Day Thirteen - Queenstown

December 23 - I have so been looking forward to coming to Queenstown this entire trip. This is such a cool town. It's another cool little town set around a huge lake flanked by snow capped mountains, and the town is really quaint, sort of like an Aspen, only SO much cooler and authentic.

So we got in to town at lunch time, so we headed downtown to find a place to eat. Well we were looking around and we saw this place called "The Dux Delux", and Jamie had heard that it was a good restaurant, so I said that we should just eat there. Well when we walked in I saw a fireplace along the back wall, so we walked back there and grabbed a table by the fireplace. Well as we were sitting down at our table I glanced at the table right in front of me, and I thought to myself about the woman sitting at the table facing me, "Hmmm, she looks familiar." So I just sat down, and then I heard her speak, and I thought "Hmmm, sounds familiar for some reason." So I took another quick look at her, and that's when I realized who it was. Of all the places in the world, we had walked in to have lunch at the place that Shania Twain was also having lunch. I then excused myself to go to the bathroom, so I could try and compose myself so that I wouldn't do anything stupid, and then when I got back to the table I tried to shield my view of her with my hair so that I could try to whisper to Jamie who it was. After I whispered to him "Oh my goodness, right behind you is Shania Twain", he just smiled, and I knew he didn't hear me. I said, "Did you hear me, did you hear who that is?" and he said "yeah, she has a bit of a twang." He thought I was talking about her voice. But he finally got what I was saying, and was also surprised and excited. As she was leaving (after having finished sharing a piece of chocolate cake with her friend) Jamie made me go and get her autograph, which was so embarrassing, but at least it's something for the scrapbook. Plus, considering how she is one of my favorite singers ever, and I have bought tons of her albums, I deserved the autograph (right?). So that was a rush!! Definitely a highlight.

After lunch we went hotel searching and we got this AMAZING hotel, just a dream. We managed to get a suite, with a view of the mountains, a full kitchen, and even a washer/dryer. The hotel is decorated like a very chic lob cabin, it is definitely one of my favorite hotels ever, right up there with the Grand Californian (in Disneyland.) What was especially wonderful was that when Jamie came back from checking in he handed me a brochure, which explained the hour massage that he had bought as a gift for me. It was exactly what I wanted and needed, especially after having spent hours in the car for the past couple of weeks.

So after my massage, I got dressed and we headed down to "The Cow" to have dinner, which is probably my favorite restaurant I have ever been to. It's the restaurant that seems to come straight out of a story book, that was written hundred of years ago. The building is this small building made of stone, and the front door is a barn door, a two part door, where the top and bottom halves open separately (not sure the official name for it). When you walk in, you almost feel like you have walked into another dimension, and are walking into somebody's cabin in the middle of some storybook's enchanted forest. You are greeted by a big wood burning stove in the middle of the restaurant, which creates a very cozy and inviting environment. The main food is wood fired pizza, and some pastas. The pizza is amazing, but you go to The Cow for the experience, not the food. So that's about it for our day in Queenstown. Great day.