Mother's Day

Yes, it was Mother's Day on Sunday.  I'm not really big on contrived holidays.  You know the ones I mean - the ones where you are told to celebrate and honor someone because the calendar and Hallmark tell you to.  I like the little spontaneous bursts of this.  The times when the celebrating is unexpected.  That being said, I liked my Sunday.  It was full of my favorite people and some of my favorite places.  And the sun shone AGAIN.   I have a new and passionate love for the warm rays of the golden sun after enduring a very wet and grey Vancouver spring.

Mother's Day found us in North Vancouver at Lonsdale Quay, one of our family's favorite places to eat, stroll around and people watch.  Ellie has been asking to have lunch here again for a long while.  She has a bit of a love affair going on with the Halibut and Chips at the Quay.  I was all to happy to indulge her!  We ate our lunch outside and then sat on a bench watching the the boats and smelling the salty sea air.   I love being able to see Vancouver from "the other side" of the water. 

One of my happiest moments of the day was getting a very generous scoop of pistachio gelato to savor.    I strongly believe pistachio is the best gelato flavor ever produced.  Lime is a close second, but nothing can top pistachio.  Nothing you can say will change my mind.

When we were first thinking of moving out west, quite a long while ago now, I did a lot of research on different parts of Vancouver.  I remember stumbling across a write-up on a little village called "Dundarave" in West Van.  The description and pictures made it sound and look like the most idyllic place on earth.  Not surprisingly, housing costs in Dundarave are sky high.  We've driven through Dundarave, but we'd never parked and explored before, and Sunday seemed like the perfect time to do it.

It was quaint, beautiful, and full of people.  What a way to live - having the beach at your doorstep.  This prairie girl still shakes her head when she thinks of what that would be like and then sees that some people actually get to live like this.

Sunshine.  Pistachio gelato.  Sea air.  Happy girls.   

Happy Mother's Day.