A Thanksgiving Stay-cation in Vancouver

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving 2012, I was lucky enough to have another family member come out and visit me. On Thursday my momma flew into Vancouver to so we could have a lovely girls weekend together! We ate, drank, walked, watched and spa-ed to our hearts’ delight!

I met my mom on Friday at our hotel room suite at Sutton Place Hotel. I joked all weekend that we might run into Daniel Radcliffe (no, seriously, he`s filming in Vancouver so he has got to be staying somewhere, right?), but sadly, we did not.

Despite our lack of celebrity run-ins our hotel was very relaxing and posh! We were in a huge room with the most heavenly bed and pillows.  The staff were friendly, the orchids were beautiful, the elevators were faster than light and apparently the lobby bathrooms were pretty cool…my mom couldn’t stop talking about them!

On our first night, mom grabbed us some yummy food from the Cactus Club and then we went to our hotel’s chocolate buffet.  One word: disappointing.  We were both expecting a huge assortment of rich and delicious chocolates, worthy of the $28 price tag.

Instead there was a mediocre spread of desserts that weren’t even all chocolate.  That being said, most of it was delicious and my sweet tooth was satisfied though we expected a lot more.  I think my mom would concur though she spent the majority of the time falling asleep into her food!

The next morning we woke up early (early for me at least) to room-service breakfast! Again, kind of disappointing. I wasn’t thrilled with my meal but the presentation was nice and it was fun to order room service.  After breaky, we headed off to the spa at Pan Pacific Hotel.

The spa was amah-zing (Happy Endings anyone?)!  I had never been to a spa like that so I was very impressed with the amenities.  We put on lovely plush robes and hung out in the lounge with drinks, snacks and magazines.  Then we headed in for our massages.  I got an aromatherapy full body massage and even got to take some of the oil mix home with me.

Next, we went for body wraps! I got a mud wrap and it was a really cool experience.  Definitely a little odd to be covered in mud and wrapped in plastic but my skin still feels silky smooth.  We finished off with another drink, complimentary make-up touch up and off we went…

…to the movies! We met some of my friends for the 2:10 showing of Pitch Perfect! This movie was amazing! I’ve already downloaded the soundtrack and can’t wait to watch it again.  It was funny, heart warming and full of amazing music! Definitely a must-see!

From the movies we went back to the hotel and enjoyed midday cheese, crackers/chips and wine! It was a very classy affair 😉

Then we headed to Yew at the Four Seasons for our Thanksgiving dinner.  The restaurant was really beautiful, great service and yummy food.  Besides the extremely strong beverages, I was satisfied.  We ate more than our fill of turkey, seafood and dessert!

Sunday we took our time waking up and headed to Cafe Crepe for breakfast.  Our server was a little strange but the food was delicious.  Then we walked over to Coastal Church for the 11am service.  It was mom’s first time and the church was packed! There was also a guest pastor from Sweden to shake things up a little.

After church we walked around downtown and headed to the water.  It was a beautiful day! We enjoyed some Belgian chocolates and macarons, the views and the foliage of fall.

We headed back to our hotel, took a quick nap, packed our bags and checked out.  We walked around a little more, killed time at Jugo Juice and then walked up to Davie for an early dinner of cheap sushi.  Unfortunately, our sushi place was not up to par and we were a little disappointed.  I promised mom I’d find something better for the next time she visits me.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to get my things and mom walked me to the bus.  I headed back to UBC for a night of studying, watching Downton Abbey and eating bread with leftover cheese.  Mom is on a plane now back to Toronto.  All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving weekend and I am very grateful I got to spend it in beautiful Vancouver with my wonderful mama!