Sunday was absolutely fabulous! Everyone had such a good time at the horse races. So, finally… here are the photos! This is a heavy photo post so please bear with me.

Here I am at the races with my fancy hat from Edie’s Hats!

I got some cheap fake pearls from the mall, but I thought they looked pretty vintage! I also had a dress from Le Chateau, shoes from BCBG, and scarf from Club Monaco.

For bright red lips, I got some Nars lip liner and lip gloss. I’ve never worn makeup that red before, and it took some getting used to!

Allan looked great. His outfit was an Etro dress shirt (Looooove Etro!), shoes by Paul Smith, and hat by Robert Hall. Check out my previous post on both our hats.

Allan and I… mostly I love this photo because you can see the netting pattern so clearly!

The Hasting Race Course was a LOT of fun. Gorgeous scenery and backdrop for the races… we had a sunny day with a slight breeze and great box seats. Couldn’t have asked for a better day at the races!

Here we are all sitting in our box seats!

The races were exciting. We saw about 8 races that day and each one was a race to the finish. Some of us ended up and some of us ended down… I won $15 on one race! But I ended up down $5 overall. One of our friends ended up with winnings of $65!

Alissa’s purse… soooo pretty!

Bonnie, Alissa, and Ranelle…

Chad, J, and Tom…

Max, Sarita and Mike…

Let’s just say there were lots of pitchers ordered.

I also got a chance to take some portraits of everyone. To see all the photos, check out my Flickr as I didn’t have enough room for them all here. Here’s Kim looking very pretty…

Allan looking dapper…

Sarita is glowing…

J looks cool…

Here I am trying to look demure but ultimately looking confused, haha.

The MASCOT race! Haha… so much fun. We bet amongst ourselves, and the most unlikely mascot won. It was pretty hilarious though. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

The ladies with the Mariachi band! I love this photo of the girls!

I stole this photo from Amy’s Facebook album… I really like the silhouettes and the perspective on this shot.

Group of the guys…

The entire group that went that day (less one girl who had to leave early). What a great group of friends to see the races with!

Would I go to the races again? DEFINITELY. I highly recommend it as a fun summer activity to do with friends. And besides, who can resist the urge to dress up?

Summer is Vancouver is a funny thing. I always hear that it is too hot, too cold, too rainy, too dry… it seems like summer can never truly assuage Vancouverites. Personally, I don’t mind the mix of conditions… definitely keeps things interesting!

Although my favourite season is Fall (the colours, hockey starts, snowboarding starts, and there’s still surfing!)… it’s impossible to not love summer in Vancouver. That small slice of sun and warmth that we get is irresistible!

My favourite things about summer:

- Surfing
- Enjoying sun on the beach
- The gorgeous sunsets
- BBQing
- Parties with friends
- Summer blockbuster movies
- The humidity
- Fresh, local, organic berries
- The vegetables and fruits that come out of our garden
- Golf
- Summer dresses
- Vacation!
- Wearing flip flops 24/7

I’ve been playing golf for a couple years now, but I usually only go 5-6 times a year or so. Each year, I find myself having more and more fun playing golf… even though I’m terrible at it!

Aside from Costa Rica, I’ve never really played a full golf course… my experience is pretty limited to the driving range, pitch and putt, and executive (academy) courses.

This was taken at the Academy at Westwood Plateau… their 9 hole course. My best shot of the day, right onto the green! I seem to be improving, albeit slowly.

Allan, Kim and Dave on the course at Westwood. What a beautiful view of the city from up there! The course, even though it’s an executive course, is very challenging… tight fairways and tricky greens… lots of elevation changes too. It’s on the side of a mountain!

I’ve decided that this summer I want to play my first real full-length golf course in Vancouver. So Allan and I headed over to Golf Town in Richmond several weeks ago and I tried about 20 different Ladies drivers.

No surprise of course, that my favourite and the one I ended up buying was the Callaway FT-9 Ladies Driver. My iron set is already Callaway Ladies so it was fitting. I am completely terrified of my driver. I feel pretty comfortable hitting my irons, but the driver is just a whole ‘nother story. It is very intimidating. I need a lot more practice and time with it, but hopefully it will come around. It’s a great club.

The head cover that comes with it is also pretty swanky! Looks like it is from the future.

The Fujikura shaft and the Winn grip are just icing on the cake. I love love love the grip.

At Golf Town, with the purchase of my FT-9, I also got $250 free credit to spend on any Callaway goods. So I bought Allan a nice free Callaway Men’s Driver, some Callaway golf balls, and a glove for myself. Great deal!

Tonight I’ll be trying out a full golf course, so I’m pretty nervous. My first time ever in Vancouver! I’ve had my new driver for a couple weeks now and I’m feeling a bit more comfortable with it. My game is improving but nowhere near where I’d like it to be. Hopefully all goes well today!

Other things I love about the summer… definitely BBQing!

Here’s a tray of food about to go out to the BBQ. The trick for good BBQing… a good grill, good BBQ sauce, lots of seasoning, good quality meat, a smoky rub…

… and hickory wood chips for extra smoky flavour! We soaked these first and then put them in aluminum foil and placed these under the grill.

Surf and Turf! Yum! Alberta aged AAA beef steak with smoky rub, and Halibut grilled over a Maple plank for extra flavour. SO GOOD! Can’t recommend the wood planks enough for grilling. I also made a side of Orzo with veggies to go along with it, and we grilled some peppers.

I also caved in and bought my Jimmy Choo sunglasses before I left for Costa Rica. I haven’t had a chance to post pics yet, so here you go. They are kind of big and silly but I like them.

Also, to end this post, Allan takes silly photos of me. This time I’m not swatting bugs away. We were just being silly.

What do you love about summer?