusive... one of the reasons is so that we don't have to carry cash and be trying to decide about tipping all the time.
- We scheduled a romantic dinner.  We went, we waited 45mins, we got a piece of bread and some water.  We left.  What amazing apology did they offer us you ask!?!  They gave us some of our $$$ back, moved us to another restaurant and gave us a bottle of wine.  If this was truly the 5Star they make themselves out to be, they would have been falling all over themselves to COMP us... nope... not so much.

Here were the positives...
- The beach is beautiful
- We were still in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico... with sun after a long winter
- The deck hottub was fantastic
- The older gentlemen 'waiters' in our 'PREFERRED TOWER LOUNGE' were fantastic.

Would we recommend DREAMS PUERTA VALLARTA?  NO!!!

Would we go back to DREAMS after this experience?  NO!!!

I Love Open kitchens

As a lone eater all week I've very much enjoyed the entertainment of the open kitchen   The good,the bad, and the fugly (here I'm think of the dishwasher chicken at Momofulu). Tonight's degustation is at a wonderful French place - La Palette - Chef Kavanagh. Come herere, visit, spend time, eat food, drink wine.
Also gloriously present in spectacular profusion are fabric, findings, and notion stores. Long time readers and friends may know of my addiction to fabric. Well, earlier today I hit the Textle Museum of Canada's "yard sale". Good God! I haven't seen elderly elbows so high since my Mum took me to the Filenes Basement White Sale. If you ask her, she will deny it it we were there. Sear's bargain basement had nothing on it.

Toronto Dine Out

I've learned one thing about eating out in my travels, ask your waiter/ress what they would recommend. They know better than anyone what the kitchen does best, what people like and what they'd like to eat if they ate at their restaurant. It is a pretty good method of eating well while eating out. I've actually learned two things about eating well while travelling - ask locals where they eat. You will often get to know which of the multitude of restaurants actually offers good food.

Here in down town Toronto on the edge of what they call the entertainment district I've had some truly great meals. Number one has to be the Queen and Beaver on Elm St. The food was lick your plate good English staples from appetizer to desert. The service good, without being obsequious. Number 2 goes to the Queen Mother on Queen St. West. The food was Asian fusion, delicious and generous. Number 3 goes to Momofuku. A big name located in the Shangri-la Hotel on University Ave. The squid was divine. The rice cake as good. Unfortunately the rice cake was pinch hitting for a less than tasty radish/potato thingy. The chocolate pudding for desert was adequate - it really suffered following on two amazing dishes. Number 4 goes to Guu Sake Bar, although it would be more accurate to say that 3rd place is a tie. At Guu I had a really tasty jelly fish appy, a spinach appy and a rice bowl. All very flavourful, all well presented. I think it didn't rank higher in the Sarah Stakes because I was so surprised by the food. When you think you are getting one thing and your taste buds and eyes and expectations are in line with that expectation, the surprise can be difficult to fairly evaluate. 4th goes to some perfectly adequate East Indian from Timiku (I think it was called). The onion bajhis were amazing.

I was most surprised by the Momofuku open kitchen chef who, live, in front of diners, put some chicken in the dish washer. Sigh. I'm sure that shit happens, but do you really want to do it in public?!

Mexican Cooking Class

Today's adventure was a wonderful cooking class with Chef Mavi. The food was delicious, the setting lovely. The drinks... very tasty. Photos to follow.
We started with the shopping. She showed us her favourite butcher who only kills one cow a day from his ranch. If you want multiple tenderloins you've got to go back multiple days in a row. Then it was off to the fish monger. There we saw tuna, red snapper, 7 different sizes of shrimp, 2 of crab, mackerel, mahi mahi, octopods and various other denizens of the deep. We also acquired a descaler for fish - a tool made out of a piece of pipe, cut with teeth that you run over the fish to get the scales off so you can prepare the fish whole on the grill and eat it entire. Next to the green grocer for all kinds of local goodness including 2 kinds of dried peppers, local peach and mango, and other unspellable bits and pieces.

The meal was amazing. The multiple salsa (sauces) made from one base of 3 different kinds of dried peppers astounded us both.

Ressurection Sorbet

After a rather hot day and some bank machine frustrations I was at the end of my tether. Then, I had some of the best lemon and coconut sorbet I've had in a long time. I was immediately turned from a grouchy zombie creature, to a sweet kind patient woman again. Yes, truely! Iced lemon can make that difference.

Puerto Vallarta Walks

We had a lovely walk around the historic centre of Puerto Vallarta with Sandra of Learn Vallarta. Educational and interesting.