Excuse me for the very cliche title, the summer heat seemed to have parched my creative juices. But never mind that, what's important is we have summer heat! Lol! Allow me to explain - we've had quite a gloomy start of the summer that everyone out here in the west thought the sun wouldn't be too present this season. I'm not kidding. For weeks at the start of summer the forecast was variably cloudy, showers and chance of rains - it was mid-July and we're all wearing jackets and have umbrellas over our heads. Summer bummer indeed.
It was a funny sight too, I remember we had our annual company picnic, it was the 22nd of July and we were out at the park around 12 noon, wrapped tight in our jackets and wishing we could make a campfire. Haha! And one of my co-workers, upon arriving commented, "So it's a beautiful February day." That gave us all a chuckle.
On to the adventure....
The first long weekend of the summer came and it was a bit cloudy. But because there was no forecast of shower, we set out to Delta and picked strawberries! It was both fun and tiring. It was fun hunting them big red strawberries down and tiring because we had to bend down to pick them. I felt so old because I suffered leg and lower back pain after. Haha!
But it is still summer, so the sun SHOULD come out, right? And when it finally did, hello barbecue! It was certainly a timely event because this was planned a good two weeks ahead, I think, so we at church we're all praying for a sunny day out. Thank God for answered prayer!
No food? Well, we're all finished eating that time.
Girlfriends! Three Flips and a Korean (she claims to be Flip too!)
Oh and yeah, the day before this, the planned day out in Playland finally happened! My friends and I headed out to become kids again and rode and played at the amusement park. It was such fun because they won us stuffed animals! I mean, you gotta take away some cute stuff from amusement parks, right? Haha! Friends are awesome and time spent with them are priceless. ☺
The week after, we hit up Kelowna! Central Okanagan, where Kelowna is, is known for its cherry farms so of course, it's natural to pick cherries while you're there! And boy, did we pick cherries! It was SO fun! We wanted to pick them all from the tree, haha! We ended up with four buckets and one is solely for me! Well, I did give some to my landlord, brought some to the office to share and gave some to Jane. And I still have left until now actually. It's a great snack while watching.
Went to the beach the day after. Too bad I didn't bring a swimsuit on that trip.
Then there's this impromptu getaway to the Buntzen Lake in Anmore, BC. Okay, not so much an impromptu. We planned on going there but since weather is so fickle, we waited until the planned day to decide whether to go or not. Good decision to still go too despite the forecast saying there's a chance of rain in the afternoon. It proved to be a beautiful sunny afternoon and I was able to don my swimsuit! Yay! Didn't swim in the lake though, water is still cold.
BC is known for its great lakes and trails so being a happy camper at that time and feeling sort of athletic/adventurous, I went with the boys to do the trail. I won't normally say yes to such activities but my uncle said it will only take about 45 minutes so I did it. SO WRONG. It took us THREE HOURS. Not because we were too slow, it was just reaalllyyyyyy long and rocky and steep. Ohmygosh. If you're not athletic, do not, I repeat do not go on a trail. It killed my legs. My dad literally had to pull me with him when we're going up this very steep uphill path because I just can't do it anymore! Haha! The gravity is weighing me down so much I never hated it until that day. Lol. So yeah. It was definitely a welcome experience though. But one that I won't do again. No, thanks. So, I am proud to say, I did it!!!
Can you say serene? Much like Cultus Lake.
One of the magnificent views we passed through along the trail.
What's a Filipino picnic without food fiesta ?
And what's a picnic without a roasted marshmallow? (Okay, I made that up.) But roasted marshmallow FTW!
We've been pretty busy, eh? Well, as we all say here, gotta take advantage of the little time in the sun that we have! ☺