a weekend away: utterly exhausting.

This past weekend I went to Toronto for a quick weekend visit! It was loads of fun, and oh-so exhausting. We got back to Ottawa at 12:30am Sunday night (Monday morning, really) and I didn't get to bed until about 2. Let's just say that Monday at work was not the most productive day...

Elaine invited the entire lot of us to her place in Brampton for a BBQ Saturday night, and originally I wasn't going to go down but Jessica's family just happened to be driving down and they offered me a ride! How generous of them! I was super lucky to get a ride down, and to be able to stay at Claire's place for the weekend!

So when we got to Toronto Markham, Jess and I went to Congee Wong in First Markham Place where I had some awful chinese speaking challenges. It's one of the few restaurants I am familiar with in the area, but I had never been there without my parents and had no idea how to order.. I tried to remember what the name of the congee we normally get is and I ended up ordering "tang tze jook" to which the waitress went "ha?! tang JUY jook?", hahahaha oops. It was a seafood congee which wasn't what I was looking for... but it'll do. I remembered later that I wanted pay dan suw yook jook, or pork and preserved egg congee. I have a mad craving for that now though!!

We headed out to Brampton soon afterwards, and had an amazing time at Elaine's. The food was ah-mazing! I had a burger with smoked salmon, avocado and tomatoes. Uhhhhh, delicious. There was also bacon for the bacon lovers. Best. Options. EVER. So much delicious food happening there! I brought french fry cookies (cookies that look like french fries!! BBQ themed, yes?) but more on that later!

We went to the park to play grounders, which was fun.. but being the creative kid I was I had more fun playing with Elaine's family DSLR and *trying* to take artsy angled pictures. Try being the key word here. I will have to see how they turn out..!

In a time full of catching up, deep talks, and personal sharing.. we ended the night in worship and prayer. It is truly a blessing to have a group of friends you can spend such quality time with.

On the way back to Markham, we took the 401 and got stuck in traffic from 12 to 1..!!! Just had to throw that in there. Oh Toronto, only you.

The next day I went to church with Claire and her family. Seriously, the sweetest and most gracious people ever. Everyone is so welcoming! I loved visiting a church that is so welcoming. Also, Claire's cousin is the cutest little girl ever. In Sunday school all the kids were bouncing off the walls, SO HYPER and she turns to me, sighs, and goes, "I know how you feel". BAHAHA, you're cute.

After spending some nice quality time catching up with Claire, I went out for dinner with my cousin, Jolene. Jolene took me to a Korean restaurant called Cho Sun Ok, where we had naeng myun, which translates to cold noodles. I had never heard of it before, so it was quite the adventure! The broth is icy - kind of slush-like. And I found the noodles quite difficult to get away from the main bunch, but once I mastered the spaghetti twirl with chopsticks, it was so much easier to eat!! Delicious meal. I would totally eat it again!

Image from Google.

As we caught up over dinner, I found out that Jolene is getting one of my favourite wedding photographers (it's not weird that I know wedding photographers, okay) for her wedding in a few months time!!!!!!!!! Yes, Joee Wong deserves that many exclamation marks.. I'm so excited!!

I completely forgot to take my camera out and take pictures this weekend.. which is ridiculous! I'm sorry that I have no pictures to share from this weekend!

Elaine, using the fry sleeves to hold her cell phone.

NEXT WEEKEND: Canada day + visitors!! Can't wait!! This month has been amazing!