Sophie's cosmic café - a retro diner with self-described "garage sale décor". It's a wacky and wonderful place to have breakfast. I thought at first that the décor might be their primary focus and the food second. Wrong. Their food was amazing. I was completely smitten with my waffle and heaps of fresh fruit.

And then we met the most unbelievably cute puppy on our walk home. After a few minutes of petting & cuddling, I realized that it was a seeing eye dog. Whoops!

Have a lovely weekend!


*Explanation for huge delay between posts = started my teaching practicum block. It's taking over my life.

Granville Island is filled with little shops, restaurants, galleries, a market, and a marina. It's a fun place to wander around, but I also loved just sitting by the water. It's pretty spectacular to be surrounded by the ocean water and towering skyscrapers.  Although one had to be mindful of the swooping seagulls - Melissa just narrowly avoided being pooped on.

Mike and I just fell in love with Vancouver this week*. So many neat spots and neighbourhoods - I can't wait to go back when it's sunny!

*This maybe sounds like I'm done with Vancouver posts - hardly. I'm just already reminiscing.
*As per usual, more photos here.

I already have many stories and photos to share from Vancouver (and we're only half done our trip!), but I think Gene Coffee Bar is a good place to start.

White walls, minimal décor (except for the amazing light installation), long, sturdy, wooden tables for people to share, and three walls of windows that let in enormous amounts of natural light - this was a bright, beautiful place to spend a few hours.

I felt lucky to have visited this place and I felt even more lucky to spend such quality time with a dear friend. Melissa is one of those friends that makes me laugh all the time, but also really gets me. It's a pretty beautiful thing.

Post script:
Gene Coffee Bar has to be one of the most interestingly shaped cafés I've ever been in. Regrettably, I didn't get a shot of the triangular shaped café from outside as it was raining by the time we left (look here if interested). Speaking of rain, it has unfortunately been raining almost our whole trip. Fortunately, we have an umbrella and we don't let it stop us at all!

Tomorrow evening, Mike and I are leaving for a week long trip to Vancouver! I get to introduce Mike to my extended family living in BC and spend some time with friends. We're so excited! But first, I need to finish my last school assignment! Back to the books... xo

the time my best friend drove 27 hours and surprised me.

on sunday, mike suggested that we head to the Forks (market/shops/restaurants/river walk) for the afternoon. there were quite a few things that really needed to be done (including an intimidatingly enormous pile of dishes) but i agreed. i took my time getting ready to go and mike kept hovering around impatiently - not really like him at all. it's usually me that hovers around annoyingly.

we got to the forks and mike seemed to get flustered as i suggested that we go to the frozen yogurt place instead of the ice cream place - and oh, maybe we should sit by the river - or at least go outside to eat... finally he got me to sit down at a table. we had just dug into our frozen yogurt, when a sweet voice asks, "is this seat taken?".

instinctively i thought, "lady, there are lots of other seats around!" (ha! i'm so unfriendly?!)... then i looked up and saw my beautiful friend melissa, who hails from surrey, british columbia. i screamed, hopped around, looked between mike & mel in astonishment, and demanded to know how they planned this. absolute, complete, and utter surprise - a fabulous feeling! i was in a state of shock the rest of the day!

so i've decided that when best friends + boyfriends plan surprises, it's the best combination ever.

this is how we do {vancouver}

we spend time in used bookstores:we go shopping at mintage:

we protect ourselves from the rain:

we document fallen leaves + railway tracks:
we support local coffee shops:we wander downtown van:we love the sea:

we go for coffee:we tango on the street:we walk + talk:we cross the street to check out pretty christmas lights:

*some of these pictures were taken by danielle

relief work in indonesia: an interview

some of you remember when i mentioned
one of my best friends melissa here.
she volunteers for an international emergency disaster response team
called rescuenet. 
melissa recently went to indonesia
to do relief work in wake of the two earthquakes last month.

we met in south africa almost four years ago, and hit it off right away!

 after leaving sunny south africa,we have had to maintain a long distance frienship
since she lives outside vancouver and i live in winnipeg.
despite the distance, we have managed to stay in touch
thanks to frequent phonecalls + letters and less frequent visits
{we have reunited in california, vancouver, winnipeg, and seattle!}.
she is one of the sweetest people i know
and despite her tiny size,
she is also one of the toughest.
i am just so proud of her!

melissa has graciously agreed to a little interview here on "my suitcase heart".
she had an absolutely incredible experience
+ i’m so excited for everyone to hear all about it!