Erin is a Mother (Wedding Included!)

When August flew in and out of my life like a paper airplane, I should maybe have stopped to look around before diving headfirst into September. But, as many of you may be aware, I’ve been waiting for this September for the past 10 months and so when it came near, I grabbed it by the horns and wrestled it to the ground like that lady described in Talladega Nights. However, August was not without its own adventures…specifically those primarily occupied with my newest friend from Japan, Mayuko. You see, I was her host Mother for two and a half weeks and we hit it off quite well.

First off, she brought me gifts from an extremely well-known (and popular with the obaachans!) department store in Japan, Isetan.




Here is lovely Mayuko holding the treat bag.


Senbei and Anna Sui cloths. Very Japanese. I love it.

In the beginning of her stay, I didn’t know her well and wanted to impress. So I made salmon cakes. Yes, I cooked.


No big deal. She loved it.

Encountering strange people along the way who seemed to want to talk to Mayuko (in Japanese), we had some adventures with shopping, movies and food. One particular night I wanted to savor special culinary delights so I took her out to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for a bit of swank Canadian dining.




My potato lasagne. Not pictured: dessert buffet. Yummm.

Another Canadian tradition that I had the opportunity of exposing Mayuko to was that of a bridal shower and Canadian wedding. My oldest and dearest BC friend Jill decided to get married to the man of her dreams and thus, first came the bridal (lingerie) shower two days before the wedding.







After sufficiently stuffing ourselves and watching youtube videos about eyebrow threading, our evening of girl fun came to a close.

The wedding day started out quite hectic as everyone decided to hop into their cars and get out on the road to drive as slow as possible in front of me as I tried to make my way to Crescent beach in an timely manner. Just barely arriving before the wedding party, we soaked in the beautiful scenery before the ceremony commenced.












Jill was so beautiful.











After the wedding we relaxed on the shores, watching the sailboats and noshing on some interesting Korean sweets, red velvet cake and chocolate-covered strawberries.













After the party starting winding down, we still had some time to kill before the reception. We decided to head down to the pier in White Rock for some more sun and sea.





After soaking up the breeze, we headed back to Crescent Beach for the dinner reception in the hall on the beach.











Many congrats Lawrence and Jill! Mayuko and I had a wonderful time exploring that corner of the world but our adventures weren’t over yet.