A double date with my boyfriend (Eilly), my best friend (Carren), and Carren's boyfriend (Carl)! We had so much fun and made so many new memories. To be brief about it, our day consisted of a trip to the city's aquarium, a nice lunch, a walk down the waterfront, and an adventure around Centre Island.
But we know I'm never brief about anything, so here's a more detailed account of how we spent our day:
The day started off with me and Eilly. I always give the wake up calls so I thought I'd get ready, wake him up when I was almost ready to go, and then go and bring him breakfast. I walked over to his place after I'd prettied myself all up and waited as he prepared for our day. Although it probably only took him a couple of minutes to get ready, it felt like hours to me. I was a little antsy from all the excitement, so I will admit that I rushed him (and probably annoyed him to no end) out the door. From there, I suggested we grab some breakfast since the aquarium food is super overpriced. I'd eaten before I left the house, so I just accompanied Eilly to the Starbucks just across the street to get him a panini.
We headed off to the subway station to meet Carren and Carl. Knowing Carren, I patiently sat there waiting for them to arrive. She's on what Filipino's call "Filipino time", aka always a few (or several) minutes late. Eilly, of course, wasn't accustom to her lateness, so he sat there looking a little more agitated than I did, lol. Carren and Carl finally arrived and we headed for the trains.
The line up for ticket purchases at the aquarium was CRAZY! It wrapped around the building and looked like hours of waiting. Luckily, our group purchased our tickets online the night before, so we headed straight for the entrance. There was also a bit of a line up to get into the aquarium, but only took about 5 or 10 minutes. Although 3/4 of us had already gone to the aquarium once (Eilly being the only first-timer), it was exciting to revisit all the beautiful creatures inside. It was especially exciting for me to see Eilly's reaction to everything. He's a big science geek and has been wanting to visit the aquarium since it opened. Everything was so amazing to him and it was heartwarming and gratifying to know that he was truly enjoying his time there.
It felt like we were in there for only a few minutes, but it took about an hour to an hour and a half to see the entire aquarium. It was stunning but very crowded. I'm glad we were able to get so many great pictures. After the aquarium, we were all pretty hungry, so we decided to eat at St. Louis Bar & Grill. It was a really short walk from the aquarium, which was great because I don't think any of us could have waited any longer to eat. I ordered some fish & chips from the lunch special menu (it seemed appropriate-ish, I guess haha) and Eilly ordered 1lb of honey garlic wings. We decided to order a side of onion rings to share. Lunch was delicious (though I was so hungry I could go for anything) and the waitress was super nice and accomodating. We finished our meals fairly quickly, paid, and were back on our feet.
After lunch we all decided that we wanted something dessert like, so we walked around until we found a cafe. To mine and Carren's surprise, it was the same and only cafe located on our school campus. We expected there to be cake, since it's served at our usual location, but (sadly) there was none to be found. Eilly still decided to try their coffee and Carren & Carl decided to share a smoothie. Nothing in particular caught my attention but luckily there was a Starbucks across the street and I was really craving a soy green tea latte. After our cafe escapades, we decided to walk along the waterfront. We did more picture taking than walking, but I digress. The background was perfect and Carren brought along her brand spankin' new Instax Mini 8 camera which prompted a photo session.
A huge shout out to Carl for being our personal paparazzi! Haha. After our little photo session, we continued our walk along the waterfront. Seeing all the boats put an idea in my head - why not take a trip on the ferry to Centre Island? The rest of the group seemed to like the idea so that's what we did. $18 ($4.50 per student round trip ticket) later and we were at Centre Island. Once we arrived, nostalgia hit us all. None of us had visited the island since we were small children. It brought us a ton of good memories. I was especially excited because I remembered the quadricycles you could rent and ride around in. I suggested it but was shot down more than a couple of times because of the price. We kept walking along until we saw the pedal boats. All of us were excited until we got to the rental station and saw the prices. $28 for 2 people?! Crazy. I kept suggesting the quadricycle since it would be the same amount of money to accomodate all 4 of us, got shot down a couple more times, and was finally given into after several minutes of me begging them all to go. It ended up being a lot of fun and gave us a whole ton of laughs! Who knew an hour in a car shaped bike could be so much fun!
The sun started setting by the time we returned the quadricycle and seeing as the island was swarming with insects during the day, we didn't want to know how bad it would get after dark, so we decided it was time to head back. We took the ferry back to the city and headed back to the subway. We were all much too tired for a sit down dinner, so we stopped by the McDonald's at Union Station on our way to the trains. From there we headed straight home.
This was probably my most memorable day this summer. I had so much fun with some amazing company. If I could go back and relive it, I would totally do so - over and over and over again! I'm definitely excited for the next double date. You know you had fun when you get home from a long day, lie down in bed exhausted, and still have the energy to call your boyfriend to discuss that day's events and how great of a time it was!
