J'adore Vanouver! (a parenthetical recap)

One of the very best things about travelling these days is getting to meet mes amis from our blogging community. Materfamilias was one of the first people to read and comment here regularly, so it's no surprise that when we finally met it felt like connecting with an old friend.

We walked and talked and shopped all afternoon. She made sure to take me to the Fluevog store where I succumbed to the boots I'd been ogling online for years, (but in black) and to the m0851 store where she'd purchased her knot bag (and I was sorely tempted, may yet succumb). She guided me on a walking tour through the West End area down to the seawall (we stopped for a sushi snack on the way). We talked about our histories (not surprisingly, lots of commonality), families and cultures, and of course clothes, bags, shoes, scarves and style. Meanwhile, I was kicking myself for having left my camera in the hotel room.

After a short break, our family met back up with Mater and Pater for a lovely, quiet dinner of burgers-and-beer (such a nice respite after cruise ship meal mania) where the picture above was snapped (The White Spot - one of the best burgers I've had anywhere!) and a nightcap in the piano lounge at the hotel. All in all a lovely day with a friend. I really appreciate her spending such a huge chunk of her weekend with me!

Even if Mater did not live here, I would still want to move to Vancouver. First of all, there are TREES, lots and lots of trees. (La Belette, you should really check out this town, think you'd love it!) It's cosmopolitan, but with a funky, laid back vibe (like une femme). It's a city with a very young demographic, which probably explains a lot. There's art, culture, shopping, trees, parks, community gardens, shopping, lots of wonderful ethnic eateries, and did I mention shopping? I'm afraid the rest of my So Cal native family wouldn't do well with the often cloudy weather here, but I'd be in heaven. I think future visits to this area are definitely in order.
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Bloggers Who Lunch

It was my great pleasure yesterday to have lunch with the lovely and charming Rita from Goldivas.com . Rita drove quite a distance to come visit; I was flattered and honored that she took the time to do so. We admired each others' scarves, and talked and talked about everything under the sun. It's always wonderful to meet such an intelligent and accomplished woman, another great boon of this internet thingy. Anyhow, if you haven't checked out Goldivas.com yet, you're missing out on a great online magazine for women 50+.

Last night, mon mari and I did what we call the Lobby Crawl. So many of the upscale resorts here have beautiful lobbies with great stone fireplaces and comfy couches, so instead of a big meal at a fancy restaurant, we started off with a glass of wine and cheese plate from Spago at the Ritz Carlton in Bachelor Gulch (we sat on the very sofa pictured at right) and then caught the shuttle bus up to Splendido at the Chateau to sit in the piano bar and have a coffee and soufflé (lemon for me, Valrhona chocolate pour lui). We enjoy being able to sample the fabulous ambience and some tasty treats without a big heavy meal that makes it even tougher to sleep at altitude.

Today we have windy, snowy and socked-in conditions, and I seem to have caught a slight cold, so I'm probably just going to toodle around on the bunny slope for our last ski day and then finish up my Retail Reconnaissance.

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Foulard de la semaine et dejeunner avec La Belette Rouge

This is my attempt at the softer grey and pink look that Duchesse and Karen posted about. (Originally featured at The Sartorialist.) The only light grey piece I own is the sweater; the trousers and top are both charcoal grey. The scarf is my pink "Ecole Portugaise" which I'm finding myself wearing frequently.

I had a much-anticipated, lovely lunch with the gorgeous and vivacious La Belette Rouge yesterday, after which we wandered over to the Big Three (Barney's, Saks, and Neiman Marcus) to sniff out some new fragrances. At our final stop, Choo Choo the very fast-talking sales associate for the Clive Christian perfume line was dropping names like Perez Hilton on crack. "Oh I sold this one to Beyoncé, to Celine, to Katherine Heigl, to Marie Curie! And this one, Katie wore it at her wedding to Tom!" all the while spritzing La Belette's and my wrists. "Wear it around, you'll be back, everyone comes back to buy!"

The one fragrance I sampled ("made with the flowers of fifty thousand baby white roses!") wasn't bad at first. For the first twenty minutes I liked it. Then it started to bug me, its cloying propensities increasing to the point that I was scrubbing my wrist with an alcohol-soaked kleenex three hours later trying to remove it. But this stuff is Zombie Perfume! It wouldn't die! Finally, I tried dousing my wrist with some Neutrogena Sesame Body Oil, which didn't entirely kill the fragrance, but cajoled it back into a somnolent stupor.

On a whim we popped into David's Shoes right before saying goodbye, and La Belette found....wait, I'll let her tell you.
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