The Longest Weekend

This was supposed to be a relaxing weekend spent around the house doing a whole lot of nothing. Most of my friends were out of town at an annual drinking event know as Twiggfest put on by the Twigg family but with Hayley being so young we decided to bow out until next year. Instead we went to a BBQ at our friends place on Saturday night which turned into a fun-filled, trampoline front flip kind of night. I would also never hear the end of it if I didn’t mention Ryan’s kabob’s, they were great which leads me to think he didn’t actually make them…just kidding.

Sunday was the day that had a gong-show guarantee from the minute the “plans” for the day were made. First a Vancouver Canadians game at historic Nat Bailey Stadium. I haven’t been to a Canadians game since I was 10 and I really enjoyed it! Great venue, Nathan’s Famous foot long hot dog, sunshine and lots of yummy ice-cold beer. Kevin, Brad and I took the train there which pretty much guaranteed that things would get out of hand seeing as we didn’t have to drive and boy did it ever…but not until much, much later. The Canadians were soundly beaten by the Everett Aquasox but it didn’t matter, I will definitely be back.

After the game it was back on the Canada Line to head downtown. We stopped at The Charles Bar at 136 Cordova st in Gastown at the base of the Woodwards mega development. Having just opened only 2 days earlier it wasn’t the busiest place I’ve ever been but the room was nice, very modern with lots of contrasting wood tones. One small issue I had was the washroom setup. There are no separate Mens and Ladies rooms, instead there are 5 or 6 single person bathrooms and while I understand the desired effect I think the ladies my have a problem with it in the long run. We had a few more beers and some food, Kevin the Pulled Pork Poutine, Brad a chicken burger and me the Fully Loaded Fries.

They were made with Kennebec Fries, which seems to be the standard these days, and had all the fixins’ of a fully loaded baked potato, hence the clever name. They were good, not great. Next time I think I’ll try the poutine although pulled pork is showing up a little much these days and is danger of heading down the path of Mango Salsa and Wolfgang Puck, too much too fast and then one day nobody remembers you. That is where the night started to go off the rails.

Someone, whose name may be Kevin, suggested we go to the Blarney Stone. It sounded like a really good idea at the time and for a couple of hours it was. Then the patio closed, we went down the street to Rogue for some half price pizza and then headed back to the Blarney to soundly punish our livers. Our new friend Mack with the sweet vegan John Fluevog boots welcomed us back with some free shots. Our waitress who is from my second favorite country, New Zealand, stopped by to talk to us about the worlds longest toothbrush fence which I have come to understand is not actually in New Zealand…oh well. We watched young men 10 years younger than us try to pick up women 10 years older than us and fail in hysterical fashion.

Having taken in enough alcohol to down a small elephant we headed for the Skytrain which apparently stops running from Waterfront Station at 12:15am on Sundays and holidays, awesome. I tweeted about it and it ended up in Metro, the free local paper, which I didn’t get a chance to read, that’s my first published work!! $75 of Brads money later our nice cab driver dropped me off at my front door in the burbs safe and sound.

So after all was said and done I probably had a crazier weekend then I would have had the family headed up to the Okanagan, who knew. Never under-estimate a long weekend.

Scott.