Fancy Times Birthday Celebrations

For my birthday this year, Sean took me out for an intimate dinner and fancy overnight stay downtown. We normally forgo presents for experiences because who doesn’t want to feel spoiled with dinner and staying in a 4.5 star boutique hotel?

We began the night at the Water St. Cafe, this quaint Pacific Northwest slash Italian restaurant right across the world famous steam-powered clock in Gastown.

We started with the caesar salad topped with shaved parmesan, crispy capers, and house made rosemary bread crumbs, and topped with calamari fritti.

For our main course, I ordered the grilled wild BC salmon with balsamic and honey pickled blueberries and pan roasted potatoes. Sean had the special of the day which was the seafood carbonara.

We capped off the delicious meal with apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and berries.

It was a nice, crisp night, so we walked off our dinner and headed to the Loden Hotel for our overnight stay. It’s become our custom to treat ourselves to a hotel stay every anniversary, but this year’s Stay Vancouver promotion came early, so we decided to do it for my birthday. Lucky me.

And yes, we’re slowly making our way through staying at all the luxe hotels in Vancouver. We’ve already experienced stays at Hyatt Regency, Shangri-la, Rosewood Hotel Georgia, L’Hermitage, and of course, the Pan Pacific Vancouver.

The boutique Loden Hotel features some unique things, including a movable wall that opens up the sizable bathroom sink area to the living space, and British black cab drop-off service (when we headed to Gastown, I imagined ourselves driving around London).

Course, we both loved the deep soaker tub with a waterfall spout and the enclosed rainfall shower.

The Signature room was modern, stylish, and the queen bed was super comfortable. I didn’t even mind the earth tones, curved wall and wood panelling. Also late check out is always a plus.

Any opportunity where we can get fancied up (even in my top that matches my cold, black heart) is a good time. It was a lovely birthday and I am a lucky girl.