September 2, 2014

Labour Day Weekend Recap

Sadly the long weekend is already over (insert sad emoticon here). For us it was a pretty lovely weekend, the weather wasn’t too bad and we crossed off a few things on our list.

First off, we ate at Le Tableau on Friday night. This was Curtis’s first visit to the restaurant. I will post a review later this week. Saturday, we started off visiting the Douglas Coupland exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Coupland is a local Vancouver artist who has gained world recognition with his books to his artwork. The summary of the exhibit is on the website:

Gumhead

“Deftly capturing the zeitgeist of the moment, or as the artist states “the early 21st century condition,” Coupland’s visually engaging post-media practice includes installation, painting, photography, prints, quilts, as well as numerous public commissions. His work incisively synthesizes pop culture and technology with art historical references that range from historical paintings of Emily Carr and the Group of Seven to the pop sensibility of Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. Recently, for example, Coupland has effectively married the traditional media of painting with current technologies — his series of QR Code paintings function both as contemporary abstractions (referencing Piet Mondrian’s abstract paintings), as well as actual QR codes, and when scanned with a smartphone, they generate pithy statements about life and death written by the artist. Often incorporating everyday materials and objects such as plastic lids, children’s toys, pencils and books, Coupland’s work probes the way that the things, images and process of contemporary life affect our understanding of the world around us.”

Below are some iPhone photos from the exhibit:

The Brick Wall 2005/2014

Thomson Lone Pine Variant, 2011

After touring the exhibit, we ate brunch at Hawksworth at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. I had the delicious Steel Cut Oats with rhubarb, strawberry and almonds. Curtis had the Two Eggs with bacon, potatoes and roasted tomato. We did some sale shopping at JCrew, H&M and Club Monaco. I love the summer sales; you can get great deals on summer items and even some discounts on the fall lines.

Later that evening we hit up Chewies in Coal Harbour with my parents. It’s a cool space, and the waiters are not bad looking. Bonus!

We decided to take a day trip to Seattle on Sunday. Curtis and I have not been to the city since we were kids. The first stop was Pike Place Market which was overflowing with fellow tourists. After 20 minutes of strolling around we left the area, but not before I first bought the most tastiest iced tea from a stand before doing so. It was a rosemary lemon thyme iced tea from Herb N Farm NW, which also sells spices, herb blends and other small items.

Space Needle

Pike Public Market

Dance Steps

We walked along to Pioneer Square neighbourhood and shortly turned around to the Retail Core. Shopped for a short time and walked towards the Space Needle. There was a festival going on in that area called Bumpershoot, which was an arts and theatre festival. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at one of the many coffee shops Seattle has to offer and drove over to Capital Hill. I loved this area! Cool houses with a lot of character and shops, restaurants and bars line the streets. Wish we went there first and skipped downtown all together.

We went straight to dinner at Ask for Luigi in Railtown in Vancouver. It was a flawless meal and a perfect ending to the day. The staff were fantastic and squeezed us in the evening’s last seating. Post will follow this week too.