This was close to downtown in the small town where Alex and Rachelle got married. Blew my mind. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw in Kentucky. I'm flattering myself, yes, but I had to exaggerate the contrast between myself and the town.

Matt, about to be best man for Alex and Rachelle. Always my best man. I cringed at that cheese factor.

On the way to the wedding, which was in a small town in New York, I saw the first Amish people I'd ever seen in my life. Actually, this isn't true. When my parents and I went to the butterfly conservatory in August, there was an Amish family there and they took me completely off guard. I felt horrible after, but I thought they were a family who didn't have a good sense of occasion and timing and decided to do Upper Canada Village theme that day. I was surprised when I realized they were Amish, but I didn't feel too bad considering Ottawa isn't really a hot spot for the Amish.

Secondly, it was my first time in a Mormon church and oddly, I didn't burst into flames when I entered. Interesting tidbit: The Mormon picture Jesus as having a much more defined chin than the Catholics do, as evidenced by the many pictures of him.

Matt and I decided to do Valentine's Day properly seeing as the two Valentine's Days we've been together have been kind of lame due mainly in part to horrible weather in Ottawa making life impossible. We spent a night at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata, and we had a really nice weekend. We didn't do anything fancy though, which was okay because we basically just wanted time to ourselves. Our room was beautiful and I wish we could have spent at least another night there; preferably, 364 more nights, but you can't win them all.

We exchanged gifts before we left. Considering neither of us has too much cash laying around lately, our gifts were relatively small but we were both really happy. I made him a batch of heart-shaped shortbread cookies and picked up a GQ magazine. He bought me a cookbook of the best chicken recipes. I love this cookbook because, well, anything chicken is good to me and the cookbook is not exclusive to one style of cooking, having great recipes from many different cooking styles. It also has how-to's for the recipes which is a saviour for me because too often I read a recipe and have to google how to fold an egg, or something.

We didn't make reservations for dinner, so we just hunted for a Subway and a KFC so Matt and I respectively could get something fast to bring back to the room. After that, we played Scrabble and I won my first game of Scrabble ever. I got a pretty decent score as well, surprisingly. We watched the Jonas Brothers on SNL, obviously. (I thought they were really funny, by the way.) We read some Series of Unfortunate Events (which we love), and then fell asleep. I woke up to Matt gently elbowing my head in the middle of the night and he slept on the complete opposite side of the bed from then on in fear of injuring me in some way.

We had brunch the next afternoon which was the best brunch of my life. Besides the basic brunch staples, there were delicious appetizers, including a little spoonful of a Thai beef concoction which was unbelievably tasty considering I don't like Thai food, and flaky pastries. In the main dish selections was a chicken fried rice-like pilaf and pot stickers! Yes! Combining breakfast food with Asian dishes is one surefire way to make me happy. The only complaint I'd have is that the waiter should have been more diligent with the orange juice. We like our juice.

We decided at the end of our weekend that we're going to try to do this a couple of times a year, if possible. We didn't do anything different really than we do most days but a change of scenery and privacy was so enjoyable. Not to mention the free brunch.

Alright, this is overdue. My parents and I went to Niagara Falls for my birthday, which was August 22. Here is a recap of the trip...

Wednesday, August 20

 

- Drove to Niagara. I love car rides and never get bored. I downloaded the Jonas Brothers new CD, Conor Oberst's CD, and the last Bright Eyes CD. Oddly enough, I was only truly pleased with the Jonas Brothers... I think the other two will take more listening though.
- Got to the hotel. We were "upgraded" to a bigger room, but with one queen bed and a pull-out. I thought I'd be okay on the pullout. I soon discovered it was not my cup of tea.
- Walked around Clifton Hill. Reminded me of a giant exhibition town.
- Caught a brief glimpse of the Falls. Beautiful as I had imagined.
- Went to Ripley's. 16-year-old behind the counter assumed I was a child, 12 and under. Come on now.
- Had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, just to say I had. It was nice to see it, but the food was expensive and average at best.
- Went to see fireworks at the Falls. Very cool.

Thursday, August 21

- Had breakfast at a small diner, which generally have fantastic breakfasts. You had to pay an extra dollar for homefries, and they looked and tasted like something that came out of a McCain bag. I wasn't impressed.
- Did Maid of the Mist. We were at the very front of the boat so got amazing views of the Falls. When we were right in the horseshoe falls, I was afraid we wouldn't turn around though I can think of worse ways of dying than in the Niagara Falls.
- Took a walk through a Niagara park that was very peaceful.
- Did Journey Behind the Falls. This is definitely a must-see in Niagara, though I don't think it's as popular as Maid of the Mist. There's one look-out where you're literally next to the Falls. It's fantastic. I'll post pictures after.
- Did this cute maze where you have to find four landmarks, get stamps there, and then find the exit and it's all timed. My dad won.
- Went to The Keg for dinner. Got salmon, as per my usual dinner, but regretted it after I got a bite of my dad's steak. I'm generally not a steak eater, and never trust restaurant steak to make a steak as well as my dad makes mine. This steak wasn't as good, but it was pretty close.
- Went to Build-a-Bear and made Matt a Batman bear. So cute. I named it Batman, surprise.
- Went to Louis Tussaud's (apparently, Madame Tussaud's great-grandson). His wax figures weren't very spectacular, but I was excited just posing next to a wax celebrity. I now know I'll be quite starstruck when I meet an actual celebrity. I was hugging and kissing everyone of them when, halfway through our visit, one of the employees gets on the intercom and says, "Just a polite reminder to our patrons to not touch the figures or their accessories." Eff that, I'm a rebel.
- Went to the criminal wax museum. This really freaked the shit out of me, not going to lie.
- Soaked in the jacuzzi in our room while my parents got drinks. I made the bathtub unbearably hot so I couldn't stand it more than 10 minutes. Oh well.

Friday, August 22

- My birthday!
- Went to the butterfly conservatory. This was exponentially better than I had expected. I was the first person to have a butterfly land on them. It was a giant butterfly whose wings were brown on the outside, made to be a mimic of tree bark or dead leaves, and a brilliant blue on the inside. It actually got stuck in my hair, eventually.
- Saw the botanical gardens. Very pretty but I had forgotten to wear sunscreen and was beginning to feel the side effects of this.
- Went outlet shopping and was surprised by a pretty decent selection of stores and cheap prices. Halfway through and too much money later, I was getting full-fledged heat exhaustion so I had to hang out in the car which didn't help anything because it had been sitting in the sun and was practically a sauna.
- Came back to the hotel where I layed down. Saw the news and heard about listeriosis and got paranoid.
- Went for Chinese food because it's a birthday tradition. It wasn't bad but it was nothing like Ottawa's Chinese on Somerset.
- Did glow-in-the-dark mini-putt. I loved it, actually.

Saturday, August 23

- Went to the Toronto Zoo, the most anticipated part of the trip.
- Watched family dynamics of an orangutan family for half an hour and was fascinated.
- Saw the cutest little lynx.
- Watched a hippo submerge itself in water.
- Saw a bear who was such a ham to the visitors. He was swimming in the pond in his living area and was floating on his back whilst doing a backstroke. He also later scratched his back up against the branch of a tree and all I could think of was, "It's just the bear necessities, those simple bear necessities..."
- Looked for wolves but they were hiding.
- Got to pet multiple stingrays at a special exhibit we were lucky enough to visit. They felt very slimy but were beautiful.
- Saw tons of other animals, all of which I loved, but it would be pointless to name them all.

Tomorrow I'm having a family/close friends birthday party. It's kid-themed because I love kid's birthday parties. I'm getting the beginnings of a cold so I'm trying to nurse it away with echinacea.