Disney Date: Monsters Inc

Hi everyone!

This week's Disney Date didn't go down as planned. Things still turned out pretty awesome for us, but this week's movie is going to be a 2 part blog post because the original date we planned still hasn't happened yet. We have to wait on it a bit :) However, we still had a fun and super cool date night, so you still get to hear about our adventures!

Without further ado, welcome to this week's Disney Date: Monsters Inc!

A thumbs up is in order.

Monsters Inc. was a genius movie, for me. I didn't find it quite as funny the second time around- Alas, the pressure I place on Pixar to be perfect! And I suppose I am quite a bit older (ugh, time flies) but I was re-impressed with the ingenuity of a world  built around the idea of the monster in the closet. And why the monster would be in the closet, and why the parents never catch them, and as a side bonus, the truth behind the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman. As it seems I always am (there's that pressure!) I was so impressed with Pixar's creativity and execution. Plus, I got a huge kick out of watching Max giggle at it, since he'd never seen it before (and he thinks I'm the one who grew up in a cave!).

The adorable solution to the monster's energy crisis turns out to be the power of laughter. So, with that in mind, Max and I decided an ideal date would be a trip to a comedy club. Something we're a bit nervous about (there's nothing more painful than not-quite-funny) but also excited for, because we've never gone to a comedy club together, or as a date at all! (I've been to one- the Second City in Chicago. Kind of a tough act to follow...!)

So, we picked a day and headed downtown at the appropriate time, arriving with enough time to pick good seats. But suddenly, a rather large hitch in our plan: the comedy club is also a bar, which I hadn't realised, and therfore I'd also neglected to bring my ID (we walked, and all I had was my camera). I suppose my born in the barn roots were showing a bit, there. But though we had plenty of time to pick seats, we definitely did not have time to make it all the way home and back downtown. So, huge kink in plan A, which was kind of sad because we watched Monsters Inc on Monday or something crazy and waited all the way till the weekend to go to the show. Boo!

Boo from Monsters Inc making a boo face!

So suddenly we had a free evening. Luckily, it was a summer Saturday night in downtown Halifax, so it's not like its that hard to fill a free night!

Extra luckily for us, this weekend was the Tall Ships Festival, meaning there's a plethora of simply stunning sailing ships in town, parked along the Halifax and Dartmouth waterfronts. So we took to the waterfront instead, and spent our evening moseying along the crowded walkways and admiring the ships.

Top: 2 of the ships; Bottom: A mast reflection in a waterfront building's windows and myself at the waterfront

I have to admit, few things have inspired wanderlust in me like these ships did. They were gorgeous, and moveable homes which travel the world. What more could a girl ask for? Alas, my wanderlust is matched stride for stride by a persistent sea sickness. So maybe someday, if I conquer that plague... Max was equally delighted, especially once we discovered the pirate bouncy castle park (I kid you not). And equally inspired with wanderlust, although his main issue was concern about the vegetarian fare on a round the world voyage. I guess the life of a pirate is probably not for us. At least the bouncy castle pirate kingdom was ours for the taking!

The evening was perfectly finished off with a fireworks show, followed by all the ships honking and blowing their whistles, a sound which echoed all around Halifax and faded into the dusk perfectly. The slight chill, haunting sound, and smoke on the waterway leftover from the beautiful fireworks show is one of my favourite summer memories so far.

Sushi and Fireworks! Huzzah!

Though it was now around 10 pm, our night was not complete. Our Monsters Inc inspired dinner had yet to be eaten! We'd planned to eat a bit earlier but not much about the night was going as planned (which we figure is actually perfectly suited to a Monsters Inc date!) so we headed homewards. Because on our own little street is one of the very best sushi places in town, the Wasabi house. *wipes away drool*


We chose sushi because sushi is the special date Mike and Celia are enjoying when Sully barges in with the bag of terror that is Boo. (By 'terror', I really mean 'adorable'. But this is the monster world, things are a little backwards!) In any case, a sushi dinner seemed like just the thing. And really, I'd never pass up the opportunity for a good sushi dinner. (It was delicious!)

And so, though the evening was nothing like we planned, it was fantastic. Never the less we plan to re attempt the comedy club this week, braving amateur and student night. At least now we know liquid courage is available, if needed!

Until then!

Sarah & Max

Coming Soon: Monsters INC!

Max and I spent our evening curled up in front of Monsters Inc. for inpiration. So keep your eyes (or eye!) peeled for our next Disney Date, coming soon!

Disney Date: Aladdin

Disney Date #1: Aladdin

Ah, Aladdin!

Exotic, funny, charming, adventurous, prince and the pauper type fun. I’ve always loved Aladdin, in large part because he was the first ‘prince’ to be an underdog and was ever so much more developed (and ever so much more fun to watch) because of it. Plus, no one can convince me Robin Williams wasn’t a genius as the Genie!

Our ideal date for Aladdin would probably be to ride a magic carpet around the world—heck, we’d settle for camels! But, as both are in short supply here in Halifax, we had to decide on something more realistic. Luckily, Halifax isn’t lacking in much other than camels and magic flying carpets.

We decided to pay homage to our Arabian friends with a date to our local Black Market.

Sounds perfect, right? Where better to emulate a street rat? But don’t worry; the Halifax Black Market is a (perfectly legal) hot spot for foreign goods, perpetually crammed with shoppers looking for a piece of the exotic at home. You know the type- smells perpetually of incense and is comprised mostly of goods from India or Thailand (suitably marked up to compensate for the local access). But the smells, the music, the colours and fabric and beads and dangles and general madness do comprise to create a mini cave of wonders: exactly the feel we were going for. The best adventures always start at a cave of wonders! Luckily, we didn’t have to traverse a desert or get swallowed by a dubious sand cat to get in; just elbow past some locals on a lunch break.

To get in the spirit, we tried on some (uber comfy!) Aladdin pants. Sadly, the comfyness was matched by the price, and so my dreams of princely pants have been put on hold for another day.

Look guys! This is my attempt at Jasmine hair haha. It works a lot better with thick black Disney Princess hair, I guess!

We did, however, walk out with these litte treasures: Earrings that Max bought for me :) Which I love!

Our adventure continued with food. We weren't sure what to eat for our Aladdin theme, because food doesn't play a huge part in the movie, but we did manage to come up with a few ideas! Since the intro song is Arabian Nights, we decided to work from Arabian; and since Saudi Arabia covers the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, we thought Saudi food would be a good place to start.

Then we faced the dilemma of deciding to cook for ourselves, or trusting the experts. So, our first stop was to the Halifax Farmer’s Market (which I adore) to hunt up spices and chefs.

There we found part one of our meal: The delicious mango lassi, a thick, yogurt based smoothie type drink which is popular all over the Arabian peninsula. But the market had little else to reveal in the way of treasures, so we headed out again and this time landed at Mary’s Place II, a delightful and affordable cafe in Halifax which specializes in Middle Eastern food. There we dug up another classic: falafel. While this was only the second time I’d had lassi, I’ve eaten falafel a few more times, but it holds a special place in my heart because I’d never eaten it before dating Max (who, once I mentioned I’d never eaten falafel but wanted to try, promptly took me out for falafel. <3) So it was a wonderful addendum to the date meal, in my opinion!

Our meal requirements were at that point mostly covered, in my mind, but it felt like cheating not to make something ourselves. So with one last inspiration in mind we headed home.

Remember the loaf of bread Aladdin steals, setting off the “One Step Ahead” musical scene? Well, we figured, a loaf of bread is something we can work with! With that in mind, we added cheese (Max’s Dutch roots flexing themselves! Haha), but to keep it extra Arabian we used cheese flavoured with cardamom. It made for an interesting flavoured grilled cheese sandwich, but hey! Exotic Aladdin Meal complete!

Lassi, Falafel and Grilled Cheese!

Date and Meal complete, we were ready to snuggle in and enjoy our movie! Unfourtunately, disaster struck and I realised I’d lost one of the lovely earrings (Already! I know, I was impressed too L). I guess we should have spent more time looking for a magic lamp!

Until next time!

Sarah& Max

The little heart on the left is painted rocks pressed into the cement outside the black market. Adorable :)

50 Disney Dates

Let the Games Begin!

Well, I've been struggling over how to start this, this much more personal project than my other foray's into the online blogging world. But I suppose the best way to start is to just start!

My name is Sarah, and I'm a 20something lady living in Halifax, NS (for the moment, anyways- things change fast around here!) with my Fiance, Max. I'm Canadian, he's Dutch; I grew up ranching for a living, and he's vegetarian; I'm a bibliophile and he's dyslexic. But in spite of some obvious and often humerous differences, we go together like the sky and the stars. Like the beach and the sea. Like a rose and a garden, like thunder and lightning. Like Walt and Disney.

Which brings me a little closer to my theme here. At the moment of course there's no one to read this, and its a shout into the dark where a million others are shouting out their thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams. But Max and I have a beautiful thing and I'm proud of it and often in awe of it and even just for me I want to record our moments and our time together because time always moves so much faster than I expect it to and I always want to remember everything (but never do). So I'm going to write it down for me; and if I'm lucky, maybe it'll speak to you, too.

But I wouldn't just blog about a love story. In part because our love story began quite a while ago. Instead, I'll start in the middle but with a new adventure:

50 Disney Dates

10 Disney Princess Dates: The original Disney classics, from Snow White to the more modern Enchanted; 10 Disney Animal Dates, including from dogs to lions and everyone in between; 10 Disney Legend Dates, classics, featuring fare which doesn't quite fit elsewhere, such as Alice in Wonerland and Pinocchio; 10 Pixar Dates, bringing in the new era and changing up our movie fare, and last but not least 10 Disney/Studio Ghibli Dates, bringing something entirely different but equally magical to the table, for a grand total of 50 Disney Dates.

The plan is simple: Watch a movie; plan a date inspired by the movie; and plan a meal inspired by the movie ('meal', by the way, will be loosely interpreted. Not everything eaten will live up to full meal standards.) And the key: enjoy, be inspired, and fall further in love with the famous magic of Disney. Will Disney live up to the challenge? We will we be able to think of 50 unique and affordable dates? Well, I guess you, me, and my computer will find out!