Spring Flowers & Upcoming Trips

Dale sent me a beautiful calla lily bouquet on Friday. Awww, isn't that's so sweet of him?

Extra baby's breath because he knows how much I love that flower herb. 

Herb?!! 

That doesn't sound right to me LOL I'm calling them flowers! :P

Aren't the calla lilies gorgeousss?! 

They're so vibrant in colour and the shape is so beautifully eye catching

This type of flower really reminds me of Spring :) 

And look at the coloured pattern on the roses!
All three roses in the bouquet were this unique pattern. It's verrry pretty. 

***sigh***

Dale always seems to make my day

I can't wait to visit New York next week with him :)
I've heard so much about NY and this will be my first time visiting the city

I'm super fortunate that Dale is taking me on this trip and he always looks after me. 

And then the weekend after New York, Dale is taking me to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for sightseeing, baseball games & shopping!! Ahhh! 

I loved Pittsburgh!

I visited it for the first time last August with my family (post is here)

Aaand, Dale and I get back from Pittsburgh on Easter Sunday.
So guess what?! 
My parents invited him over for Easter dinner!
Awww, so they all get to meet each other - so nice! And lots of yummy home cooked food too.
I have so many things to look forward to this month ;)


What are you looking forward to this month?

Lake Minnewanka: Spring May 2010 vs Winter March 2011

Do you remember my pictures of Lake Minnewanka from my post last May 2010?
You can read my old posts regarding that trip here and here


Lake Minnewanka is a gorgeous glacial lake located in Banff National Park - one of the most beautiful National Parks our country has :)

Just to give you an idea of where this lake is relative to where I live: to get to this lake I fly into Calgary (~3.5 hour flight) and from there it's about a 50 minute drive

Okay, so here's are a few older pictures from my late May 2010 trip last year

This is the lake where Dale and I saw a lot of mountain sheep last Spring :)

Do you see the docking cabin on Lake Minnewanka? Tell me if you can see it in the picture below

This is what Lake Minnewanka looked like last week Tuesday March 29th when Dale took me for a drive

Do you see the docking cabin on the lake here? 

It's a winter wonderland out there, but it's still stunningly beautiful to me ;)

And instead of seeing mountain sheep last week, we saw deer during our drive

Do you see the deer in the following picture?

Okay, I'll make it easier for you to spot them LOL

I'm so fortunate that Dale took me on both these trips out West :)
It was so nice to see how beautiful the lake looks like in Springtime vs late Winter.

NOTD: A Hit with the Guys + New York

Heyyy! I'm back home in Toronto from my trip out West....and this was my welcome home bouquet of two dozen roses from Dale ;) He knows I love the coral coloured roses and extra baby's breath. He's a sweetheart

And this was my manicure during my trip out earlier in the week

For fun, I had asked Dale what colour he would like my nails to be. He said hot pink :) So I immediately thought of the China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy nail polish that he picked up for me last month. A couple of coats of China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy:

Funny I didn't realize I had a small birth mark on my pinkie until I saw this picture! Huh, the things I discovered via blogging....

This colour is really bold especially on fake nails like this. I liked it but spruced it up a bit with some chunky glitter polish at the tips. I like to do this to jazz up any base coat colour

Left to right: No brand chunky blue glitter polish I bought in Thailand, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Sooo, this is the first manicure where I got numerous compliments - and all the compliments were from random gentlemen (the security guy at the airport, the gentleman sitting beside me on the plane, the male air flight attendant..etc..). I didn't get any compliments from the ladies...ah well. Hence the title of this post!


Now I gotta focus on my studies and catch up on some work stuff. But I can't complain because in two weeks Dale is taking me to New York!!! Ahhhh! I'm really excited :)

If you have any suggestions on must-see places in New York, please let me know


How is your weekend coming along? :)

Elk Island National Park

One of the things I did this past weekend was visit Elk Island National Park which is about a 40 minute drive from Edmonton

(aside: Edmonton is a three and a half hour flight from my hometown Toronto)

Canada has some breathtaking national parks - when you visit Canada, try to visit at least one of them

Elk Island National Park has an aspen parkland landscape which is one of the most endangered habitats in our country (A bit of trivia for you, like that huh?).
It's difficult to picture the landscape from my pictures because there is a ton of accumulated snow

Dale drove us to the national park because I wanted to see this:

the free roaming bison in the park :)

Dale and I were joking around a bit....I mean, you hear about herds of bison right? Well, all the bison we saw in the park were either alone or just with one other bison nearby. Anyways, I did read that the Canadian Government had recently shipped 30 wood bison from this Elk Island National Park to some remote place in Russia (Republic of Sakha). So that's pretty much the reason we didn't see many bison. So much for the herds!!
Dale and I were also joking around about how can it be possible that bison meat is lean when all they seem to do is lay down and eat. Seriously, none of them even moved their heads when we drove by them - only their mouths moved from chewing food LOL


All kidding aside, this was the first time I saw free roaming bison. They're really beautiful. I wish we could have gotten a bit closer to one of them (while in a car of course), but nonetheless it was a really nice experience for me.


Have you visited any of your country's National Parks before? 

Gorgeous

I've been out West in Calgary, Canmore and Edmonton on vacation the past few days...I'm really lucky as this trip is a gift from Dale :)

Because of the two hour time difference between Toronto (my home city) and here (Calgary), I'm waking up earlier - and caught a beautiful sunrise this morning 

This was the view of the sunrise looking out Dale's backyard - it's absolutely gorgeous isn't it?

I'd love to wake up to this everyday

What scenery would you love to wake up to? 

More winter activities: where Karen's been

I spent the past week and a half with Dale and we did so many fun things together 

He took us on another trip back to Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville (about 2.5 hours from Toronto) for some winter activities :)
I must say that our two trips to Deerhurst Resort in the past month and a half has really changed my way of thinking when it comes to enjoying Canadian winters. There are so many fun winter activities to do!

One of the winter activities Dale took me on was skiing
I haven't been skiing in ages - it's been over 10 years since I last skied, but it was just as fun as I  remembered it to be
We skied at Hidden Valley ski resort which is just a few minutes drive away from Deerhurst
It's a great ski spot for beginners like me :)

I stuck to the green hills and only managed one easy blue run.
I liked the "Lazy Lady" run because it was really quiet and almost nobody was on that run
Mind you, I don't know what is lazy about that run. At some points on that run you have to cross country ski so you're anything but lazy if you want to make it to bottom of the hill!

I love snow covered trees, don't you?

The view was beautiful at the top of some hills. You can see the lake up ahead

***********


Another fun activity that Dale booked for us was horse back riding!
It was my first time on a horse

I was a bit anxious the first few minutes up there - I thought I was going to fall off, or the horse would kick or jump or something crazy like that....but everything went well and it was a really nice experience (I just needed some extra help getting off the horse)

My horse Bubba was so cute! Do you see how he has curly hair?! 
He was really a funny horse and kept trying to munch on every weed/wild vegetation he saw growing along the path haha. He even tried to eat the ornamental Christmas wreath along the barn door that you can see in the picture below :S
He was a very good horse though :)

Getting on the horse wasn't too bad since there was a platform to help us on

It was just the three of us for the horse back riding - our guide Christie, Dale and myself
We all had our own horses but here is the guide just walking Bubba and I away from the platform

Look at Bubba! He looks so funny here - it looks like he's laughing!

I'm playing with Alice here - one of the husky puppies that was born to a couple of Deerhurst's husky dog sleds
Alice followed us while we were horse back riding
You can read my post on my first dog sledding experience at Deerhurst here

***********

Because I had such a blast snowmobiling last month at Deerhurst with Dale (you can read my post here), he booked us again for snowmobiling
But this time instead of booking the snowmobiles for an hour and a half, Dale booked them for the whole afternoon :) Yay!

Dale rented the snowmobiles from the same company as last time - Baysville Marina 
They're a reliable company and Dale is really happy with how Steve and Chris run it...although this time the snowmobiles had a bit more wear and tear on them. The snowmobile I was on had its suspension blown :S But it still did the job

Last month when Dale and I went snowmobiling, we had to drive 30 minutes from Deerhurst to Baysville because there was not enough snow to snowmobile at the resort
This time, we got lucky and there was a ton of snow!
So the snowmobile rental company drove up the snowmobiles to Deerhurst which allowed both Dale and I to explore the trails around the resort we stayed at :)

It was a ton of fun and the trails around Deerhurst Resort are just as scenic as the trails around Baysville


****************

I had such a great three nights at Deerhurst with Dale. These past two trips to Deerhurst have been really special to me :)
Dale is really such a great guy - he always looks after me, always puts me first and has been so supportive of everything

Our drive from Deerhurst back to Toronto - we went through a couple of snow squalls like this one

What have you been up to the past week and half?

Leaf's Game, Review of Hair Salons: Deerhurst Salon & Red Lemon Salon

Sports are always 10x's more exciting in real life than on TV

Dale took me to a Leaf's game a couple of weeks back with the best seats I've ever had to a game - several rows up behind the Leaf's bench ;) Thank you very much Dale!

Mind you, I won the bet we made - the Leaf's beat the Calgary Flames :P

I asked if anyone noticed my hair colour in my last blog post....and thank you for noticing the difference but I bet you didn't know what colour it's suppose to be LOL 

Looks more reddish doesn't it? :( 

Two days after my hair was coloured at Deerhurst Resort Salon

***Review of Deerhurst Resort Hair Salon***

Dale treated to me whatever I wanted done at the Spa at Deerhurst Resort
I opted for a hot stone massage, hair cut and full colour

Regarding the full colour, I wanted to go purple - I wanted to do something adventurous, fun and I wanted this colour done professionally since it's not an easy colour to achieve at home

I was hesitating to write this review but I decided I should
It is not a positive review, but anyone who is contemplating going to the Deerhurst Spa and paying that kind of money (price list here) deserves professional treatment and to walk away happy about it
I did not feel that way

I was booked for cut and colour with Heidi

I'll start off with the positive:

• on time (I was the 1st appointment of the day after all)
• I'm happy with the style of cut  
• you and your hair stylist are in separate rooms from others so it's private, which was nice
• the dim lighting is relaxing
• she offered her professional opinion on my initial choice of colour. See, there were only two purple colours in the colour book I was given (why only two?!). Initially I chose the lighter, more plum version of the two purples but Heidi said it would look very fake as an all over colour and recommended I go for the darker shade of purple to avoid the dreaded "wig" look. I took her advice

Now the negative:

• although I am happy with the style of cut I requested, Heidi cut more than I asked and more than she had reassured me that she would (she even verified the amount of hair to be cut using distance between her fingers so it wasn't due to verbal discrepancy). This wasn't the make it or break it since this happens most of the time
• every time I have gotten my hair cut, the hair stylist will hold up a mirror behind me so that when I look forward into another mirror, I can see my haircut from behind when the job is done. Heidi failed to do this
• although the dim lighting is nice, it makes it difficult to see proper colour. While Heidi was blow drying my hair after the colour was washed out, I asked her if she noticed my hair looked reddish. She said yes, there is a bit of red undertone but for sure it's purple if I see it in the sunlight. She blamed the red tint from the dim lighting. My much friendlier massage therapist whom I saw right after my colour and cut also informed me that colour doesn't pick up well under the dim lighting in the spa. Well well....Dale even thought it looked reddish more than anything when we went out into the sunlight. Even I had a difficult time seeing that my hair is purple rather than red! Grrrr
• not only does the dim lighting make it difficult to see actual real colour, it makes it hard to see colour at all. When I went into the sunlight later, I saw how much dye was left all over my neck!! There was a lot of dye smeared on my neck and I was shocked that I didn't notice it in the salon (mind you, I was more shocked Heidi didn't do a good job at cleaning it up)
• her personality. This is very important for me and for this reason, not only will I hesitate going back to the Deerhurst Salon, but I will not recommend Heidi to any future client. She was very cold and rude. I've never had such a negative, judgemental person as a hair stylist. For example, when I told her I wanted to go purple for colour, she blurted out why. I told her I had gone blonde before, reddish before and now I just wanted either purple or navy blue to experiment ;) And since she is blonde, I asked if she ever went dark (like experimented with colour). Her response was that she thought it looks "disgusting" when blondes dye their hair darker. Yep, "disgusting". WTF?! I thought being a hair stylist she should be more open minded or at least use a different choice of adjective. It really offended me especially with her tone of voice and I had just told her I use to go blonde - so does that make me disgusting? At one point she referred to Dale as my husband and because at that point I didn't feel like explaining myself to someone like her, I just played along. Dale and I joked about it later and how he's my husband of two years LOL
• she got some soap suds on my face while she was washing my hair but I know it was an accident. It's just that this didn't help the situation regarding her personality
• when Heidi was brushing my hair after the colour, before the cut, I guess my hair or her brush caught onto one of my earrings and the back part of my earring fell off. We both noticed it right away and when I offered to help her look for it at that moment, she said "Oh no, I'll look for it later." I asked her again and she said she'd do it later when she swept the floor. The whole situation was not handled well. I was rushed off to my massage right after my hair appointment - mind you, without my earring and without seeing my hair cut (because she didn't hold up a mirror). It was only when I was done with my massage that I asked my massage therapist about my missing earring with Heidi. I never saw Heidi because she had stepped out of the salon and the massage therapist had to apologize on Heidi's behalf that the back part of my earring was not found. Seriously, what if that was white gold or something valuable to me as a gift? Sorry is not enough. In fact, Heidi never apologized to my face nor did she write a short note. Dale had already paid and tipped everyone on my behalf and I didn't want to make a fuss because I just didn't want to upset Dale. Luckily the earring was just sterling silver and not valuable to me

And as if Dale wasn't sweet enough to take care of everything and was there for me in the lobby of the Spa when I was finished, he surprised me a gift from the Spa as well 

Dale bought me Pevonia Botanica products from the Deerhurst Spa

That was very very sweet of Dale to surprise me with this
But really, all I wanted after that run-in with Heidi was a big hug from Dale and I got that too ;)


***Review of Red Lemon Hair Salon***

In light of such a negative hair salon review, I feel that I should finish off with a positive one

I'll start off by saying I really really miss my old hair stylist Julie (her nickname is "Gemma" because there was more than one Julie working at her old hair salon)
She has such a fun personality AND on top of that, she is awesomeeee with hair

Gemma can really colour hair well
Before I saw Gemma, I rarely ever got any compliments on my hair colour. Like, none. But as soon as I started getting highlights with Gemma, I even got compliments from people walking down the street! One person I know who actually has experience colouring hair had noticed my highlights one time and specifically asked me, "Who did your hair colour? It looks really good." And trust me, it's not the colour I chose - it was how well it was done.
Gemma is also really good with hair cuts - honestly I have no complaints about her whatsoever and would go back to her in a heartbeat

So, why have I not gone to see Gemma lately?
Because the hair salon she use to work at had closed down and it was close to my parents house. Plus at the time, I was still living at home with my parents.
The salon she moved to is called Red Lemon in Georgetown (link is here) and it is further from my parent's house. Plus, I live on my own now and it's about a good 45+ minute drive from my place to her salon now :(

I'm not sure why but I actually felt like I was cheating on her when I had to go visit other hair salons closer to me LOL

I really miss Gemma - you gotta get your hair done by her if you live in/around Georgetown!
If you cannot book with her, Charmain is also really good with cut and colour and the both of them work in the same salon. My younger sister Jennifer would always book with Charmain and I would book with Gemma at the same time ;)


Do you have your share of good and bad experiences with hair cut/colour? 


Do you think my hair looks more red or more purple? 

Deerhurst: Snow Tubing, Hayride and Carriage Ride

Another "first time" activity I did with Dale a week and a half ago in Huntsville was snow tubing

There is snow tubing at Deerhurst Resort where we stayed in Huntsville, but the area for tubing is not big and you have to walk back up the hill (there is no lift) 

Luckily, about a 10 minute drive away from the resort is a snow tubing park called Rock Ridge and it has a few runs as well as a convenient lift
So that's where Dale and I went two Friday night's ago

Snow tubing lift and runs at RockRidge Park

The really fun part about tubing at Rock Ridge is that you can link your tube with someone elses and have group runs down a hill (we saw like ten people connected at one point going down the hill!).

Plus there's staff at the top of the hills to help you connect your tubes, give you a push and/or spin you if you like ;) 

I really enjoyed snow tubing and it's certainly something I would do again!
I also highly recommend Rock Ridge

****************

Another "first" activity for me was going on a hayride

I LOVE grey coloured horses!

Dale noticed that we were actually on a sleigh!

*****************

Now, it wasn't my first time in a horse drawn carriage but I think it was the first time for me at night

It was just Dale and I in the carriage and it was very nice
We huddled under the blankets and looked at some of the stars - he pointed out the big dipper which was very visible up around the resort...it was just so peaceful and lovely

I am really grateful and fortunate that Dale took me on this trip up North
He's always looked after everything and taken really good care of me
What can I say? I have all these wonderful memories to thank him for ;)

Have you been snow tubing, on a hayride or been on a horse drawn carriage before?


Do you notice my new hair colour?! 

Deerhurst & Baysville Marina: Snowshoeing & Snowmobiling

One of the fun activities that Dale and I did at Deerhurst Resort last week was snowshoeing 

We rented snowshoes and when the staff member handed me these, I actually blurted aloud "I thought they're suppose to look like tennis rackets!" LOL

Needless to say, it was my first time snowshoeing :P

Snowshoes at Deerhurst

Beginning of Snow Shoe trail at Deerhurst

The snowshoe trails are well marked out along the resort 

Along one of the trails we came across some pipes of sap which are used to make Maple Syrup

Do you see the pipe lines through the trees? The pipes carry sap from the Maple trees

I definitely recommend snowshoeing as a winter activity. 

It's a really fun alternative to a walk and the grips on the snow shoe help prevent you from slipping on the ice or snow. 

We took a lot of breaks to enjoy the beautiful snow covered landscape and the peaceful surroundings 

************

Another super fun activity that Dale also booked for us last week was snowmobiling!!!

Look at these babies!!! :P

Dale rented the snowmobiles from a company called Baysville Marina. 

The company was recommended to us by Deerhurst Resort staff. Both Dale and I were really pleased with the staff and the condition of the snowmobiles - so we'll definitely head back to this company again

In fact, Dale just made my day yesterday by telling me that we're going back up to Deerhurst Resort next month and he already rented the snowmobiles for a day from this same company :)
OMG I'm sooo excited! 

This snowmobile rental place is in Baysville which is about a 30 minute drive from Deerhurst Resort

There's extensive snowmobiling trails in Baysville - a lot of which are strictly trails for the sole use of snowmobiles. And if you get a lot of snow, you're actually able to snowmobile thousands of kilometres all around Algonquin Park! 

Me on a ski-doo ;)

The snowmobiling was a ton of fun! I could do it all day - and I can't wait til next month when we go again ;) 

It was my first time on a snowmobile but it reminded me so much of being on an ATV - which I loved 

I just wished the gas and breaks weren't along the handles because my hands ache from gripping them. I wish ATVs and snowmobiles had gas and break pedals instead like a car 

Have you ever been snowshoeing or snowmobiling before?


Do you know why ATVs and snowmobiles have their gas and breaks on the handles instead of gas and break pedals like those on cars?