Holiday Hightlights

View from the front entrance of the resort

Sand Castle Competition

Minter Gardens (this is done with all flowers so pretty!)

Me in front of the view!

HonHon touching the "actual" hot springs!

What a wonderful holiday I had! It was so nice to have SEVEN working days off which meant I got two (long) weekends in there! It would have been nicer if HonHon could have stayed longer but he booked his flights too late and could not get onto a later flight. His trip was cut short to 7 days this time and he promised he'd make up for it on his next trip back to Vancouver so we'll see. But it was def nice to see him after so many long months of not being with him as part of our family.

There wasn't much that HonHon needed to do this time but he was excepted to pick up a few items for his family. His dinner requests were (as always) items that Kay and I occasionally dine on: Lasagna, BBQ pork (which we didn't have time to make), pasta and baked goodies. There were a few nights were we went out for dinner with my dad and my mom cos he sees dad every time he's in town if my dad is in town. Mom celebrated her birthday on the Friday (Sept 26) which I forgot about even though I should have clued in when she was home from work! But I had a good excuse (actually no excuse is a good excuse!!) as HonHon and I had just gotten back from our mini "holiday" from the Harrison Hot Springs! We had decided on renting a car from Avis instead of driving my VW bug cos HonHon was afraid my car wouldn't make it there or back! We reserved the rental for 2 days and rushed back to Surrey to drop off the car. By the time we arrived home, I was completely unaware of the day as my mind and body were quite relaxed and rested. Since we hadn't seen Kay in a couple of days (and a little bit of guilt that we left her for two days!!), we spent some time downstairs before heading upstairs to see mom and grams. After speaking to my mom and grams, my mom asked us what are plans were for dinner and then I realized OH NO! Mom's BIRTHDAY!!! Of course, we wished her a happy birthday and I even had cake for her! Well, not cake cake but local handmade cheesecake from a farm house in Agassiz! Actually, I had planned on splitting the cheesecake with my mom but I wasn't really gonna share the WHOLE CHEESECAKE....

Highlights at Harrison Hot Springs

• The Spa at the resort is amazing! If you have never been and you've stayed at the resort, you must go again and book an appointment at the spa! But book the appointment when you are booking your hotel reservation as the appointments fill up quick. We didn't book our appointments until we arrived and since they were full with a couple of openings, we didn't get to book a couples package. HonHon did want me to try something and he wanted me to pick any treatment I wanted so I chose a facial. It is the best facial I have ever had (and I've done quite a few in my time) and it really did make a difference to my face and I felt so refreshed and exfoliated! Absolutely heaven, this is def the BEST PLACE on earth! I can't wait to do it again!! If you are wondering which treatment I did, it is called the "Purifying Skin Care Treatment"

• Minter Gardens - with our vacation package, we received free passes and lunch at the gardens. It is a beautiful garden and although the weather hadn't been so great (rain rain and more rain), the temperatures were quite mild. The garden was huge and there were a lot of different kinds of flowers in the garden, I know my mom and grams would love it here, esp my grams since they had a section of the garden dedicated to roses which is my grams fave flower! The rose garden smelled lovely and spent quite some time in there. I also got to see a lot of different types of flowers and considered using them in my wedding bouquet (one day when I decide to get married!) so it's kinda neat to capture the flowers I would love to have part in my future wedding :) Also, it would be a lovely place to have a garden wedding and your wedding bouquet and flowers would come right from the garden. Also, I am sure it would be nice for the guests stay at the resort or drive back to Vancouver (not too far away) but I am sure all the ladies would love to stay a night or two at the resort!!!


• Local farms in Agassiz - wow, did we get a lot of good stuff while we were out there! Esp. local items like hazelnuts, blueberries (the bestest!), blackberries, freshly picked corn (at a corn shack right off the freeway!), and cheese, ohmygosh, all the yummy cheese we brought back to share! Kay and HonHon are HUGE CHEESE FANATICS. They LOVE (I mean seriously LOVE cheese) and we got some local fresh handmade cheese at The Farm House Natural Cheese. Ok I am not a cheese addict like those two but seriously, my mouth was watering after I tried the cheeses that we bought! It is the BEST cheese I have ever had! We bought, cheddar cheese curds (for bruschetta and home made poutine), fromage frais (roasted red pepper and garlic) which you use as a spread on crackers or bread, creme fraiche for the berries (which is rich but not too heavy like it can be sometimes!) and their Voluptuous Vanilla cheesecake which is light and not super rich (a local suggested that we pick one up cos it is the best cheesecake you'll ever have and I agree!). The flavour of this cheesecake is indescribable so you will have to try it out yourself! The bottom layer had a very light and thin graham base with local hazelnuts and it was perfect! I would def consider using their cheesecakes as my wedding cake! I will have to see if I can outsource this here in Vancouver.


• Trying to find "local but not too touristy" gifts for co-workers and ended picking up some really nice natural bath products from Rocky Mountain Soap Company. I love the smells and the ingredients of these items and I ended up picking up an Eczema unscented body butter for myself cos of the customer comments on the display next to this product. I have really really bad eczema and I will try anything once so hopefully this is as good as it says and will help get rid of my terrible eczema pathes all over my legs!!!

We had a wonderful time in the Hot Springs and we loved being up there so much that we have decided this will have to be an annual trip to the Springs every Sept. Next time, we are going to book a couples spa treatment so we can enjoy the spa together.

It was lovely to have HonHon spend some time with us and even though it was a short visit, 7 days only not including the evening he landed cos it was later in the evening, he promised he'd be back really soon maybe even at Christmas time! Wow, we haven't had a Xmas together in years!! But the airline tickets are quite expensive during the high season but on the other hand, I will have almost 2 weeks off this year!! We might even go away to the island or Seattle the next time he's in town, only for a couple of days! We are going to miss him tons!!!

Enjoy the photos on my flickr page (even tho we didn't take that many! mostly photos from Minter Gardens!).