Holidays!

I was on holidays back home from Dec 23 - Jan 5.

All I'll say about being home was that it was a lot more time than I was expecting!

Plant Ag xmas party!

Our departmental "holiday party" was mid December, just a few days after my defense. It was a busy week for me, because I was prepping for my defense, then I had to organize a baking party to get our Christmas treats ready, then there was our annual Secret Santa party where said treats were disseminated, and then there was the Christmas party.

The party was being held at Atmosphere cafe this year, and although I was a bit hesitant because of the layout of the restaurant (long and skinny), it seemed to work out pretty well. We had our projector set up for a rotating picture slideshow.

And a fun addition was the return of Santa himself! He had been amiss for a couple years, but we decided to bring him back, with Greta and myself as his personal elf assistants!

Rudolph managed to make it in to enjoy some of the festivities as well!
There was good food (although I hardly got to eat any of it) and a great crowd of people. We gave away door prizes and prizes to go with our trivia questions. There was some fun dancing in the back of the restaurant, and of course heading downtown afterwards for more drinks and dancing!

My post-defense self was a lot more relaxed and definitely excited about being able to drink and celebrate, but my regular self didn't allow myself up later than 1am, so I definitely had to go home and call it a night.

Christmas baking

Sorry, I see that I have neglected the blog over the last few weeks due to the holidays.

I forget where I last left off, but I'll start off with the Christmas baking, and see what else I've missed later on.

Many cookies were made.


Many gingerbread were left to cool before icing.


Mint chocolate drops appeared in the blink of an eye.


Boxed up into several boxes.


And sent on their way to put smiles on friends' faces.

Secret santa was held again, but it was rather fraught with mishaps this year. I was still a little stressed from my defense the few days before, and the hiccups along the secret santa session were leaving me a little high strung. AKA. I don't remember what really happened. Nor do I feel inclined to recall it all..

Asia Day 16: Home!

October 8
Finally, the day came that it was time to go home. My flight was just after lunch, so we headed to the airport mid morning so I could make it through the pesky customs line in good time. I had some money left over so I tried to spend it as best I could.

Obviously, I bought a Hello Kitty phone charm. Clearly the best use of money.

My trip was great, made better by all the appearances by family. I don't know if I'll go back in the next few years, but it'll be on my list of places to return to eventually!

Movie list for the flight home?

• Bon Cop Bad Cop
• Mr. Popper's Penguins
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Just Go With It
• Bad Teacher

Clearly I didn't sleep on the plane. Unlike my flight TO Hong Kong, my flight BACK did not have a free seat next to me. In fact, I probably had the worst seat possible. I was in the middle seat of the middle row in the plane. Next to 2 asian guys who were keen on overstepping the armrest into my seat. Also, I pee A LOT!!! =(

By the end, the lines to go to the bathroom were over 10 minutes long! And there was only ONE LADY in front of me!!!

I met a lovely man in the line (har har hilarious) who turns out had circled the globe in the last 2 weeks. Wow!

We chatted while in line before getting back to our respective seats. I waited for him when we got off the plane and we chatted until my luggage came off the carousel (which was a very very long time =[) We switched cards and I guess we... are fb friends now?!

Anyways, I am glad to be back home! And I believe I am now caught up in my blog posts! Yahoooooo...

Asia Day 14-15: Hong Kong

October 6
The last few days went by quickly. We were winding down and starting to organize suitcases for the packing fiasco that was barreling towards us at lightning speed.

I was finally able to get time away from my parents, so I spent it shopping by myself at the nearby Olympian City.

I got some time to myself, to think, and to really look at/buy things I wanted.

I got to have Japanese for lunch and bought a few things for myself. That made my happy.


My happiness is always shortlived, we were having dinner with some people I didn't know that evening.

My uncle had us meet him at the mall above the Mong Kok East station. We walked around for a bit and he showed me Goldfish Street (金魚街) before heading to the restaurant.

Lucky me, we were at a seafood restaurant. A large portion of the dinner was seafood, aka. food for me!

How do you buy your goldfish?

The family that invited us to dinner was my uncle's oldest (and youngest) daughter's godparents. They have two sons who were also there, the older married one also had his wife in tow. Among others, there was my aunt, uncle, the newlyweds, my aunt's sisters and one of the kids and husband.

We were a big table, and I was paired to sit next to my cousin (who came a bit late). On my other side was one of the godparents' kids. Turns out he went to UC Riverside, so we had a somewhat intellectual conversation. He was in business, so I clearly we had no real business delving into each other's respective fields.

Dinner was good and it was nice to see everyone before we left in a couple days.

October 7
If memory serves me right, this was the day we had dimsum with my aunt and her side of the family that was in town. After that, we walked Olympian City (again for me) before calling it a day some time mid afternoon. The evening was taken up with my uncle once more, where he took us to Carp Channel (鯉魚門).

It is so named, because the street only contains two types of stores:

• restaurants, and
• fish markets

All fish markets also have very large very old karp. A few of the fishmongers were fond of showing me that if you threw a small fish in the air towards them, these humongous fish would jump up with lightning speed to catch and eat it.

I. Was. Terrified.

Anyways, we walked the street and my uncle showed it all to me. We were waiting for my cousin to arrive to pick the food and a restaurant. He phoned to say he was near, so we picked out our food and picked a restaurant.

Oh. Right. I should explain that.

The restaurants don't actually have any food in terms of protein. Their service is, a chef to cook your meal. Your meal, being what you purchase at the fish market.

Let me explain via photos.

You choose what you want to eat from the tanks (above and above)...

Then they bring them to the restaurant in bags...

Then they cook them all up for you the way you like!

Sooooo delicious I was definitely seafood bellied for a couple days! =)

Asia Day 13: Macau

October 5

After feeling horrendous from the bus ride at the Peak, I semi-recovered to make it on the boat ride to Macau. The sickness from the evening before was unfortunately timing, because we had already pre-planned the day in Macau and had 3 tickets for a Franco Dragone show.

Ergo... I had to grin and bear it for our day in Macau.

After docking in Macau, my dad thought he'd be super clever and sneak a free shuttle ride to a random hotel near the touristic district. Unluckily, my dad isn't quite as clever as he would like and led us to a hotel shuttle that wasn't very close by at all. Aka. The Grand Lisboa.

Nevertheless, I was glad to just be off things that moved and happily made the walk from the hotel to the tourist district.

The architecture is old and grande and beautiful, heavy on the Portuguese influence. The big colourful flower decorations on the ground behind the fountain are decorations for National Day (October 1). The week long celebration had run through and the decorations were being taken down.

I don't remember what street it was that the fountain was at, but we were on our way to the Ruins of St. Paul. We eventually made it there (amidst the throngs of people) and also headed up behind it to the Fortaleza do Monte. There, I got to sit on a cannon. Seriously.

It looks like fun and games, but this was initially a centre for protecting Jesuit property. Eventually it was seized by the government for Macau defense (aka. the Portugese colony). It's seriously old (1600s) and is in pretty darn good shape. A museum like thing has even been built in the centre of the fort.

The reason we went to Macau though (as alluded to), was for a performance. Franco Dragone used to direct nearly all large Cirque du Soleil shows but left some time before 2000. One of his latest shows was playing at the City of Dreams in Macau, billed as a $2 billion HKD production. It is the largest permanent water based show and was quite spectacular to see. It wasn't as large a production as some Cirque shows I've seen before, but the sheer volume of water that the stage holds and the impressive stage changes that occur underwater and reveal themselves, was magnificent. I truly enjoyed the show and was very glad that we were just a few rows up enough that we didn't get wet.

I have photos, but will not be posting them because I don't want to be getting in any trouble. The internet is a scary place, y'know...

Asia Day 10-12: Hong Kong

October 2
After arriving back in Hong Kong the night before, we checked in at the hotel (Holiday Inn Express in Causeway Bay) and just kind of.. relaxed (in reality, I don't really remember what we did, except the sushi I got...).

We were staying in a hotel directly behind Times Square (時代廣場), as in, it was very busy there. Also, conveniently close to SOGO (崇光百貨), a popular shopping "faux" department store that I wasn't particularly fond of.

Anyways, back on track, this was the day we went to Ocean Park (海洋公園)!! I was super stoked about this because I thought the roller coaster would be up and running. However, it was a rainy day, and I was informed by my cousins that it has been shut down because of an accident in the previous weeks (a cart ran into an empty one being loaded).

Back to the story, I saw enough of pandas to keep me satisfied for a few years (above), I suppose. There was also a dolphin show, a goldfish exhibit and obviously the underwater creatures (seahorses, fish, sharks, jellyfish, etc.).

That took most of the day and we went back to Causeway Bay where my uncle treated us to hotpot dinner. Oh man did it ever feel good to eat something I am used to. Also, the deliciousness.

Some more walking around Causeway Bay and we were beat.

October 3
The next day was pretty relaxing. We went to Wan Chai (灣仔) for some sight seeing and shopping in that area. We went into the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre (香港會議展覽中心) and walked all the way along to Sheung Wan (上環). I treated my parents to dimsum somewhere along the way and we generally had a pretty easy day.

I'm pretty sure this was the evening we used to move back to our original hotel in Mong Kok (Cosmo Hotel).

October 4
The Tuesday was spent committed to the shopping in the Mong Kok (旺角) area. The malls look small from the outside, but it is deceivingly large. Multiple floors up and small store fronts = lots of stores to enter!

I discovered Lamingtons at a Hong Kong bakery (#communitychannel!) and fantastic food shopping along Tai Kok Tsui (大角嘴). It was a pretty relaxing day before we went to the Peak Tram (山頂纜車) in the evening.

My uncle decided we should head up the Peak Tram to see the Hong Kong night view, so we waited a disgustingly long 1.5 hours to get on the tram to head up the mountain. After getting to the top, I was horribly hungry where we sat down for yummy dinner at a diner in the building. The red bean ice was soo delicious, as was my super hot soup.

Unfortunately for me, the bus ride down the mountain left me feeling more than just ill and it was a quick jog to the bathroom to spit up. That's what I get for following me uncle to the second deck of the bus that goes in circles down the mountainside... -sigh-

Hong Kong atop the Peak

Asia Day 8-9: Taipei, Taiwan

September 30
Day 2 in Taipei and we started at some fancy hotel called "The Grand Hotel" (圓山大飯店). We wandered around, took photos, used the bathroom, then headed to a place that has guards (萬古流芳). Sorry I don't know the name in English, but it is guarded by 4 guards (left) who take 1 hour rotations and have a 20 minute long elaborate protocol when they are switching guards. It was quite entertaining to watch.

This is when my camera battery dies, so the rest of this day is not quite so well documented. My dad's photos indicate we went to the jade market, I know neither the English or Chinese name at this point, but I remember the man who worked in there deciphered my chinese name and basically told me I was obnoxiously stubborn and need to learn to listen to people.

After that, we went to Jiufen (九份), a very mountainous area with a single street up at the top that is very busy. The street is lined with shops and food places just like at night markets.

We went to Ximending (西門町) for dinner on the last night. Technically speaking, it is a neighbourhood and shopping district, but it might as well have been called another night market because it was all street food (aka. getting very sick of eating the same thing).

Somewhere along the way in Taipei (either this day or the day before) we went to the hot springs (北投椰林溫泉). I don't know the name in English and a quick google search did not turn up any English. I don't remember which day this happened because I did not participate in this part. It was a mandatory no-clothing hot spring and despite the temptation of a private room, I heard from some of the girls on the tour that it wasn't that clean. No loss there, I don't like going in and out of hot spring tubs set at different temperatures to experience the "maximum effect".

October 1
We were given some free time in the morning before our flight, so we took our time getting up and walked the neighbouring streets.

Things to note:

• I do believe meat is hanging at the street side stalls from morning until night in scorching temperatures (below). How do YOU feel about leaving your meat out to defrost all day?
• Also note in the photo (below) how you can buy your clothes in the store and then walk out to get your meat for dinner. How convenient!
  
• I don't think grocery stores exist in Asia. Everyone buys things from the street stalls.
• Stores don't open until like noon. Argh.
  

Hanging meat - very VERY common...

Goodbye tour-guides!

Asia Day 7: Taipei, Taiwan

September 29
Upon reaching Taipei (I can't remember if anything happened during the Taichung-Taipei drive), we went to Taipei 101 (台北101). When it opened in 2004, it was the world's tallest building, and remained so until Dubai built on that was taller in 2010. The architecture is pretty amazing.

Side note: I basically had to lie on the concrete floor to get this photo (left). In Taipei on a bloody hot September afternoon (it was 36C that day), the concrete literally burned my skin.

Following Taipei 101, we went to Vigor Kobo (維格餅家) for their yummy pineapple mini cakes (鳳梨酥). I believe this wasn't on the itinerary, but we went because many tourists wanted to go get them.

After the detour, we went to the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂) and then the Miramar Entertainment Park (美麗華百樂園) to see their enormous Sky Wheel (摩天輪 - 2nd tallest in Taiwan). Instead of going on the Sky Wheel, we decided to peruse the shopping in the complex and sit down for some Haagen-Dazs (they have actual sit down cafes there!) where I got this delicious creation (right).

After this, we went to the National Palace Museum (臺北故宮) where I nearly forgot about this due to the inability to photos at this location.

Dinner was at Shilin night market (士林夜市) where I was starting to get sick of eating street food... -sigh-

Also for some random (not really) reason, we changed hotels despite being in the same city. I learned after the fact, that we were in very opposite ends of Taipei, so it was best to change hotels. But seriously.. really?! =(

Asia Day 6: Taichung, Taiwan

September 28
We woke up in the morning to some events in Kaohsiung and all the way along the drive to Taichung (臺中).

First thing, we went to some store in Kaohsiung that sells pearls (珍珠養殖中心). Obviously a sponsor of our tour, they were very persistent to get you to buy pearls. My mom had just got some in Shanghai so we weren't going to spend more money on that. They had this other stuff though, that wasn't a turtle, but looked very similar to it. It was made into pill form and was supposed to be very good for you. I don't remember the details, but I bought a box of the pills for my dad to try. Expensive stuff!

After this, we went to Sun Moon Lake (日月潭). The lake is so named because the east side of the lake looks like a sun, the west side like a moon. I, however, fail to see the sun or the moon and just see some blobs in the earth that are filled in with water. Perhaps the map is a bit too literal? Anyways, it is the largest body of water in Taiwan and actually has a little island (Lalu) in it. We had lunch here, sight-saw, then left.

After lunch, we went to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村). The village has the largest free-fall ride in Taiwan (which I did not venture up) and celebrates the culture of the nine aboriginal tribes in Taiwan.

They had some interesting things to see and their wax sculptures of people were very lifelike (aka. creepy). A lot full of bunnies and some aboriginal singing/dancing show later, we were off.

In Taichung, we went to the Feng Chia night market (逢甲夜市), supposedly the largest night market in the city, also adjacent to Feng Chia University (逢甲大學). Having overdosed on delicious goodness from the night market the night before, I took it easy and went with some noodle soups and no fried goodness. Oh but how I miss the delicious fried foods!

We went to the hotel after the night market where I quickly tried on my new clothes and subsequently passed out. Traveling is hard!

Asia Day 5: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

September 27
We are leaving for Taiwan! We were coming back to the same hotel on the last few days of our trip, so we decided to store luggage there instead of carrying everything to Taiwan and back. With significantly less luggage, we make our way to the airport and jetset off (with the tourgroup, unfortunately).

We land in Kaohsiung (高雄), near the very southern tip of Taiwan. It felt like we did a lot of things that day, but in reality, Asia just operates on a different time system than North America.

We went to Fo Quang Shan (佛光山), the headquarters for one of the largest Buddhist organization. This particular one in Kaohsiung is the largest monastery and one of the largest charity organizations in Taiwan.


After the monastery, we went to the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas (龍虎塔). Our tour guide told us the proper way to go through the pagodas is in the dragon and out the tiger. My mom didn't let me in these because I am born in the year of the tiger and shouldn't be walking out of a dragon... or something... Instead of hanging around that, we decided to walk to see the Spring and Autumn Pavilions (春秋閣), just down the street a little bit.

There wasn't much to do at this stop, so we did a bit of wandering on the other side of the street at the shops. We bought some fruit and I tried to look for Taiwan shotglasses (to no avail).

After this, it was already getting quite late and I was hungry. We were dropped off at the Liuhe night market (六合夜市) for delicious street food dinner. And by delicious, I really mean delicious.

How can you NOT want to shove all those shrimp in your mouth... *droooool*

Finally, after the night market and a lot of food in my stomach, we got to go to the hotel. This wasn't the end of my night though (-sigh-). We had a family friend waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel. I don't think my mom had even met him before so she was going off pictures to know who we were meeting. This"uncle" of mine has lived in Taiwan for decades and used to take care of my uncle (who was in university and the army) like a brother. We went up with them to our hotel room and chatted for what seemed like HOURS (I was tired!). I showed them pictures of all my mom's siblings and whatever else they were talking about. The night had to end at some point though and so we part ways (rather, they left the hotel).

Sleep!!!

Asia Day 1-"4" : Kowloon, Hong Kong

September 23
Yay! I left Toronto with a 19kg suitcase on a 10am flight to Hong Kong. Expected arrival? 1:15pm September 24.... -sigh-

My flight was.... okay. I had an empty seat next to me, so I was lucky. I got to lie down on my pillow with my feet outstretched into the aisle and try to catch some zzz's, but was unlucky on that front. So much for pulling an all-nighter and being zonked out on the 16 hour flight...

My in-flight movie entertainment of choice?

• Something Borrowed
• Hall Pass
• another movie that currently (and still) escapes me

September 24
I arrive at the Hong Kong airport to meet my cousin Chris waiting for me. We meet up, chat, and wait for my parents to arrive from Shanghai the following hour.

After getting to the hotel (Cosmo Hotel in Mong Kok - 旺角丽悦酒店) and my cousin leaving us be, we meet my uncle (mom's brother) in Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) for dinner at iSquare (國際廣場) and some later evening shopping. I love how everything is open so late! (I later shall probably vent my frustration at how late things open...)

September 25
My cousin Priscilla's wedding, we had dimsum for lunch, did some shopping, went back to the hotel to change, and went to the restaurant for the tea ceremony and dinner reception. Many many hours later are we finally fed... It was such a long day!


September 26
The next day we did some wandering around the Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) area again. I needed to check out the prices of custom made suits for Adam before it was too late to get one made.

Unfortunately, the prices just weren't quite right so we opted out of it. However, there were some beautiful sights there, including awesomely large tokidoki art pieces (above) and rows of flower boxes orchids lining the streets (below).

Cute tokidoki's and beautiful flowers! I wonder how they get them to bloom so nicely even on the sides of the streets. Damn Hong Kong and their gorgeous weather!

Asia!

Going to Asia! See you in a few weeks!

Toronto!

I had to venture into Toronto on the long weekend to drop some things off for my aunt. She had room in her luggage to Edmonton so I was going to get her to courier some things home for me.

A day trip in always means lunch at some asian restaurant and a trip to T&T. Adam came with me (aka. driver) so he was privy to the deliciousness and awesomeness of the asian culture.

Of course, we went to Keung's Delight (my fav fav FAV) in Markham and of course stopped at the T&T. This was Adam's maiden voyage to T&T and he loved it! Of course, I think that might be due to the fact that I bought him lots of pork buns... =D

Canada Day!

It was a beautiful day on Canada Day and we had planned to spend the day at the beach. Grand Bend and Wasaga were too far away to go and would be really busy, so we opted for Elora Quarry instead.

It was gorgeous and hot and sunny! I packed a very big picnic for us, with sandwiches, a veggie platter, a bunch of whole fruits and berries, watermelon and fresh lemonade.

I don't have a small cooler, so we opted to bring the massive one we went camping with. I managed to fill up most of it, but it was a ridiculous amount of food for just the two of us. I was hoping Matt would join us, but he had a long night of badminton so he opted to sleep.


We got to the beach around 1030 to beat the crowd, but it quickly filled up. I managed to finish reading a book and started on another. That didn't go far though, as it was filling up with sand and the heat was near unbearable.

After a few dunks in the (REALLY) freezing water, we headed out. Five hours in the sun was more than enough for me and Adam's really ridiculous tan warped into a burn.

The heat put me off on cooking so we went to Greek Garden for dinner. Yummmm spanikopitaaaaa.

Ending the night with fireworks at Riverside and a nice leisurely stroll back home from the park!

Rafting and camping

The second part of our long weekend, was our journey to the white water region of Ottawa river to do some white water rafting. We booked out little excursion with River Run Rafting, and also set a couple nights of camping there as well to make life easier on the car.

We left Ottawa mid-afternoon to take the little drive up to Beachburg, less than 90 minutes away. We took a look at the available campgrounds, and quickly staked our territory in the little hidden away cove area of the quieter paddler's campground. The upper campground looked like more fun, with the pavilion, basketball and volleyball, the main campfire and proximity to the beach, but it was a lot bigger with more going on and it definitely was going to be loud. Choosing comfort first, the quiet campground was definitely the right choice. But curse the folks who drove in in the middle of the night to set up camp, and those who set off fireworks!

Rafting started at 9, so we were up and raring to go before 8. With breakfast included in the camping fees, it was nice to get something hot and ready made for you. Weather-wise, the complete opposite of the previous day, but it was still warm enough to be on the cold cold waters. With a full raft of 12 plus guides, we were ready to go!

The morning rafting was boring, it was a lot of sitting around on the river and not enough white water to keep me interested. We did a total of 2 rapids in the morning, both of lower classes. Not much to get my heart racing...

After lunch was a little more exciting. We hit a few more rapids and got to try out "surfing". That was quite fun and very much a wet experience.

After another night of camping, we were on out way home! With little to no traffic on the 401 through Toronto (woohoo!) we made it home in ample time. Thank goodness too, it was about time I got a nice hot shower!

Way to go #75 (DayZero)! (Yes I used my cell phone, but because I didn't have a watch!)

A lack of a waterproof camera means a lack of white water photos. I'll leave you with another from the Locksystem.

At the Hartswell Locks

Ottawa

The long weekend has come and gone, and we had a busy on at that.

We left for Ottawa Friday afternoon and despite leaving really early, we still managed to catch a ridiculous amount of traffic through the Toronto area.

I drove the first leg of the way because I didn't want to drive in the dark. I thought the traffic would be manageable, but I don't think I've ever seen it quite this bad before. What a pain to have to deal with on the way out to a lovely weekend.

We got to Nepean by about 1015 and chatted his uncle for a good while before heading to bed. Unfortunately, Amanda was gone for the weekend, but we were still promised a tour of the good areas in the morning.

Breakfast at a yummy breakfast joint, and then touring the Daffodil area and the Locks system.

We only visited 2 lockstations, but that was more than enough walking for me. It was a beautifully hot and sunny day in Ottawa, and the skinny jeans were taking its toll on me...

Ottawa Locks, 8 of 47 locks, first of 24 lockstations

Edmonton

You guessed it. I was in Edmonton. But then I was not. Funny how time flies, eh?

We arrived in Wetaskiwin in the early afternoon just in time to meet Adam's aunt and cousins in the parking lot. We all headed in to see grandma and spend some time with her before jetting off with our busy weekends. My parents came to pick us up in time for Mother's Day dinner with the family.

Although it was a semi-miserable day with on and off rain, we barbecued up some food on the grill. Mmm skewers. But a big dislike to the one who ate one of my vegetable skewers *cough cough*

It was busy in Regina, and it was busy in Edmonton. Why oh why don't we get breaks during our vacation? Albeit, we played a few rounds of Scrabble and went to get bubble tea. So much time on the run with things to do and places to go!

We met Jeremy for coffee one afternoon as well, but even that was rushed because he had to get back to lab and we had to pick my mom up from work. Yikes!

I'm glad we're back to a normal schedule again, but man is it ever monotonous!

Regina

We spent a lovely 3.5 days in Regina and surrounding areas to visit Adam's family. His dad and one sister lives in the city, one sister lives just out eat, and his mom lives just out west. Aka, a lot of driving.

First thing: why are there no lines on the road?! Yellow or white! Driving on the freeway made me want to scream, "what lane are we in!?!?".

Heck, we even made a trip out to the football field to go to the famed "Rider store". Woohoo!

Regina (as small as it is) is a nice little place where everything is 30 minutes from each other. After our time there, it was a early early morning drive to get to Edmonton in time for some more time with family and then dinner.

Camping

It's so difficult to plan a camping trip! I've already spent bazillions of dollars on this, and it just seems to get more and more expensive as the days go by!

Accrued costs?

• white water rafting
• camping grounds
  
• national park fees
  
• gas!!
  
• air mattress
• camping chairs
• butane stove
• axe
• food
  

Thank goodness we don't have to buy a new tent, I would cry.

Excited to go camping and rafting this weekend though. Hopefully the weather holds out to make it as un-miserable as possible. =D