Fish & chips & vinegar

We met up with Sis and her husband yesterday and all went out to Steveston for an afternoon adventure. It was a perfect day for strolling and window shopping, but first we had to fortify ourselves. Pajos Fish and Chips has a stand right on the wharf - best fish & chips in the Lower Mainland, in my opinion!

The line-up and the wait were long, but well worth it. Though even the "small" combo was ginormous...think I'll try the kids' size next time.

We poked around a few shops before Mr.Q herded us into a thrift store, in an old converted church. I was a little nervous - there were records and books both for him to get into trouble with. But I'm glad I went. Turns out, if you go to church, good things happen! I found an umbrella swift, old but in great shape, for a whole two dollars. Squee! Mr.Q was appropriately excited for me.

In another shop - one of those uber-trendy overpriced gifty-type shops, with the hottest new bags on Oprah's must-have list, and odd kitchen gadgets of indeterminate use and all other manner of expensive knick-knacks - they also had some very cool sock monkeys. The coolest of the bunch:

Yaarrr(n)! I heroically restrained the debit card which was trying to escape from my wallet. Barely!

We made our way back to the water, and wandered along the boardwalk for a bit. All kinds of boats and wharf-side fish sales and birds and yummy smells, before heading back to Sis's place for the evening. We stopped at the liquor store for some refreshments, where I came across a Truly Canadian Beer, which I shall have to try:

Sis cooked us a super-tasty dinner (as always!). But dessert was the highlight - she made - from scratch - molten lava cakes. Ummm....YUM! I love being her guinea pig.

We also got to try some honey mead they'd brought back from Nova Scotia. It was interesting. I still can't decide if I liked it or not. I really loved the initial taste, but the aftertaste was quite floral. I could really taste the honey, which was a little weird. I like honey - but it tasted like the bees had used pollen from trees, which gives a very different flavour than other flowers, and one I'm not always crazy about. Still, it was interesting, and I would try it again. We spent the night, and in the morning, she made us pancakes. Then they drove us home, where I got to play with my new toy:

It works marvellously! I want to wind up all my skeins right now. But I do think delayed gratification has its place. Either way, Mr.Q is glad I found it. He's never complained about having to hold the skeins while I wind them, but he's never actually volunteered, either. (Did I mention I got it for only two dollars?!)

I like the weekend adventures with Sis. I think the next one needs to be a tour of a couple of the local wineries. Apparently the fruit wines here aren't quite as nice as the ones they brought back from the east coast...But they are about 4500 km (that's about 2800 miles) closer!

Now...I need to see if I can muster the guts to move the yogurt-container-spider-trap from in front of the bathroom so I can have a shower. Another Very Large Fracking HUGE Spider came scampering down the hall this morning. About 10 minutes after Mr.Q left. The worst part - it came from the bedroom. Guess who's going to shake out all the blankets and pillows before bed tonight!