It was, to say the least, a very good birthday!

The day started off at about 9:30 when we dragged ourselves out of bed and got dressed. We headed out the door and walked a brisk sunny (but cold) walk to 17th ave where we met a friend, Jenny, and her Boyfriend Adam for brunch at a very nice little restaurant. It reminded me a lot of The Blue Fox downtown in Victoria – colourful walls and paintings, different styles for each table, small, and the most familiar part – the line-up out the door. The food was great, the company better, and with our bellies full we trekked to their car to drive back to our place. Josh and I have been meaning to go to the science centre right across the street ever since we got here. It’s a 2 minute walk, we can see it from our window, and it seemed like a pretty cool place. So yesterday we made the decision to make that 2 minute treck across the street to finally explore this ‘world of science’.

This place was sooo cool! When we first walked in the door, my first thought was “dang, we’re going to look like idiots without small children with us.” Kids were everywhere. Being a Saturday, though, I guess that’s not surprising. We even borrowed one for our game of giant Snakes and Ladders! Yes, you heard me, a floor sized version of Snakes and Ladders. The section you first walk into when you enter the exhibits are several displays – with toys from the 80’s in them!! I’m talking Tinker Toys, the really old toy cars of which I seem to remember having a million of (I think they’re still somewhere at mums) Snakes and Ladders which I mentioned, Easy Bake Ovens…it was a blast from the past. Jenny and I immediately picked up the spinner dice and ran for square one, and the boys soon followed. About halfway through our riveting game, a young boy was watching enviously from the sidelines. Jenny was ever so gracious and handed him her spinner card, insisting he take her spot. It was quite funny – the kid wound up kickin’ our butts! Anyways, I’ll be definitely going back there at some point and taking pictures of these displays – for old times sake.
We moved on, into the more ‘science’ part of the building. The first thing we see when we walk in are these two people sitting across from each other at a long-ish table, with headbands around their heads connected to a couple TV screens. On the table under glass was a small ball that was very slowly rolling back and forth, sometimes more in one direction, sometimes more in the other direction. It took me a minute, but when I figured out what on earth was going on I knew we HAD to try it after them. So here’s how it works. You put the headband on; when you have it in her hand you see there are three metal circles on the part that sits on your forehead. When you put the headband on, you can look at the sceen next to you and notice lines moving up and down. This is the cool part – it’s reading your brain waves! So the whole point of the ‘game’, is to be as relaxed as you can, and the ball will move away from you. The more nervous you are, or thinking about other things, the ball will move towards you. Once the ball either reaches you or reaches the other person the game is won or lost. I thought that was so cool! Josh kept winning – he just slouched down into the chair and got this look on his face like he was either going to fall asleep/start drooling/fall off the chair. He was very good at wiping all thought from his mind. Weird eh? ;)

Others things stick out in my memory as being pretty cool – one being an artificial tornado! They had two opposing wind forces, and some sort of smoke machine on the bottom, so when the tunnel picked up the smoke, you could see the funnel of the mini-tornado. It was very, very cool to watch. Plus it wasn’t enclosed, so you could stick your hand in and feel the wind moving! We also went and watched a very cool movie about African wildlife, which they referred to as ‘the big five’. Elephants, white rhinos, leopards, lions, and cape buffalos. The best part about the movie, though, was it was on a screen as big as the Imax, but this one bent up and over you instead of just being in front, so it made you just that much more dizzy – I loved it.

So after our adventure in the science centre, Jenny and I both agreed that that afternoon was calling for a nap. Adam and her left shortly after we got back, and Josh and I came back upstairs and had a lazy afternoon. I was told that we had dinner reservations for 8, and we should leave about a half an hour ahead of time – needless to say I was very curious as to where we were going. I didn’t really want to guess though – surprises are fun :) So I got ready, put on my lovely new earrings that I got from Josh (they’re two angel wings – looove it!) and we headed out the door. Josh looked rather smashing, I must say. So we got on the train and took it to centre street, where we got off and started walking.
“Do you know where we’re going yet?”
“No…is it that place?” As I point to some random restaurant across the road.
“No..why would we be going to that place?”
“I don’t know! Is it…Milestones?”
“Nope…”
“Is it…” as I look straight ahead of me and my jaw drops.
My reaction: “NO WAY!!!”
We had dinner in the very luxurious, very expensive, yet VERY good Calgary Tower restaurant. I was very, very impressed. We had a private booth, overlooking, of course, the city. For those of you who don’t know, the Calgary tower restaurant rotates, and it takes one hour to do a full rotation. It was super cool! For a starter we decided to try and share a Caesar salad. Knowing that most of the time, fancy restaurants don’t skimp on Caesar salads, I knew we were in for a treat. Boy, was I ever right. The salad came as 4 whole leafs of romaine hearts, shaved Italian parmesan on top, along with a light but creamy roasted garlic and lemon sauce. To finish it off it had a slice of baked proscuitto on top to crunch up as the bacon bits. Probably by far the best salad I’ve ever had. Ever. For dinner, Josh ordered ‘the duck’ as he put it, which had a blueberry glaze and was roasted medium rare. I ordered the ‘chicken supreme’ which was chicken stuffed with smoked cheddar and spinach over a bed of vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes. I’m drooling just remembering all this! We had both forgotten that even though expensive food is just that, expensive, they certainly make up for it in taste. Both our dinners topped our lists for flavor, and the service was wonderful. We had some very nice wine with dinner, suggested by our waitress to compliment each of our meals. Heaven. I even got a desert with a sparkler in it and said ‘Happy Birthday’ aorund the rim of the plate in icing. Even the desert was amazing! Once again, Heaven.

After dinner we headed upstairs to the observation lounge to see more of the view. Another thing that the tower has is glass floors! It really was quite nerve-wracking, especially when Josh is being a jerk and jumping up and down to show me it’s stable.

Overall a very amazing day. I couldn’t stop saying ‘thank you!’

It’s snowing rather hard outside right now, just as it promised it would. The cool thing is Josh and I just got back from grocery shopping, but as we were waiting for the train back into town, I noticed on his jackets that it was cold enough outside (-15) that the snowflakes weren’t melting. So I was looking at them really closely – and you could actually see the individual shapes of the snowflakes! I really wished I had my new camera cause I would have taken a photo of it, it was beautiful! So small, yet so perfect.

Tonight is my staff Christmas party. Yes, I know, it’s February. I guess finding places to book here in Calgary is hard, especially around Christmas when EVERYONE is booking. So, we’re having a Hawaiian themed Christmas party! I helped organize and plan it, and after I’m done writing on here to all you fine folk I’m going to be making a veggie tray. I knew all that time spent at Thrifty’s would come in handy somewhere! :) I’ll be sure to post pictures and such of the good times. Chow for now!