Yesterday Leesh and I attended Grace's wedding at The Old Mill in Toronto. I've never been to this place and I absolutely love it. It gives an old skool feel to it. Very classy place, wonderful food and the important part, amazing drinks! I unfortunately didn't get to attend the ceremony but I heard that it was a beautiful one. I remember 6 years ago when Grace and I sat during volleyball and she was telling me about Jeff and now she's married to him. I'm really happy for her and she is such a wonderful person and she truly deserves the best.
YES, I was rocking a bow tie for this wedding. I had to, I've been wanting to do it for so long and I finally got the guts to do it and NO, it was not a clip on!! I had to watch videos on You Tube to see how to tie one properly and after 45min, I succeeded. I love it. I think it will be my thing this year for weddings.
So the rest of the night kind of got blurry. I got really drunk on wine and next thing I knew, the sparking wine started to flow. Everyone knows that this is my favourite thing about weddings. I love it cause it's my mojo juice. It gets me crunked real good. Problem was, I think I got abit more mojo than I could handle. I spent the last hour or so of the wedding in the washroom throwing up LOL! I haven't gotten that drunk in so long and really it was so bad that I don't even remember coming home, sleeping or even how the hell we got home. I love it!!!!
So congratulations to Jeff and Grace for a wonderful wedding and I'd like to personally thank you for the good times!!!
So this weekend ended up being one of the busiest in months. On Friday, I decided to take Darryl out for his 30th birthday. We went downtown to Hey Lucy's and grabbed a drink and had dinner. At the same time, we were both waiting for our wives since they were at Grace's bachelorette party, but both were only staying for dinner.
Saturday, I ended up at my parents place because my sister needed help putting her invitations together for her upcoming wedding in August. Everyone helped including Leesha's mom who ended up being more help in the process and the final product that any of us lol! I also got to play "store" with my niece Bella. She's so cute!
Sunday, Leesh and I met with Jp and Lyn and had brunch at the Boiler House at the Distillery District downtown. It was a beautiful day and what sucked is that my arms got burnt from the sun. Out of all the days not to wear sunscreen! Afterwards, we went to Darryl's house for his housewarming/birthday lunch.
Shortly after, we met up with the Ponce's at their house to visit and they kindly got us a "product" that when Richie showed me last week at his place, I freaked out about since I've always wanted to put spotlighting in my home. Well as you can see from the pic, thats the finished product! Thanks to Richie for showing my the "product" I love it!!!
Since I haven't been blogging about anything else but my trips, I thought I would give an update as to whatelse has happened in the last few months.
-Pat has asked me to be one of his groomsmen for his wedding in October -James and Trix have asked me to be their Emcee for their wedding in August -My sister Dianne and her husband Michael moved into their new house in Aurora -Congratulations to Jimmy and Adaiah who will be expecting their first child in November -Congratulations to Dwight for being accepted into Ryerson starting this September -The Balcony has finally opened but ever since it's been opened, there hasn't been any nice weather to fully enjoy it. -Congratulations to Gino who has opened his store called the Vynil Lounge in Oakville. -Wedding count for this year is up to 6 so far this year.
and thats it, I think...but yeah it's been a crazy year so far and I'm loving it! I am turning 30 this year after all and I think this year I'm making up for those lacklustre years I had in my mid to early 20's. Ain't no party like your 30th party!
BTW..Marilen if you're reading this..WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT PICTURE YOU SENT LEESH?!?!?! LOL!!!! OMG!!!
This day was the main purpose of our trip to Vegas. It was Alysia's mom's wedding day. Since we had to get to her hotel by 3pm, we didn't really have time to do anything and decided to sit by the pool. The picture u see here is the pic I took of our hotel from my pool lounger. Thats the only picture you'll see cause the other pics we took were just gross LOL. We are so unfit, it's not even funny LOL. I didn't like the pool scene that much since it was packed with people. I prefer my personal space and I didn't like how everyone was just packed up beside each other. It's disgusting to tell you the truth. If I had a choice, I would've rented one of the cabana's for the whole day and chill out there. So much better!
Once we got tired of the pool, we left and took a shower and decided to walk to the Forum Shops in Ceasar's Palace hotel. This place was massive and I really didn't expect to do any shopping till an A|X store caught my attention! I got a pretty good deal on a pair of pants, which I ended up wearing for the wedding. Once I bought that, it was off to our hotel to get ready.
We got to the Monte Carlo on time and Alysia helped her mom with the final touches of the wedding. When we got to the chapel downstairs, people thought I was Alysia's brother which I had to quickly clear up and say no I'm her husband! LOL! I don't have any pictures of the wedding since we weren't allowed to take any with the flash on, so all my pics turned out really blurry. The ceremony was fairly quick and the cool part about it was that there was a webcast of it online for those who couldn't make the wedding.
After the wedding, we all met downstairs at the Brew Pub for a drink and planned to meet with Alysia's new step-brother Dan, his wife Katrina and the best mans son Tito and his girlfriend Natalie. We had originally planned to try to go to PURE before the line up got disgusting but Leesh and I had reservations at Koi that night so we told them we would call them when we were done. As you may know, Koi is my favorite Japanese restaurant ever! I first tried it when I went to NYC, so I had to make sure Leesh got to try it when we went to Vegas. The food again did not disappoint and yes, I had the infamous CRISPY RICE!! GOOD TIMES! I actually saw the guy from Britan's Got Talent, I think his name was Pierce. He was infront of us right before we checked in for our reservation. Afterwards, we had a smoke outside the restaurant and looked at the Planet Hollywood Casino and mentioned that this hotel is where we would like to stay next.
So off we went and met up with Katrina and Dan. We left it up to them to tell Tito and Natalie what to do so when they said they haven't called us yet, we went over to watch the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel. I don't know why I didn't take a video of it, but I swear this was so nice to watch at night. Especially with the opera music, it just was surreal, so peaceful. Anyway if you go, you must see this at night!
The fucked up part was after the show, we went off to the outdoor bar at Ceasars to have a drink and wait for Tito and Natalie to call us. When we sat down, they were right there LOL! It was so weird. We sat and drank a bit and when it was time to go to the club, the line up was so gross that we said forget it and went to Shadow Bar instead. It was a cool little lounge but the highlight was some slut that decided to give her man a lap dance in the middle of the bar and almost had her top off. It was so funny that when security came and kicked them out, we booed security LOL! After that, we just went on our merry way and just gambled the rest of the night where I ended up winning $40.00!
I would have a Day 4 entry but it was pretty boring. Our original plan was to go to The Fashion Mall but since our hotel wouldn't give us a late check out. Leesh did not feel comfortable going the whole day without a room so with MY help and Jimmy, we took the first West Jet flight out of Vegas and headed home. It's a good thing it worked out for us, cause if it didn't, we would've been SOL at the airport for 12 hours! Thanks West Jet for accommodating us! With that said, I don't have any pics for Day 4 except for my usual scenery pics from the plane. I didn't bother posting them since I've taken so many of those in my many trips so no need to see them.
So there you have it. Our Vegas trip! If you want to see more pics from Day 3, click here
We've heard that the shopping was good, so it was time to find out for ourselves. We woke up and got ready and headed out. Our initial plan was to walk north on the strip and see some hotels and when we got tired, we would get a cab to bring us to the Outlet Mall. We passed all the hotels that you see in the brochures but my mind was on The Venetian. When Leesh and I were looking for places to get married, this was one of the places on my list. Too bad our budget didn't allow for it but it was a beautiful hotel. One of the main reasons for going here to was to do the gondola ride that I've been reading in reviews. I have always wanted to do this and after much debate and discussion, I decided not to do it since it was fuckin $15.oo per person for 10 minutes AND you didn't even get the boat to yourself. So I said forget it and off we went to Treasure Island.
When we got to Treasure Island we just walked around the casino floor and took a pic of the Sirenis Ship. That was it LOL!..I think our minds were on shopping so much I was anxious to get there. There was a bar that I wanted to go to though, I think it was call Social House or something like that. I liked how the set up looked during the day so I could imagine that it would look nice at night. So after going through the hotel, off north we went again this time passing The Fashion Show Mall. Our original plan was to go to this mall on Saturday while we killed time before our flight, but as you will read in later posts, that never happened =).
Once we passed the fashion show mall, stupid us just kept on walking even though there was NOTHING to see after that. We passed the Fronteir sign and really, that was it. We ended up walking to the Riviera and saw there were no cabs and finally crossed the street and got one at Circus Circus. This was a LONG ASS WALK folks. 4km to be exact in fuckin desert heat!! We didn't even check how long it took us to walk this. It's a good thing we didn't, otherwise we would've been cranky. Keep in mind we did this without eating ANYTHING! Were so smart huh!
We got a cab at Circus Circus and this is where everything gets interesting. We got picked up by this creepy looking guy, you know the stereo typical serial killer look, big guy, baseball hat, thick glasses, etc. As soon as we got to the cab, this guy just started to talk up a storm. Basically all bullshit but the one conversation topic that stuck in my mind was this..
CAB DRIVER: "Yeah so my mom passed away and her wish was for me to come to Vegas and marry an asian girl. So I tried 2 asian girls and it didn't work out so maybe I'll find another one. It was a Korean girl and a Filipino girl...
CREEP-FUCKING-Y!!! The first thing that came into my mind was, "OH MY GOD, he's going to kill me and take leesh!!" LOL! Anyway that was the weirdest cab ride EVER!
Then we got to the mall. By this point we were hungry, tired and just thirsty. So we ate lunch and after lunch walked around. This was when working for Nike kicked in. Lets just say there was 1 store which I got 50% off the lowest price and 40% off the lowest price in other two stores. WE WENT MADDD!! I don't even remember hitting up other stores. As soon as I knew that they took my employee discount it was over. That was the best shopping experience ever. Leesh even said so. We were so excited about the deals that we called Julie as soon as we got back to the hotel.
When we got back, we also got our room upgraded. So instead of explaining the room, I took a video of the room. Just click play below.
Here are the pics of our view at night. It was just beautiful!Anyway at night we met up with Alysia's mom and we had dinner at the Brew Pub in the Monte Carlo. This was a family dinner before the wedding and had an amazing dinner. Their fish tacos were amazing! Just watch out for the salsa. That shit is HOT!! The rest of the night consisted of the same thing from the night before. Gambling, drinking and just good ole times with Leesh.
We arrived in Las Vegas around 10:45pm west coast time. By the time we got to our hotel, it was almost midnight. We basically checked in, dropped our stuff in the room and headed out. At the time we checked in, we had to be placed in a room with 2 queen beds. This honestly wasn't a big deal for us since we were used to it due to all the All Inclusive resorts we've stayed at. The only difference was that the shower stall was for a handicap person. No big deal. I enjoyed the shower stall quite well actually. It was HUGE!
So when we went out there was barely anyone on the strip, but there were a few to notice that people were drinking and walking. I got jealous and immediately looked for a bar. Vegas at night is just unbelievable. It was a good experience to go there at night because we got to see all the lights and stuff. Such a beautiful city at night. I was also amazed at the outdoor escalators that took us across the street. To me it was just weird but it was cool!
Off we went to Ceasars Palace and thats where I found an outdoor bar. I immediately got myself a double shot margarita and Leesh got a strawberry daiquiri. Stupid me should know that any drinks that have the consistency of syrup gives me a MASSIVE heart burn. An hour after walking around and drinking, the heart burn hit. So I thought it was best that we sat down somewhere for a bit and let the thing calm down. That place ended up being the Bellagio Casino!
I love the Bellagio! LOVE IT! If I had the cash I would stay there and live it up large! We started to play the slots at the casino and immediately got hooked. Keep in mind leesh and I don't gamble AT ALL! So by the time we were playing it was 1am and the drinks started coming and next thing you know it was 3:30am! We were there long enough for me to come up with a strategy on how I would win in the slots LOL!! Good times! Just see the video below. The funny part is that we got carded twice. Everyone thought we were younger than 21. Good for leesh...bad for me!
So at this point we thought it was best that we ate something, so we wanted to go to our hotel, but on the way there, we got side tracked by the Bellagio moving sidewalk. Noone was there so our drunkeness had hit it's peak and we were just stupid as you can tell by the video below LOL! It was so fun! I don't remember the last time Leesh and I were drunk together! After the sidewalk we ended up at our hotel and ate breakfast at 4:00am. I just remember looking at Leesh and going "Oh you look really pretty right now" being sarcastic of course since she just looked fuckin WASTED! LOL! After eating some breakfast we went to bed and crashed. It was one of the best sleeps I have ever had!
WOW...JUST WOW!!...VEGAS is really something! Like really SOMETHING! I love that place. LOL! I'll be putting up my regular day by day travel blog but I hope I remember it since so much went on. I don't know why I waited so long to go to Vegas. SERIOUSLY!! This is something I should've done at least once a year back when I was 21. It's funny cause when I turned 21, my original plan was to go to Las Vegas. I guess it was really hard back then since I wasn't making any kind of coin to go to these types of places but fuck, theres no time better than the present. The past 3 months have just been crazy!! NYC in March, SF in April and Vegas in May! WHOOT WHOOT!!! Stay tuned for my updates...I'll leave you with a drunk pic of Leesh and I while on the moving sidewalk of the Bellagio...needless to say, we were pretty fucked up LOL!
My plan of having this post up before I left for Vegas obviously failed so I'll try to remember what happened on our 3rd day in SF.
We had originally planned on going to the Wharf but we got so tired and lazy that we vegged at Marilens place till we figured out what to do. So off we went and did part 2 of the Marilen Accord City Tour. The first place she wanted to take us was to have a taste of Mitchell's Ice Cream. When we drove by this place, I already knew it was going to be good since there was a HUGE crowd outside waiting to get served. I forgot what I had but I remembered it was good LOL. It's always nice to have ice cream in hot weather. Well it wasn't extremely hot but it was good enough.
From there we took off and ended up at the Golden Gate Bridge. Now for many years I've seen pictures of this. Nothing really compares to having a glimpse of this in person. It was frigging AMAZING to see. Just the way it is framed with the hills and oceans, it was just perfect. Hence the tonnes of pictures I took of it in my album.
We stayed here for a bit then ended off at Ghiradelli Square where leesha finally had a chance to buy her cup cakes! Kara's cup cakes to be exact. They were quite good actually. I still haven't found cupcakes that top the ones I got for leesh one year but one of them came pretty close.
After walking around for a bit, we headed off to have dinner at The Stinking Rose. Dinner was good here. The Seafood Iron Skillett was just amazing and I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach cause I also ordered the Surf and Turf. It was soo good but I just couldn't finish the food so I left it on the street for some homeless man to find. After dinner, we went straight home since we had to leave early the next day.
I'd just like to thank Marilen for hosting us for this weekend. I had such a good time there! I can't thank you enough for driving us around! We had a blast!!!
Realizing we got the shit tour the day before, Marilen decided to take us on her own tour of the city and take us to the neighborhoods that we missed. After eating breakfast, we went towards the SOMA area where she works and that is where we found the Home of the Giants! The building looks so cool surrounded by water in the background. We also saw a whole bunch of Filipino's there so we assumed it was Filipino Day at the ball park lol! After that, she took us driving along the Wharf.
Along the coast were 2 new restaurants that I wanted to eat at. Wetbar and Epic. These two restaurants are side by side but next time we go, I for sure want to eat there. Those restaurants also have a nice background of the Bay Bridge. This is the bridge that you take to go to Oakland. It's one way traffic on top and one way traffic on the bottom. Looks pretty cool. This bridge is what inspired George Lucas as well to create those skyscraper like machines i the road to slow everything down. Now I don't know if this story is bullshit but it kinn his Star Wars films.
Right after that, we ended up going to Lombard Street, which is the location of the famous "Crooked Street". From the bus tour the day before, they told us that the story behind this street was they had to make a pathway that slowed the hill down since it was such a steep hill. Back in the day horses use to tumble to their deaths since it was virtually impossible to slow down. So they carved angles ond of makes sense so I'm sticking to it LOL! Besides, who cares about the story. This street was friggin cool. Just the view at the bottom of the street was amazing and it's just so funny that people actually live on this street with all these tourists going back and forth right in front of their homes. The stupid part is that once we drove down the street, smart me decided that we would walk up...WHILE I WAS SMOKING! I got really tired but it was all worth it. The view form the top was just amazing and Leesh, Marilen and I enjoyed it. Yes Marilen enjoyed it even though she was from there. I mean think about it, how many times do you go to the CN tower here in Toronto? You just take it for granted where you live sometimes and it's good when visitors come cause you get to do things you normally don't do.
Anyway right after that we went off on our merry way to go to Japan town. This is one of the things I really wanted to do before coming here. Lets just say, it was like a smaller version of Pacific mall but with a more laid back attitude. It was alright I guess, nothing really to see. I mean we would've loved to eat sushi there but since we were going to eat that for dinner already, we passed and just walked around. The funniest was there was this store called "Pika Pika". It was one of those stores that you just go into a photo booth and take pics with your friends with different typical Japanese backgrounds and you print them off as stickers. Well as we left the store, Marilen goes "Pika Pika is Japanese for waste of money" LOL!! That was hilarious!
After that it was off to Ocean Beach. I didn't really expect much but when we got here and pulled up to the parking lot, I finally saw them. SURFERS!!! LOL I freaked out when I saw them and immediately went on the boardwalk to find some that were in the water. I saw some from far away but still managed to stalk..oops I mean take a pic of this guy who was finished his session and was on his merry way back home. Then it was time for us to head back and go get ready for dinner at Blowfish Sushi.
The food here was excellent and the best part about it, it was just around the corner from Marilen's place! We had a fun time at dinner and enjoyed the food. Our first drinks were awesome but the second batch of drinks that came were okay. They looked good in the picture though lol! Needless to say we had a great time at dinner and Marilen almost added to the Anime theme of the place when her top decided to untie itself and her top almost fell off on the right side LOL! You can see more pictures of the food we ate and the rest of the pictures form Day 2 right here. Day 3 blog posting might come up a little bit late since were leaving for Vegas on Wednesday. So I'll try to post something up before I go, but at the same time I don't want to rush it.
Documenting life's struggles, triumphs and rants of a man in his early 30's trying to enjoy life with every breath.
Sharing his travels, hobbies, random thoughts and passions through words, images and videos.
In other words, welcome to my life.
Yesterday Leesh and I attended Grace's wedding at The Old Mill in Toronto. I've never been to this place and I absolutely love it. It gives an old skool feel to it. Very classy place, wonderful food and the important part, amazing drinks! I unfortunately didn't get to attend the ceremony but I heard that it was a beautiful one. I remember 6 years ago when Grace and I sat during volleyball and she was telling me about Jeff and now she's married to him. I'm really happy for her and she is such a wonderful person and she truly deserves the best.
YES, I was rocking a bow tie for this wedding. I had to, I've been wanting to do it for so long and I finally got the guts to do it and NO, it was not a clip on!! I had to watch videos on You Tube to see how to tie one properly and after 45min, I succeeded. I love it. I think it will be my thing this year for weddings.
So the rest of the night kind of got blurry. I got really drunk on wine and next thing I knew, the sparking wine started to flow. Everyone knows that this is my favourite thing about weddings. I love it cause it's my mojo juice. It gets me crunked real good. Problem was, I think I got abit more mojo than I could handle. I spent the last hour or so of the wedding in the washroom throwing up LOL! I haven't gotten that drunk in so long and really it was so bad that I don't even remember coming home, sleeping or even how the hell we got home. I love it!!!!
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