a celebration to remember :)

First off, 10 points to pretty much all of you who guessed that my last title entry was courtesy of *NSYNC ... and my last one before that was Britney Spears. I think I was on an early 00s trip! Secondly, this entry contains major picspam from yesterday, so you've been warned!

Yesterday, The Boy decided to treat me to an early birthday celebration since the weather is going to be crappy next week (boo) and most of the surprise activities were going to be outdoors. Since his car was off getting some repairs done, we were doing things the old-fashioned way and met downtown via the city bus.

I had no clue how we were getting to the next destination -- but then remembered this antique-looking bus that runs for free downtown, which drives down to the bayfront of our city. So off we went!

We are way too stoked for free transportation!

So we get there, and next thing we were supposed to take was this adorable trolley and we were supposed to eat ice cream while we were on it -- but we missed the trolley by literally a minute ... and instead had to walk 2 1/2 km to our next destination. Wowsers! I didn't mind though, since it was the perfect invitation for more pictures.


I got a haircut Monday, you can really notice it here, yippee!~

We ended up eating some delicious bacon wraps courtesy of The Boy and then hit up one of those ice cream trucks to get this delicious-looking thing. I felt eight years old again as we devoured it up -- it went all over my face AND my shirt (thank goodness for water!).

We then set off on a walking adventure, getting a nice tan as we walked, climbed stairs, and took one too many drink breaks (I get dehydrated easily). It was active to say the least! He made me pick from two options in his hands and I chose The Rock Garden.

Confession: People usually think my city is nasty, full of steel-industrial-factory sort of things. So believe me when I say, where we were was b-e-a-utiful!

As soon as we got there, we were starving once more and had a couple of more wraps -- and made friends with Chippy the Chipmunk!



He was SO adorable and kept posing and staring at us from the rocks, waiting for us to chuck him a few wee pieces of bread (which we complied to). And then it'd dart around as I scrambled to take pictures. Love those little critters!

The place itself was magnificently stunning. So many flowers, so much dedication to make the place look like an oasis. We found ourselves stopping every couple of minutes to relax on a bench and just look around or take tons of pictures.


Like this pic 'cause it shows off my nail polish, haha.
(OPI's 'Ate Berries in the Canaries')


Beautiful scenery all around!


I abused my ten-second timer so much on this outing :)


Gorgeous statue; and upon looking at the set of stairs, I accidentally blurted out, "This would be an amazing place to have a wedding!" to which The Boy hugged me after giving me 'the look' (a.k.a. you might be thinking about this a little too soon but I love you so much that I don't think you're crazy).


We stumbled upon these 'xylophone bells' made out of -- you'll never guess -- recycled propane tanks! We had so much fun playing with 'em!


Totally didn't get the memo that this was supposed to be a silly picture -- love the way the sun is shining on us, though :)


<- That picture is begging to be made into a 'DAT ASS' macro, fo sho!
After we looked around the Rock Garden in its entirety, we took a shuttle bus that goes throughout the several gardens in our city and ended up at Royal Botanical Gardens (the most-heard of attraction, garden-wise). I liked the former a bit more since there was so much to explore, while this one was more open-concept and had a lot of paths. But the statues were absolutely hysterical!

There were several throughout the garden, and they were all on sale, some of them for thousands and thousands of dollars. Who would pay $9,900 dollars to have a sculpture of a dog digging in the ground, so that all you can see is half of its body? It was crazy but fun to see :)


Another sculpture was a metal tricycle!

We then headed indoors to the Mediterranean garden, full of enormous plants, little ponds full of koi fish, and much more. The Boy joked around that since so many things were influenced by Japanese culture, I should put up these pictures on Facebook with the title, "JAPAN WAS AWESOME!" and see how many people thought we actually went to Japan. Should I go along with that? Haha!


Loved this place!

We then took the shuttle bus back to the original garden and, you guessed it, walked 2 1/2 km back to the bayfront, since that stoopid trolley didn't have any stops and wouldn't let us on. :( We got pretty exhausted by the end -- my leg muscles were seizing up, and he had blisters all over his feet -- but it was amazing being with him. And, he provided me with a little motivation by revealing the final surprise/destination -- Williams, the coffee shop where we had our first 'date' (though the one we went to was on university campus and this one was on the lake, but no matter)!



He had a slice of Lemon Meringue Pie while I had a slice of Strawberry Shortcake, which inspired the recipe of the week. After that, we took that lovely piece of free transportation back to the downtown and hugged for fifteen minutes before our buses came to take us home.

Such a beautiful day full of memories -- definitely my simple smile of the week and my Wednesday wish is that I could relive that day over and over again!

Hope you enjoyed the picspam!

And my next entry (planning it for Friday, since tomorrow I'm doing another set of early birthday celebrations with my friends) will be my 50th entry, so stay tuned for the giveaway! So excited for it :) Have an awesome hump day!