July 1st was my birthday and I celebrated in style!
This post will be heavy on pictures and light on words. There are a LOT of photos! Just warning ya ;).
On Saturday (June 30th), my best friend Afra and I drove down to Seattle, where we stayed at the W Hotel.
This is us in the border line-up – it was only about an hour, which I thought was pretty good for a long weekend.
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
It was a really nice hotel – super shi-shi and the bar downstairs was awesome (we made sure to go there later on!). It had the craziest carpets and was dark all day long though – some kind of interesting atmosphere they were going for with the lights!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
This is Afra and I in the super-fancy bar downstairs, playing with my cameraphone filters…
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
We headed out straight away, exploring.
We hit up Pike Place market, where we stood in a 25-minute long line-up at Piroshky, Piroshky (this is the line after we’d already been standing in it for 15 minutes!):
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
But it was worth the wait – we shared a warm, rhubarb-filled piroshky. I had never had one before but Afra, who is Persian, said they are quite popular in Iran. Apparently they’re a traditional Russian kind of pastry/dessert. Whatever they are, they were delish!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
The longest line-up by far was for the original Starbucks, but on a very quick trip to Seattle once before, Afra and I had already visited there so we didn’t have to waste our time. I’m glad, too, because it’s just Starbucks with a different logo – nothing that special to see! If I had waited all that time I’d have been a bit annoyed, lol.
After something so sweet we needed some proper food, so we headed to Michou Deli where I got a Mediterranean quinoa salad which was pretty good:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
We headed inside and checked out the lifesize drawing of the world’s tallest man. I no longer think I’m tall, by the way. I didn’t even come up to his chest standing on the steps they provide!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
We headed out of the market and into downtown after that. I was super impressed with how clean Seattle is, as a city. Its streets look swept and the mall and everywhere we went was so new and big and fancy! It was really impressive.
We got chocolate-covered treats at Godiva, browsed stores (love these glasses!)…
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
And tried on silly hats…
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
Then headed back to the hotel to quickly regroup before going out for dinner.
We spotted a pub called The Pike, and went there for dinner. It was awesome, with Americana decor and beer-infused everything.
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
I got the veggie burger (sorry for the bad pic):
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
And for dinner we shared a brownie with stout-infused cream. It was pretty heavenly, of course:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
After dinner we went to Market Theater to watch some improv comedy by TheaterSports. Out front they have a world-famous gum wall:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
Afra was much braver than me when it came to getting close to the “2nd germiest attraction in the world”:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
I admired how creative people got with the wall, lol!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
- The improv show was awesome. There was a bachelor party in the audience which definitely made for a raucous audience, which just fed the actors more energy. I thought it was super well done.
- Afra and I with our ‘theatre faces’:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
After the show we headed back to the hotel, where we met up with Katie, a friend of ours who lives in Seattle, and her cousin Marcus. They joined us for drinks at the bar in the W Hotel lobby, and then we went dancing until the wee hours at a bar called Noc Noc, where we danced with transvestites for hours! (No joke). It was so much fun.
The next day we drove back to Vancouver, stopping at some American stores on the way for some much-needed goodies, like Target, Trader Joe’s, and Fred Meyer where I finally found the Arctic Zero ice cream I’ve been looking for! No worries, I got it in mint chocolate cookie, cookies and cream, chocolate peanut butter and coffee flavour. I went all out! And restocked my NuNaturals stevia baking blend too. I was in love.
We got back to Vancouver by 6:30, where I opened some gifts, which included an Express gift card (they’re about to open their first store in Vancouver in a week’s time!) and an apron from my sister and brother-in-law:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
I also got a cookbook, super expensive and fancy (but works wonders!) hair mask and some loose leaf Forte teas from my mom, a book from my brother and gift certificates and moolah from my aunt, uncle and grandma. Afra had also given me a necklace, nail polish, a book and an engraved jewellery box (I’ve never received anything engraved before!)
Then Mom and I went out for the traditional birthday family dinner:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
We went to Cloud 9, a revolving restaurant on the 42nd floor of a hotel in downtown Vancouver, so the view is phenomenal:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
It rotates 360 degrees in 1 hour 20 minutes, so during the course of our meal we got a view from every angle, and I took tons of pictures:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
I ordered the tomato bisque to start (my favourite soup was the soup of the day – gotta love when that happens!):
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
And I had the goat cheese vegetable risotto as my main course:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
My mom, who is a pescetarian, so does eat fish, ordered the salmon:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
For dessert, there was a fabulous chocolate mousse cake that I enjoyed some bites of. Delish!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
It was so kind of them to light a candle for me too – made me feel extra special!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
We made sure we booked in at 8:30pm, so that we would be in the restaurant when it got dark. Because it was Canada Day as well, we knew there would be a fireworks display, and sure enough, at around 10:30pm, the fireworks started!
It was a fabulous show – I took better pics with my SLR but haven’t uploaded them yet. We sure had a great view though!
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
Yesterday, Monday July 2nd, the celebrations continued as I finally got around to having my own birthday cake at home:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
Then our family friends brought their dog Maple around and we had a sushi dinner. They used to be our next-door neighbours and Maple and our cats get on so well and love each other, so it was great for us all just to hang out. Take a look:
Copyright to The Guiltless Life
Cute, right??
The birthday celebrations are continuing too! Friday my girlfriends and I are going to hit the VIP movies up and watch Magic Mike…then Saturday I’m going berry picking with a couple of my other girlfriends and their babies. Love spreading out the birthday fun!
QUESTION:
- Canadians, what did you get up to this long weekend?
- Americans, happy 4th of July for tomorrow! What are your plans?
Happy birthday!! I am dying to see Magic Mike, but so is every other woman in America! 🙂 I think that I might let the crowds die down before I go..:) (they may not!) Looks like you had a fun night! 🙂
Haha I agree, I think everyone is headed to see that! I can’t think of anything better for a girls’ night out 🙂
girl. what a celebration you have had! so great that it falls on this holiday weekend – that means extra celebrating! you look like you ate some great food – of course my eye always lingers on all those desserts. chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate! happy birthday! i hope 27 treats you right! ❤
Haha of course! I did it right with the chocolate! Thanks Sara x
**HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! What a wonderful Birthday weekend you had. Do you do the “birthday celebration for a week’ thing too? My birthday is actually on Tuesday 🙂 Those pastries looked DE-LICIOUS!
Even though my husband and I are American, were not living in Kuwait and aren’t able to celebrate 4th of July 😦 He works all week.. bummer!!!!
**Also, I just decided to start my own blog today.. check it out 🙂
Thank you Jessie! That’s so sweet. I don’t deliberately do the birthday celebration for a week, but this year all of my friends are at different points in life and it was too tough to get them all together for one event so I am spreading it out a bit! I hope you are able to have a fun holiday even if you’re not in the US! And Happy birthday!! 🙂
Sounds like a great birthday weekend! Wow, lots going on! I’ve been to that Pike Pub too, its good! Yes the W hotel sure is “modern” hey?! lol. I want to get the Artic Zero too, its a Fred Myer right? I’d like to get some berries too, will probably go to Krause Berry Farm soon.
Krause is the farm that we are going to this weekend! Crazy, maybe I’ll see you there!
We also passed by Purple many times (it really was right by our hotel, as you said!) and that’s where we made plans to meet up for drinks after the improv show, but in the end we were tempted by the W bar’s fancy schmancy decor so we ended up changing it to there. But I can so see what you liked about Purple, it was so swanky!
Ooh and yes, it’s a Fred Meyer buy :). I was in love with that store, they stock NuNaturals, they had healthy everything – it was amazing!
Ha! That’s so funny that you did a bday round up today too! I did one as well (mine is belated) but it’s hilarious b/c we both went to Godiva and got truffles!!! Plus, I *totally* got some of those redneck wine glasses as a wedding gift last year. Not kidding at all. They’re awesome! Ugh, ok, so that gum wall is dis.gust.ing. *shudders* I can’t believe your friend got that close! Lastly, that revolving restaurant looks phenomenal. Like seriously, I want to go right now!
That’s awesome I can’t wait to check yours out! Godiva truffles are the best birthday treat, right??
Hi Anna! I love the pic from the revolving restaurant. That could be a postcard! I’m glad you had such a happy birthday! My husband and I just sat around for his birthday….hehe…I made him pizza and we watched The Bachelorette though! :o)
Thanks so much Lauren! Happy birthday to your husband – I’ve had many quiet birthdays and sometimes those are just the best. Hope he enjoyed the Bachelorette 😉
Happy belated Birthday, gorgeous girl! I don’t even know where to start…
It looks like you had the perfect celebration weekend! I think should be required that everyone milk their birthdays for all their worth- for multiple days! And that’s exactly what you did. (:
And the view from that restaurant is breathtaking!
Haha I overwhelmed with pics a bit, didn’t I? Thanks girl! 🙂
You can celebrate your birthday ALL month long!!! ❤
So glad you had a beautiful and fun birthday girl! You deserved it! ❤
Happy Birthday!
Thank you Katie! I’m looking forward to the festivities continuing this weekend but I’m also glad to be back into my routine again this week! xxx
Looks like you had an amazing birthday! Mine is coming up at the end of August and I can never seem to figure out something fun to do!
As for the 4th, we don’t really have a plan yet. I know, it’s tomorrow so I should figure it out. We may go camping with my brother and we may just stay home, maybe bbq with Jim’s family. We’re just going to take it as it comes.
Sometimes spontaneous plans are the best plans! I hope your 4th ends up being tons of fun!
Happy Birthday! Looks like you had a ton of fun celebrating!! I really want to see Magic Mike, just purely for the men in it. Canada Day I celebrated just at a friends bbq, nothing crazy.
Thanks Lisa! I know, that’s my main motivation behind seeing Magic Mike too ;).
Ahh Happy Birthday!!! What a fun celebration you had as well… the best 🙂
Thank you Tessa!
What a birthday celebration, we were in Canada one year for your independence day (accidentally haha) and it was crazy there!! But in a totally fun way! We hang out at my moms house all day for the 4th, my husband has to work all day bummer. But we have a rib cook off each year, we determine the winner by sitting a piece of meat from each of our ribs on the ground and whose ever the dog eats first wins! Haha of course then we all talk about which one we liked best etc… So fun! I usually win haha
Fun times! I hope you have a great time tomorrow! 🙂
Happy (slightly belated!) birthday! Love happy day posts (though that gum wall is seriously gross!)
All the best for the year ahead!
anne
Thanks so much!
Happy belated birthday !! I should of kept up my blog reading, I wouldn’t of missed this important day !!! 🙂 I hope you had a great day and I wish you all the best ! 🙂
xox
Thank you so much! That’s so sweet of you 🙂