Throwback Thursday-Toronto Boat Cruise!

Another throwback post to Toronto! Now, I don't know about you guys, but I LOVE Groupon for fun activities to do in new (or re-visited) cities. They can also be a lot of fun for locals who want to try something new and interesting, but don't want to invest too much into the activity.

For Toronto, we met up with a friend from Korea, who lived in Vancouver, and moved to Toronto (and is now back in Vancouver again) who we try to see regularly. She is always down for just about anything new, so we took a tall-mast boat tour of the Toronto harbor! 

The price was pretty decent ($15 or so per person), the tour lasted an hour, and they had music, fun activities, food and drinks available for purchase, and some great views of the Toronto skyline. There are sunset tours, and a dinner tour available as well, but this basic tour is the cheapest option available. 

I don't know if they have any more groupons offered, but the website for the company is http://www.tallshipcruisestoronto.com/  and its a great way to feel like a pirate for an hour!

Thar she blows! The beautiful ship in the Toronto harbor 

                                                                                                                                                                       

View of the CN Tower from the boat dock-or maybe the boat? I don't remember

How pretty is this boat?

Set sail!

View of the skyline, not far out

That's better, right? A nice view of the Toronto skyline, early afternoon

Don't forget that Toronto has an island! 

The weather got a little grey and windy away from the protected harbor

A little bit of fog, but no rain

A vanity shot of the CN tower. She looks so pretty!

Vancouver PRO/AM Fit expo

I had the opportunity to go to the FIRST Vancouver PRO/AM bodybuilding competition and fitness expo. This is the first of a new Olympia qualifying competition, so a lot of big names came out to see the expo, or compete. It was cool, because there was a lot of amateur competitors there as well, so I got to see what some of the local ladies and gents look like. 

The event was the weekend of July 25-26, but I only went on the Saturday. It was actually quite a small event, but it was pretty busy, what with it being the first of its kind.

One of my favourite moments was getting to see some of the champions. Like, Flex Lewis. And Dana Lynn Bailey. Mostly DLB. Seriously. I couldn't go near her-I was both in awe, and terrified I'd embarrass myself. Which I would have. I'll have a video of some of her talk on my YouTube later!

And Rich Piana. Now, if you don't know, yes, this man is on steroids, and he promotes the CAREFUL and PROPER use of them. Despite that, it still takes a LOT of work to get, and maintain, being this big. If you feel the need to talk about how big dudes are all on steroids, or some shit-don't. if you really can;t stop yourself, go somewhere else. I don't want to hear it.

And he is fucking huge.

They also had some pretty cool demonstrations, although  most of them I didn't get pictures of. There was belly dancing, pole dancing, powerlifting, and other lifts. We watched this girl basically giver herself an aneurysm. Well, not actually, but after she got these 5 plates (just under 225kg) up, she gave herself a nose bleed. We decided to leave after that.

And one of the cool things about the expo was all the free samples we got! Don't get me wrong, we bought a bunch of stuff too. Although I forgot to buy protein, which is awful, since I'm actually about to run out. There were also lifting competitions for the guests to win prizes, like shirts or shaker cups. One of my friends had to win me a Pharmafreak tank top because my finger makes me still kinda gimpy. Its so close to being healed, but so far.

Throw back post! Cuba!

Once upon a time, I went to Cuba for a pre-wedding honeymoon. Or something. Okay, not at all. It just happened to fall a few months before our wedding, so we called it a honeymoon, as we didn't have one.

The actual story is that the man and I decided we wanted nothing to do with the Vancouver Olympics, and so we rented out our downtown apartment in exchange for our rent payed, flights to Ontario, and a vacay to Cuba, which was all inclusive. Not bad for vacating my apartment for 3 weeks, right?

We went to Varadaro, which isn't too far from Havana, and is the area where you can see both sides of the ocean from the same spot. It was a really nice location, and the resort-the name of which escapes me at the moment-was pretty good. The majority of the other tourists were all Canadian, what with the anti-American sentiment in Cuba that is well reciprocated in the US.

I actually got really bad food poisoning before we went, and I had to stop on the way to the airport to puke a few times. It was gross, and I didn't want to go anymore. The husband made me go, and I am so happy he did. I had a great time there! I have never seen water so blue as I did there. Seriously. And I've been a few places in the Caribbean and Tropics. Nothing bluer.

Storm making its way to shore

Super burnt little feet

Golf course over looking the ocean that we were thrown out of

The golf course

These little guys were EVERYWHERE!

Carved relief wall at the resort we stayed at

This is one of the few vacations where we did almost nothing. There was some family drama that made things a little tense, and we didn't have a lot of money. We stayed mostly at the beach, and did a lot of swimming, eating, hot tubbing, sun bathing, sand castle building (seriously) and walking around. It was super great and relaxing. Next time we go there, I hope to go in the more warm weather-don't get me wrong, it was nice, but it wasn't THAT nice, you know? It was still February, and there were a few cooler days.

Trees and Nature

Well, trees and nature, and all that fun stuff. I think its important for people to spend at least some part of their day outside, you know? Fresh air, sunshine, and all that stuff is super good for the body and the mind. Taking walks is therapeutic, a good form of exercise, and just all around good health. I mean, when you think about it, this whole living in dwellings, and spending our days on computers is fairly recent, evolution wise. So, spending time outside is highly needed-especially for those of us who spend a good chunk of our day in front of books, or computers. So, do yourself a favour, and go for a walk. Find a beach, a park, anything, and just let yourself be.
I just happen to live on a mountain that has some really nice trails that are quite close. So, lucky me. The beach is nice too, but its rather far now from where I live. (and by far, I mean, like, 45 minutes by transit)

So, here are the pics from my most recent walk around my mountain!

Ontario playground

Hey guys, this SHOULD be my last post about the holidays in Ontario, but there may be a photo post sometime later, if I decide to throw in some filler when I get swamped with school work (which I'm actively fighting against).

I'll start with some of the fun things I got either from shopping trips around Ontario and Toronto, and some of the stuff I got from Christmas. I should also mention, again, that I am a pretty big nerd, and I am not ashamed at all. And, for any internet trolls who feel the need to refer to me as some 'fake gamer girl', I freely admit that I don't game anymore. So, sure. Bring it.

I also got a fun Tardis mug, that I have a really hard time drinking out of ( is there a trick to drinking out of something square?) as well as a lightsaber that was hella fun to get on the plane. The flight guy that checked us in loved it though.

So, clearly, I got some pretty badass stuff while I was there. I got a bunch more stuff, including a camera, clothing, The Last Unicorn DVD (which I'm sure stoked about) and a charitable donation to a child in Africa. Apparently, the hubs and I got her a piglet, which is really cool. When I finally make it to Africa, my mom wants us to see if we can find the girl they "adopted", but I think it might be hard, since World Vision only gives an approximate area in which to find her village. We'll see though. It would be hella cool to find my so called adopted sister. Or, that's what my mom calls her.

Speaking of my mom...she has a tendency to collect random knick-nacks. And, sometimes, I like looking at them. Actually, they are all pretty neat. My family has some pretty weird things they like, and then blend them together into some weird Buddhist-African-pop culture thing. It's just as weird as it sounds, but it works.

Okay, so I'm looking through my pictures, and, yea, there will be another Ontario post, but it will be mostly selfies, and pictures of my parents dog. So, still awesome?

Holidays!

If you guys are all up on my vlogs, then you know that I am safely back in the west coast, where the weather is better, and school has started up again. I'm trying to have a really good semester (grade and stress wise) so I'm actually organizing my time a bit, and figuring out a semi-schedule to follow so I can get everything I want to do done.

But, that is neither here nor there, in terms of this post.

I actually wanted to talk about the holidays a bit, and actually include some photos from my actual camera (and new camera) rather than using pics from my phone. 

Now, my mother is ALL about traditions. I think the hubs and I counted a dozen traditions that she is all about, and that didn't include things like meal times, presents, family attendance, and all that. I won't get into them all, but it was interesting. I've been around them my entire life, so it isn't a big deal to me, but, the hubs, while not his first time holidaying at my parents house,  it is the longest we've ever spent in Ontario for the christmas break. Anyways, it was funny to see his reactions to my mother demanding something because it was tradition. Next year will be right funny, as we have all decided to say bugger the winter, and we're going somewhere warm instead (details later).

Actually, this year, we didn't even get to do as many traditions as we normally do, as we had the big ice storm and couldn't get out to see the extended family. Which was fine, I guess. Weird, of course, but sometimes avoiding near death situations is worth not seeing extended family.The ice storm was super pretty though.

We also made some gingerbread men-some of which are inappropriate, but funny as hell, and spent a lot of time in the new awesome gym in Guelph, (called Evolution, and it was AMAZING. They had everything I could need, and some great classes, and it was 24 hours. 10/10, would recommend) and in the hot tub, which I did not get pictures of. Unfortunate, but I wasn't about to ruin my camera in the steam/snow.

OH, and a picture of the christmas tree with all the presents underneath! I can't forget that one! This is most of the stuff that we had all bought-so, 6 people's worth. We didn't have things for the extended family, or the husbands family underneath either. So, yea. We are kinda spoiled ^^