A Lazy Sunday With Karen and Wendy

I woke up relatively early on a day off at 9am. If you're chinese, this weekend was the weekend to be visiting the cemetery. Since I had brunch plans, my brother his cycling plans, we set out early with the parents. Once that was done, I made my way to ACME Cafe on West Hastings. I'm generally punctual ... but today, I was half an hour late because of the morning event. With Wendy, that's a no no. Haha.

ACME Cafe is a modern take to a diner. The service was prompt. The food was quick and excellent. The place was comfortable. And apparently, they're known for their pies. Definitely a place to go back!

Karen and Wendy both had the perogies omelette. It was on a bed of potatoes with a side salad. I tried a bite of it and it was pretty yum. Mmm... mmm...

I went with more of a traditional brunch. I wanted a simple banger and hash. The hash (which is under the eggs) was a veggie hash. Also very yum.

They had Ovaltine. For a western place, I was curious what their version of Ovaltine would be. It's basically more of a latte made with Ovaltine. Probably half the sugar. And double the milk. Not too bad but I probably prefer the chinese style. Not that I drink it all that often. Must have been years since the last one.

Karen is obviously happy with her perogies. And Wendy is either mad at hers... or constipated.

Even though we were full to the rim, we convinced ourselves that we had room for their famous pies. Karen and I both had the banana cream pie. Wendy chose the key lime. I love rustic pies! No crazy colouring (the banana cream pie wasn't radiating yellow and the key lime wasn't neon green). And the flavours were absolutely to die for. Never had a key lime pie so smooth and a banana cream pie so flavourful. (Couldn't eat all that cream though).

It's been rare for all of us to have a full day free. We didn't have any plans for the rest of the day, so Wendy suggested we check out the cherry blossom festival that was happening at Van Dusens Garden. It was $8 for admissions, but luckily, we bumped into Katsu at the entrance (who was volunteering)... and he got us in for free! Love friends with connections. Hehe.

This was named "Tree Of The Month". Probably because it was the only blossoming tree.

The disappointment came with a festival celebrating cherry blossoms but there were no cherry blossoms in sight. The foliage in the park was pretty bare. However, we still took a really nice stroll through the park and continued our silly conversations.

Karen (to Wendy) : Do you and Sam have special names for each other? Like... sweetie, honey, boo boo...

Wendy : Umm... he calls me chicka... chickie.... chicken feet? chickpea?

Me : He calls you chicken feet??!

Karen : HAHAHAHAH...

Wendy : No! Chick...something. chicken pea?

Karen and I : HAHAHAHAHA

Wendy : I can't remember!

Me : You don't remember what he calls you?

Wendy : Chicken pie!

Karen and I : HE CALLS YOU CHICKEN PIE??? Hahahahahha...

Wendy : I can't remember. It might not even be chicken!

Karen and I : Hahahahahahah!!

Wendy : Oh, I know! He calls me chickipee!

Karen : Are you sure it's not chickadee?

Wendy : No! It's chickipee!

Me : Sure, CHICKEN PIE!

Karen and I : HAHAHA

It's always a ball of laughter with these girls. I love how easy it is to get together, share a few laughs, and even do things we normally wouldn't even like to do... but we enjoy our time together all the same.  Wendy hates lineups. And all three of us hate sake. But what do we do... we line up for the free sake tasting, of course. We had nothing else to do, nowhere else to go,... and the spontaneity and carefreeness of us all gets us doing things we don't really care to do.  Today, we confirmed for ourselves that none of us like sake at all. Oh well. The half an hour line-up (that drove Wendy nuts and left her parched) was still worth our quality time together. Haha.

I got this much and I still couldn't finish it.

Afterwards, we checked out the Japanese trinkets, art, and crafts. Several places donated their profits to helping out those affected by the earthquake. With the money I saved from admission, I bought myself several handmade cards. Wendy was super excited to receive a free pen. We also got to try some iced matcha tea. The tea was a murky dirty green. Quite refreshing esp. after the sake tasting.

After circling the park thoroughly, we headed over to West 4th where Wendy looked for ice cream bowls, Karen her supplements, and me... I finally got my microplane. And what would I do with a microplane? Well, that's for another post!

Love lazy Sundays with the girls.