Our vacation was legend...wait for it...ary!

Our week long escape to Canada was excellent, fabulous, relaxing, and rainy. The rain was a welcomed sight just because of the extreme heat we have all been experiencing lately in the Pacific NW; however, I admittedly did not use my brain well when packing as I did not pack accordingly. First, I THOUGHT I had left my rain jacket in my car, but it was and still is happily hanging in the first floor closet. Second, I packed a pair of blue jeans that were hemmed for sunny happy weather and short heels - obviously not for rainy drag the pant hems in the puddles with sturdy shoes wearing. Lastly, I forgot to pack handy Shout stain wipes with me, and as anyone who knows me, I am a little messy around food.

The vacation started immediately after work got out on Friday the 7th - Jody, Sakeneh, and Heather came over for some delicious Americanized-Chinese take out food. Heather is in town for a short time to surprise her Mom for her 70th birthday. We had a wonderful surprise by a HUGE brown recluse spider who if I had not spotted it accelerating across the carpet it may have been more of an unpleasant than humourous experience.

Chris and I packed up and left for Richmond on the 8th. God bless Nexus, have I mentioned how much Nexus Cards are AWESOME? Well, they are, so you should go and get one if you haven't gotten one by now, don't tell me you only visit Canada once a year, don't tell me you don't want to deal with the hassle of the waiting and the RMCP interview, don't tell me you don't think it is worth the $55 fee -- because you will SO forget about all of that the first time you use it. IT IS AWESOME. After checking into the Four Points Sheraton we proceeded to eat nothing but Chinese food (3 meals at Sun Sui Wah, another at the place across the street from SSW, trust me -- stick with SSW). Oh, Sun Sui Wah is http://www.sunsuiwah.com/. We also had a brief trip to the Real Canadian Superstore to buy delicious canadian sweets. Mmm... coffee crisp.

Sun Sui Wah - pea vines with oyster mushrooms. Mmmm...

Sun Sui Wah - pork, mushroom, and shrimp shu mai. AWESOME.

So where are we, oh so inbetween meals we ventured to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary again - http://www.reifelbirdsanctuary.com/ and this time did NOT get chased around in circles by angry Japanese cranes protecting their babies. No this time we were stalking all of the herons (solidary birds, right) we could find. On our way out of Richmond to catch the Tsawwassen-Duke Point BC ferry - I got to see what M&M Meat Markets were all about. Large amounts of frozen meats and meals for an affordable price it seems. Our brief visit in the Tsawwassen store the saleslady was very friendly and allowed us to ask the usual questions and surprisingly there were 3 customers who came in and out with their purchases while we were browsing/killing time.

One 2 hour ferry ride later we were in Nanaimo and on the 10th we checked into the Coast Hotel on Bastion Street. Decidedly asianed-fooded out we had a psuedo American but really Canadian meal of BBQ ribs, chicken, and butter chicken. Our hotel room had the biggest bathtub I have yet to experience in a hotel room IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM with this amazing view of the water. We discovered the best place in all of Nanaimo so far -- Mon Petit Choux -http://www.monpetitchoux.ca/ - AMAZING coffee. VERY affordable prices and the breakfasts we enjoyed there were fantastic.

Top - Latte, Bottom - Cappuccino. Seriously, some of the best coffee we have had - all from Mon Petit Choux.

A nanaimo bar at Mon Petit Choux, in Nanaimo, BC of course. Delish!

Walking around in downtown Nanaimo you get the sense of very good attention to details such as bricks and signage, but admittedly there isn't a ton of stuff to do in the core itself. The waterfront walk is impressive and we had a good time walking around especially on the floating people-only pier. There was a mother and pup seal swimming around, people crabbing, families bringing their Tim Hortons down and enjoying - half eating and half trying to entice the seals to jump out of the water. The water area is perfect for seaplanes and we got to enjoy seeing them take off and land just as though we were at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver, or at the Laurel Point Inn in Victoria. We were also treated to a rather long practice session by Canada's own Snowbirds - who were apparently in town for a fundraiser event. The Snowbirds (http://www.snowbirds.dnd.ca/v2/index-eng.asp) are Canada's equivalent to the Blue Angels.

We left Nanaimo on the 12th and had a few hours to kill before we could check into the Chemainus B&B -- which was only 45 minutes away via car along the Trans Canadian highway. We drove up north and realized the Nanaimo community was only extended by the various shopping centres (yes, centres we were in Canada after all) along the highway. We stopped to explore a Canadian Tire store (think Joes, formerly GI Joes, now bankrupt of course meets Tri-State, Idaho's most interesting store), and after that I decided that we needed to return south. We stopped at the Petroglyph Provincial Park which is just outside on the south end of Nanaimo (before you hit the highway exchange for the ferries). I was disappointed a great deal by the park - the hike was maybe 2 minutes up a hill and the actual sandstone had been horribly kept up over the years. The best part was definitely the large birds of prey we eventually tried to follow via car.

We made our way down to Ladysmith which is the largest township after Nanaimo and before you hit up Chemainus. I must say - the Tim Hortons there was extremely busy. We drove into Duncan and picked up some local meats from the Duncan Butcher shop before heading back to our B&B. The B&B was fantastic. http://www.chemainusbb.com/ -- I STRONGLY recommend this place - the pictures do not lie. First the bed is comfortable, the place is EXTREMELY clean, like you feel bad dropping your first crumbs from your deliciously provided locally baked Vancouver Island bread -- and it is ONLY $125 a night. The place comes with a gas grill, a fairly sizeable kitchen area along with induction burner, pots and pans, plates and silverware -- coffee maker, etc. There are tons of places to sit outside and enjoy the birds and wildlife that come by. Free wi-fi, free international calls (to the US at least), your own phone line, a working desktop computer, and an air conditioner if you so desire. PLUS there is a full sized washer and dryer for your usage. LOVE IT!! The only downsides to this place is that it is not directly next to the water -- although there is an awesome view where you can see the BC ferries that take you to the smaller islands -- and the other downside is that you need to take a full flight of outdoor stairs down to get to the room. The next time we go, we are bringing different bags and packing lighter as the stairs were slightly cumbersome with our suitcases.


A rufus hummingbird - this little guy loved the flowers outside our windows at the Chemainus B&B.

This is a rambly post isn't it? Well you are still reading so...haha. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Chemainus. Downtown Chemainus is a mix of Leavenworth (without all of the kitsh) meets Oregon coast relax feeling. We spent a good portion of a day exploring the beach and downtown. We also spent a good part of another day at Pacific Northwest Raptors - http://www.pnwraptors.com/birds_of_prey_visitor_center.html. Very fun place and we really enjoyed all of the birds even through the rain. My favorite bird there was not a raptor, but a kingfisher from Australia, the kookaburras!


Roo, one of the two kookaburras at Pacific Northwest Raptors in Duncan, BC Canada.

So three nights later we had to check out on Saturday the 15th...which if you are astute you will know that it is our FIRST year anniversary of getting married. Woot indeed. We took the ferry back over to the mainland and stopped at the Tim Hortons in White Horse for my double-double, half dozen donuts and some timbits.

And here we are to this moment right now as we know it. This coming week is going to be EXTREMELY busy for the first week back after vacation. Next week -- we'll have a kitty!!

More pictures from our trip are up here: http://cleemd.smugmug.com/

Adventures in Birmingham, AL

Friday, January 16, 2009:

Our trip started off by waking up at 3am to wash-up, drive and park at the airport, and be ready to board a 6am flight to Atlanta, GA. Not so bad until you realize when you get to the airport at 4am-something-er-other that the Starbucks and Tully's coffee stands are still closed... and to think that people probably stood in line for at least 45 minutes waiting for their cup of caffiene. While waiting at gate A13, I was lucky enough to sit next to a young woman who has been blessed with a very high pitched super southern voice. She was on her cell phone openly complaining to her mother about food, weather, clothing, work, the upcoming flight, shoes - you see where this is going. Other people around us were getting up from their coveted seats and choosing to stand because of this young woman. I passed the time by trying not to fall asleep.

I slept most of the way to Atlanta. Once we arrived, I made a beeline to Chik-Fil-A where I managed to stand in line for 10 minutes. When I thought I was going to order, there was a small kerfuffle with some woman around me. Note, Woman #2 is standing behind me.

Chik-Fil-A employee: Next in line please.
Woman #1: Hold on, you can't say next in line please, there are 2 lines here!Woman #2: That's right, who's next, her or her?
Woman #1: I dunno, we both been waiting a looooooooooooong time, so where is the order? We need order here!
Woman #2: That's right, who's next, there has to be order with these lines - that ain't right.
Me: That is OK - you go next ma'am.
Woman #1: OK can do, just wanna make sure I ain't gettin' in your business because you took a step forward there.
Me: It is OK, please.

Another conversation took place with an angered man who apparently had waited over 15 minutes for some Chik-Fil-A nuggets. To top off the experience, their ice machine was out of ice. Good times. After enjoying our sandwiches we hoofed it over to Terminal B. It was then I decided that the Atlanta airport needs stronger air conditioning because it is warm in all of the other terminals. Our Back to the Future moment - we arrived in Birmingham (3:54PM CST) before we left Atlanta (4:00PM EST). The flight was great it was 37 minutes packed with snacks and 2 beverages. Andrew was very prompt in picking us up, so prompt that he didn't even have to pay to park at the Birmingham airport, of course they only charge $1 per hour and Andrew was only at the airport for 5 minutes. Nice huh? I don't know if we could ever get away with that in Seattle. We quickly checked into the Best Western and then drove around eventually ending up at SuperTarget!!!!!

SuperTarget deserves its own paragraph. What can I say, this place is HUGE. It is a Target Greatland with groceries. Target Greatland is about 1/3 larger than a regular everyday Target store. I thought it would be a lot more like a Fred Meyer or even a Super Walmart, pleasantly it was not. The store still had that wonderful Target quality of white, wide, and clean aisles. The products were well stocked, clearly lableled and marked, and all faced perfectly (faced means - perfectly lined with labels facing front). The aisles were clean and easy to read. The groceries were not bad looking and were reasonably priced. We managed to pick up a box of Blueberry Pancakes wrapped around breakfast sausages, I deemed them Sweet Corn Doggies.

Finally it was time for Cracker Barrel. Oh the Cracker Barrel, how I have missed your biscuits, how every side comes in its own dish, the endless sweet tea and rocking chairs...the store of crap in front I do not miss, but the food was delicious. I had the chicken and dumplings platter with all sorts of goodies. We finished the night by walking through a Whole Foods and being introduced to a card game called Phase 10. I say introduced because apparently both Chris and I are the only two people who have never heard of this card game. I believe it is designed by the same people who have made SkipBo and Uno, somehow in my childhood I never heard of the game Phase 10.

Saturday, January 17, 2009:

Our day started with a 90 minute drive to Huntsville. We decided to have lunch at a chicken restaurant called Tenders - where the chicken is kickin'!

It is here where I realized the south has an obsession with chicken as it was very clear that chicken places outnumber hamburger joints. Onto the US Space & Rocket Museum, it was great as they staged a replica of a Saturn V rocket in full-size and available to walk around.

Now I know y'all be disappointed, but I do not have any photos of Decatur. Andrew had planned for us to visit the Cook's Natural Science Museum. Lots of dead bugs, dead stuffed wildlife, etc. Decatur is also the home of Meow Mix. On the way home we stopped at a Sonic (mmm... cherry lime-aid) and then we had dinner at the original Golden Rule BBQ. Delicious BBQ followed up with Banana Pudding. It was indulgence at its finest followed up with more Phase 10.

Sunday, January 18, 2009:

Andrew made a great breakfast with the largest pile of sausage gravy, ever. We feasted on biscuits, fruits, juice, pan-fried potatoes and onions, homemade preserves from his sister-in-law, and somehow we forgot about the Sweet Corn Doggies. One short gravy-induced-nap later we headed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, walked around Kelly Ingrahm park and a wonderful homeless man named James "Dredd" Bonds gave us an impromptu lecture of the park and the history of what happened in the park during the civil rights movement.

The museum was impressive - part of it were closed though for touch-ups which we all thought odd since it was MLK Jr. weekend and Obama's Inauguration coming up and all. We then ventured to the Sloss Furnances.

Another trip to Sonic we had decided that we had consumed enough gravy and fried foods. We went to Whole Foods and purchased some delicious items to make a homemade pasta dish with 16-20 count shrimps, carrots, peas, onions, mushrooms, milk and lemon juice. I finally won at Phase 10, although I convinced that Andrew cheats.

Monday, January 19, 2009:

Had a great homemade breakfast with Andrew, we unfortunately tried the Sweet Corn Doggies - I still can't believe that Andrew and Chris ate theirs, I took one bite and that was one too many. It tasted like the blueberry krispy kreme donut wrapped around a swift and serve sausage. Why we thought it was a good idea to buy and try I do not know, but I do like saying Sweet Corn Doggies.

Flew back to Atlanta to fly back to Seattle. I managed to stay awake to see two in-flight movies, Tropic Thunder and Batman Dark Knight. Both were good in their own rights - I have the song where Les Grossman dances stuck in my head still. Had a fog-filled drive home around 10pm, relaxed and fell promptly asleep at 11pm.

Our next adventures? Who knows. I just hope it doesn't involve anymore Sweet Corn Doggies. Thanks again Andrew for being such a gracious host!

Wedding and vacation wrap-up - yippy!

Hello hello. My apologies for the late post as I have received quite a few messages from folks asking how was the wedding, when will my blog be updated, where are the photos, when is the reception again, where are you registered, and...was Elvis at your wedding?

Reception reminder - September 6, 2008. Those who were invited should know where and when, if not email Jonell...we are registered at Macy's and Sur La Table...and no Elvis was not at the wedding.

The wedding itself was awesome. Short and sweet just the way we wanted it. Before I dive into it, let me start from the beginning of the Las Vegas-Vancouver-Port Angeles adventure.

LAS VEGAS, NV
Wednesday, August 13:
Chris and I hop in the car, drive excitedly to the Green Bug lot (aka SeaTac Parking), get on the plane and all that jazz. I love flying because it gives me a chance to use my ipod iTouch for movies so I enjoyed Trading Places (IMO one of the best comedies of all time ever!). One of Chris's friends from Yakima was taking the same flight as us so we waited for him once we deboarded the plane and it was off to the Venetian. Our room...was huge. And fancy. It had two separate bathrooms and the master bathroom was as big as my living room (if not larger). The room had a wet bar - sadly not stocked. And a 10' round table. We ended up having dinner that night with Chris's friends at the Delmonico steakhouse in the Venetian. It was delicious and of course over the top.

Thursday, August 14:
We had a 9am tandem massage appointment at the Venetian's Spa. Now I have been to many a hotel spa in my lifetime, never have I been in one so HUGE nor swanky. This place kicks all other spas' asses and thensome. I talked with a hostess and she said that they are making the spa even BIGGER even though it has over 90 rooms. After the massages Chris got a break while I had my nails done. We had a small break and we met up with Johanna, Mark, and my parents and had some chinese lunch at the Venetian's asian noodle restaurant (forget the name right now, but it doesn't really matter - does it?), then it was off to the rehearsal. I thought the rehearsal was just right around 20 minutes but my Dad seemed to think that it should been longer. Again another break where we had to rush down to meet the wedding gown and suit cleaners - they only took cash and demanded we meet them in-person to receive items even though I was told more than once that the clothing could have been left with the bellhop and that we could pay via credit card... can you tell that that irked me only slightly?? (haha)

Another small irk was at 6pm we had a reservation at the Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe for all of us to eat together -- but they would not seat us until everyone was present and they were going to cancel our reservation! I was on my cell phone trying to get a hold of all of the late people - luckily the hostess felt sorry for me and seated us without our entire party being on time... I am laughing about the whole thing now because it just seemed so stupid, but believe me at the time I was pretty irked. After a huge rehearsal dinner we went to see Wayne Brady with Karen, Phyllis, Jennifer, and Grandma. Wayne Brady - please stick with your improv-only routines as your singing was a bit much. Overall a good show though and it was fun!

Friday, August 15:
The BIG day has arrived. We have breakfast and then I proceed to spend 90 minutes in the salon getting my hair put-up and my make-up airbrushed on. Very exciting indeed. Johanna and Heather were nice enough to meet me early and help me get dressed. We walked over to the chapel which is in the Venezia Tower (a resort within a resort if you will) and I got to wait in the bridal room, but it ended up being that almost everyone at some point came into the room and chit-chatted with me for a while. I have to admit that I wasn't really nervous until I was left all alone for a few minutes - then I could feel my heart beating faster and I had that big-exam-I'm-going-to-hurl-feeling that quickly went away because Johanna came back in to wish me luck and gave me a hug (thanks!).

The ceremony itself was very short like I preluded to and we wanted it that way. Pastor Steve did a great job of being an easy-go-lucky guy and had a great sense of humor. After the ceremony we started the picture taking. NOTE the photos are password protected, email Jonell for the URLs to the albums and the passwords.

After much picture taking we had about 45 minutes to run back to the room, cool down, change and then head downstairs for the most incredible Italian meal I have had to date (sorry Mrs. Roberts, your cooking is outstanding too!). We had a huge meal at B&B Ristorante -- a Mario Batali restaurant in the Venetian. You may read one of my many pre-wedding posts for the exact menu; it was tremendous. The pork chop was SOOOOO good. Well, everything was good so I am not sure how else to describe it other than -- it was dang tasty. After dinner a bunch of us sat in our huge room and watched the Olympics -- because we are all obsessed with them. BTW, I miss the Olympics, but that in itself is another post.

Saturday, August 16:
We slept in and then went to our photography appointment which was suppost to start promptly at 11am. We arrive with a few minutes to spare and it was quickly apparently that Mr. and Mrs. Bridezilla (another couple) were going to run long and into our appointment. While Chris was giving the photography salesperson the evil stink-eye, someone finally got her attention and she let us at least sit down and look at our photos. I stepped out of the appointment briefly to talk to Johanna and Mark during which the salesperson apparently apologized profusely to Chris. I wish I had heard her doing so because it was rather rude of her to make us wait 20 minutes. In the end we ended up purchasing all of the digitals - which is great since we wanted the rights to reproduce and we are in the process right now of putting together a slide show which will be seen by those of you attending the reception.

After our appointment we spent a few hours with Marc and Tina and their two little ones. I thought it would be best to visit and have a room-service lunch since the kiddos may not like sitting in a restaurant. Boy was I ever right - the kids needed space to run around and just be kids. We said good-bye to them and then we hung out with Johanna and Mark for a while. We met up with Joe, Andrew, and Heather and had the glorious Wynn buffet for dinner. My stomach still hurts from thinking about it! We said good-bye to Johanna and Mark, and then the rest of us went and saw the Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage. It was by far the best Cirque Du Soleil show I have seen in Las Vegas to date. Thanks Joe!

Sunday, August 17:
Basically flying home, unpacking, laundry, repacking.

VANCOUVER, BC
Monday, August 18:
A fast and fun drive up to Vancouver, BC. We checked into the Pan Pacific and had a great dinner at the hotel's restaurant - The Five Sails. If you enjoy gourmet food - particularly seafood, lamb, and duck at roughly $35-$45/entree prices - you need to go The Five Sails. This place is a hidden gem. The views from the tables first of all are fantastic - you get to see Grouse Mountain, the Lions Gate Bridge, a floating Chevron station, the future international broadcasting center for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and a huge cruise ship if you are lucky. And since it is Vancouver it isn't ultra-shiek. Gore-tex loving, fleece and track-suit wearing, jeans with button-up shirt kind of people are Vanouverites. The food is also something that is such a pleasure to enjoy. By now I think we have had 2/3 of their menu and as always - delicious. I had the duck and Chris I believe had the lamb.

Tuesday, August 19:
We did our usual walking around Robson St. routine. We found one of those souvenir shops and got ourselves some Olympics stuff. I got a fleece, a curling pin with the cute mascots on it, and a magnet. Chris got some commemorative Canadian coins. You know the Canadian Mint is so much cooler than the US Mint. I highly doubt our government would ever consider printing coins that celebrate anything other than dead people. For dinner we had a reservation at the elusive Tojo's. First let me say that we thought about trying this place when we saw it featured on Anthony Bourdain's show from the travel channel. There was an episode where he went to Vancouver and he just went on and on about how he hated nature but he LOVED his friend's restaurant, Tojo's. So after some online scoping we said "why the heck not". Second if you are familiar with the Seinfeld episode with the soup nazi - I think that episode was based on someone like Tojo.

We walked into Tojo's and immediately I was impressed with the detail put into the interior design - the restaurant's ceiling panels slope with the shape of the building and you don't feel like this is a normal Japanese restaurant. Tojo approaches us and basically tells us "I tell you what to do, when to eat what with what, everything I make I invented - no copies, all original". We proceed to eat his version of omakase which IMO consisted of too many cooked entrees and not enough sushi or sashimi creations. Do not get me wrong - what he served us was in fact delicious and scrumptious and very ingenious. I just don't know if the whole meal (for two people now) was worth the $500+ Canadian we spent. Overall a good meal and I am glad that we went to try it out.

Wednesday, August 20:
We went on a new adventure to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary - just about a 20 minute drive out of Vancouver. This place is awesome and I cannot wait to go back. First it is very reasonable - I believe it was less than $10 Canadian for us to enter the park. Second you can buy a HUGE bag of bird feed - which BTW came in extremely handy - for only $.50 Canadian. The sanctuary is huge and extremely private and quiet. The most exciting birds we saw also decided to hunt us down. The red-headed Sandhill Cranes were extremely aggressive and there were warning signs all over saying such. On our stroll they found us -- and if it were not for the bird feed I am almost certain they would have found us more interesting than anything else. As Chris describes it - there is a scene in Jurassic Park where the velasoraptors are running after the fat computer guy whom I'll call Newman. The birds ran JUST like the velasoraptors.

After a break at the hotel we had dinner at C Restaurant. C has quickly become one of our favorite places to go when we can afford it. The times we have gone we have only had the wine-pairing dinner - which is a 6 course meal with 6 wines. Roughly $300+ Canadian for the both of us and extremely wonderful. My friend who is also a professional caterer, Char -- has also expressed her liking for the great C Restaurant. I encourage you to go to their website and look at their menu - exquisite.

Thursday, August 21:
Grouse Mountain was the destination of the day. We almost did not go because the weather looked like it was not going to clear up, but we went anyway. Not much had changed since either of us had gone up last although there is a new Lumberjack Show which I thought was pretty nifty. We got some great photos (I don't have those yet) of all of Vancouver once the skies cleared up.

We had planned to go to yet another elusive Vancouver establishment - the Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar -- and after some discussion we decided to not try it out this time and went back to The Five Sails where I had the halibut and Chris enjoyed "the catch" which was sablefish with maine lobster and prawns. We had the same server as from our first night in town and she was great fun as she shared her own favorites of Vancouver.

PORT ANGELES, WA
Friday, August 22:
We had to stop in Richmond, BC at Sun Sui Wah for dim sum. The new find was a dish that had pea vines supposidly with shrimp cake paste wrapped in a rice wrapper and fried in the shape of a pouch. Sounds weird I know but it was really quite good. Then I could not leave Canada without another Tim Horton's double-double so we hit up the Tim's in White Rock before crossing the border. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the NEXUS card? (haha)

We found our way to the Keystone ferry dock on Whidbey Island and after a ferry ride, drove from Port Townsend to Port Angeles, or PA as the locals call it. We checked into Domaine Madeleine Bed & Breakfast - our favorite place in the PA area to stay. The Ming Suite was delightful as always - Jeri had the mattress and the deck replaced so it was definitely spiffied up yet still felt like a home-away-from-home as it is very familiar to us. We had dinner at Michael's Divine Dining and we found out Michael was our server for the evening! The food and hospitality was superb and we could not have asked for a more comforting meal. I had the chicken marsala and Chris enjoyed the pork chop. For dessert Michael served us quite literally 2 pints of homemade boysenberry sorbet. Yum.

Saturday, August 23:
Jeri and her son Shawn served up an awesome 5 course breakfast (see the website if you don't believe me). Afterwards we spent the day at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge aka Dungeness Spit. It was high-tide so there was not way we were going to walk the 5.5 miles to the lighthouse; however, we did see some seals, seagulls and other birds about. It turned out to be a gorgeous day and we both got sun-kissed on the cheeks.

Toga's International Cuisine was our decision for supper. Normally we may have opted to go to Victor's aka Sabai Thai, but we had just been there in July so Toga's it was. It was definitely not disappointing -- just really filling! Jeri was kind enough to stop by the restaurant earlier in the day and bought us a bottle of wine to go with our meal. Chris had a steak and I had the beef stroganoff. Again very good and so dangerously filling.

Sunday, August 24th:
After another breakfast we leave PA to encounter 2 hours of sitting on 101 - car accident and traffic was at a standstill. We got home around 530pm to yet another Sunday of laundry and catching up on emails.

And if you are still reading, congratulations, you deserve a quick picture (haha) preview:

Again ALL the photos are password protected, email Jonell for the URLs to the albums and the passwords.

Vacation - Oregon Coast, Lincoln City

The past few days with the Lees at Gleneden Beach were great; lots of single-deck pinochle, various trips to Newport and grocery stores, puzzle building (and puzzle screaming), kite flying, and LOTS of food were had. The Lees had to leave Friday morning, leaving Chris and I on our own. We did some laundry to save some time upon our return to Seattle, packed up our stuff and moved a whopping 6 miles north on highway 101 to The Inn at Spanish Head (www.spanishhead.com) smack-dab in the center of Lincoln City, OR.

The Inn at Spanish Head is NICE. From the road it doesn't look like much, but the building itself is 10 stories in height and built within the rock. Every room has a panoramic view of the ocean - slide open the door and wa-lah - crushing wave after wave, sandy beach for miles, and totally unobstructed. Our room is apparently a suite with a huge living area, a full sized kitchen with island, a bedroom with a king-sized bed, and a full bathroom. The room may cost more but it is so worth it. As I sit here and look around I count 6 soft chairs, 2 kitchen stool-chairs, and one full sized sofa in the living area alone and there is still a bunch of room for whatever you need. There is this tunnel that runs under 101 that connects the parking lot to the hotel so no worries about turning left, etc. Like I said VERY nice. I notice that the rooms have the ability to connect via adjacent doorways so it would be fun to have a bunch of people with rooms connected to have one monstrous view of the ocean as you walk from room to room.

We checked in Friday afternoon and immediately had a cocktail in the lounge - fresh squeezed lime in a perfectly muddled mint and sugar mixture made for one smashing mojito. After that we dined at Fathoms which is the hotel's restaurant. We were pleasantly surpised by the quality of the food. Saturday morning we had room service - again exquisite food and not a bad price for smoked salmon omelette and a northwest skillet (ham and shrimp with fluffy eggs and cheese). After breakfast we walked along the beach for a couple hours, came in to wash the sand off of our glasses and took off for the outlet mall and the rest of Lincoln City. We came back for a late lunch with again what we believe to be not only the best deal for hot sandwiches (both were $11 to $13 each), but the best club and best tuna melt -- EVER. Chris took pictures and I will post the pictures of these sandwiches (better than Gillian's, yes Joe believe it) when I get copies. Both sandwiches came with your choice of hand-cut fries (not as good as my Dad's, but hey still delicious) and home-made hot potato chips. After stuffing ourselves and putting away our leftovers we went out yet again to the beach in a feeble attempt to fly a miniature kite.

And now...I am blogging and Chris is taking more photos. Tomorrow is the beginning of our return to real life with a 5+ hour drive home.

Vacation - Oregon Coast, Gleneden Beach

First let me express that having a new job sure makes vacation much more enjoyable. I checked my email and I was done with it in less than 10 minutes. Now I probably should not have checked in the first place - old habits die hard. Tee hee.

We left Seattle Saturday morning and drove to the Worldmark resort at Gleneden Beach. We stopped briefly at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and of course the Tillamook Fred Meyer prior to unloading our packages at Gleneden Beach. Gleneden Beach for those who are unfamilar with the Oregon Coast is approximately 6 miles south of Lincoln City and 10 miles north of Newport. It is a small quaint area that feels more RV-park friendly than many other places along 101. The last 2 days we have done a lot of picture taking along the pull-offs areas from 101 including Otter Loop Drive, Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, and Devil's Churn. As I type we are relaxing from all of our hiking around and the big chinese dinner we ate at Kam Meng. In pure Oregon Coast fashion, it was nice and sunny and then...the rain came. I am sitting next to Chris at the dining table, Karen and Grandma are in and out of REM cycles, and there are a bunch of snacks all around us.

I have no idea what the rest of the week will bring, but I'm sure it will be exciting.

Vacation, new (used) car, wedding reception - done!

This is the last day of our January vacation. One week ago from today we left for a few days to travel and spend in Port Angeles. We stayed at probably our favorite place there called Domaine Madeleine. It is a bed and breakfast with wonderful 5-course breakfasts that leave us full until 5pm. We had the extreme pleasure this trip to dine at a new place called Michael's Divine Dining -- we liked it so much we went there two nights in a row. The third night we went to Sabai Thai which is owned by Victor Posten. Jeri the owner of the BB we stayed at told us that Victor had passed away a few months ago which saddened us as he was a brilliant chef and a very generous person. The food was still delicious, but our meal was definitely missing the usual chat and visit from Victor. Apparently his widow has some friends helping out with the cooking as the restaurant seems to be doing very well. Jody joined us for this meal and I think he enjoyed himself.

The last day we were in Port Angeles, we took a detour north to Bellingham to visit the people we will be purchasing our wedding bands from (James Binnion). We had a great visit and consultation which ended up lasting over an hour to my surprise. We stopped in Arlington to dine at the O'Brien Turkey House - it was exactly what we wanted, hot food with gravy.

Let's see...where does this take me, oh yes so we arrive home late Wednesday evening and get ready for the next couple days. We are keeping our eyes out for Snoqualmie Pass updates as we were planning on heading over to Yakima, but that was not to be in our future as Mother Nature decided to dump 10' of snow (yes FEET) over the I-90 corridor...

Thursday morning, we get up and I take Chris down to the car dealership to pick up his new (used) car. The initial meeting we had with a car salesman was the Saturday prior (yes, the day before we left for Port Angeles) ended not so well -- we basically got up and left because the salesman was being overtly aggressive and rude. After we left on that rainy Saturday afternoon Chris' phone rings and it is the floor manager calling to say "we'll sell the car to you at the price you want it at"--leading us back to Thursday as that was the day Chris said he'd be in to finalize the paperwork and pick up the car. After Chris came home with his car (it is an Audi RS6 if you care) we went to the grocery store and then went to an Open House tasting session at Salty's on Alki.

Being an astute reader of my blog you are aware already that Salty's is where we would like to have our wedding reception. The Open House was a great idea and we are glad that we attended. Of course there were the obligatory vendors at the event trying to pimp their products at Salty's -- the DJ, the photographers, the tabletops people, the ice carvings, blah blah blah. This event was the first time that all of the new 2008 menu items would be served for public tasting. Surprisingly some items that you would think would be good (i.e. lobster puffs, skewered prawns and scallops with lavendar and thyme) turned out being horrible so again it is a good thing we went. We now have a draft of what we want to have on the 6th of September, so when we muster enough energy to start those discussions with Salty's catering, then we'll know more. As of now it looks as though we'll be doing one of their Reception packages slightly altered with some replacements here or some drops there - and we want to add on the carved roast beef (yum) and the chocolate fountain. OMG -- that fountain looks so cheesey because you see it everywhere at trade shows or whatever but it will be worth it. MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Also we are probably going to have Salty's serve up their "famous" white chocolate mousse cake and just order a small 2-tiered cake for "picture cutting". I can already taste that white chocolate cake in one bite, some roast beef in another, and followed up with a chocolate-covered peanut butter cookie or strawberry...and some veggies in between for good measure.

Bringing us to Friday--well again we wake up and look at the pass reports and they are still unzesty. No trip to Yakima for now, but I know it will happen some other weekend coming up. After some lounging I had a craving for a hamburger and it was off to Red Robin. One mushroom-cheeseburger, one peppercorn-bacon-cheeseburger, and two iced-teas later we were good to go. Joe just purchased his very first house so we went to Macys and purchsaed some nice housewarming items for him. Some new non-stick pans, new knives, cutting boards, and an all-purpose plastic spatula later we were carrying large heavy sacks back to the car.

Saturday (yesterday) we went and visited Joe's new place and bestowed the gifts to which he was extremely grateful. After a house tour we decided to take a driving tour and we ended up in La Conner. I know how terribly exciting. For me it is refreshing to not have to drive as I forget what it is like to be a passenger in a car sometimes. A short nap and we were magically at Central Market in Mill Creek (I LOVE Central Market, I want to live up in Mill Creek because of that store -- isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard). We came home and had an early dinner and I was hoping to go up to David's Bridal to look at wedding dresses, but the store closes at 7pm on Saturdays. Boo.

Today we took another roadtrip, this time to Leavenworth; Skykomish is still buried under mounds of snow but Stevens Pass (Highway 2) wasn't so bad. I got another opportunity to take a short nap and once again magically we were at our destination. We had a lovely German lunch at Cafe Mozart and we tried to purchase some sausages from our favorite sausage monger, Willi, but his store is closed as he is on vacation. Boo hoo! So I purchased a bag of peanut brittle and it was back to Seattle before the roads got too cold, which was a wise decision because as we were descending it had begun to snow once again.

I want to try and get myself up to David's Bridal, but both Heather and Amy are like "make sure you have a lot of time for it" so I am thinking I won't go up until Saturday morning unless I can somehow manage to get off of work early Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. I hope that they can come with me as it will be good to have a variety of opinions. Honestly I don't want to pay more than $1000 for it, I want it to look good on me and be flattering. I have no other pre-conceived ideas of what it HAS to be or what it SHOULD be. Perhaps after some dress trying-on and maybe a purchase or two we'll go to L&L Hawaiian Barbeque or even to Bobby's Hawaiian Restaurant in Everett.

No other wedding updates to my knowledge; I had coffee with Rusty right before all of my vacation and he was kind enough to pass along some photographer and florist information that he and his wife used for their daughter's wedding. I haven't had the chance to look at those two vendors quite yet, but I am very thankful for the information. Going back to the rings, we decided on a 4-color blend mainly because with the kind of work Chris does we wanted to pick something that wouldn't react too much with iodine, but also the 4-colors looks truly awesome. So lemme write out loud here...dress, photographer, florist, ring, reception -- ok... the ceremony is still in the works. I just wish that places wouldn't require such a HUGE deposit at once, but such is life. I'm not sure which deposit will be next -- rings or ceremony. I'm not worried about the dress, photography or florist. Oh registry -- I know our website says not quite ready for prime time, but they are pretty much a done deal IMO. I will try to make sure if items are discontinued to replace them with new ones as I know this is a risk I take considering the wedding is 6 months away.

Another disclaimer about our registries as I have been asked this by many people already -- "Are the items on your registry really things that you need? Or do you want money instead?" Believe it or not the items on our registries are items that we really do need, so please do not feel bad purchasing anything from them. Yes I really do want that many tablecloths and napkins from Macys and I heart towels. I heart them. Tee hee. Actually there is no "rule" that says you have to buy anything at all! The registries are available to help make your shopping life easier if you choose to bestow a gift to us, so please no hard feelings.

All the same, I have some potential talks with the Gates Foundation and the UW Libraries this week for job opportunities...very exciting times. Tomorrow is re-entry into work and it should be fun as I can't wait to see my friends at work!!

My attempt to remember our Pittsburgh-Las Vegas vacation

We are now home in 50-something degree Seattle; however, we recently took one of our longer vacations to date. From previous posts you can see that we first flew out to Pittsburgh mainly to attend Johanna and Mark's wedding but we decided to spend a couple extra days in Pittsburgh to see what Pitt was all about. We did some shopping at the downtown Macy's -- in Pittsburgh there is no sales tax on clothing that is neat. The wedding festivities began on Saturday October 20th with a big dinner. The 20th was also Johanna's birthday -- Happy Birthday again Johanna. We had dinner at The Grand Concourse where the seafood platter was memorable but the champagne punch they served was superb. The wedding itself was Sunday and the ceremony was at Phipps Conservatory with a very intimate reception at Soba. Both locations were great and perfect for the small wedding of about 25 people. Johanna looked fabulous and it was fun to be there to experience everything. We took photos along with what it seemed like everyone else in Johanna's family, but the official pictures from the wedding photographer are located here http://www.kreedphotography.com/show/johannaandmarkwedding/. Congratulations again to Johanna and Mark.

On Monday we flew out of Pitt to Las Vegas via Atlanta. The Atlanta airpot is HUGE and it gave us a brief opportunity to experience some Chik Fil A chicken sandwiches. Yum...we arrived in Las Vegas around dinner time. The next few days until yesterday (Friday) we were living it up Vegas style. We stayed at the new Signature at MGM -- very nice because there is no casino in the hotel itself so there is little if any smell of cigarettes in the hotel and rooms. A casino isn't too far away though, 3 moving trams later you are in the MGM itself and well a casino basically. We treated ourselves to countless rounds of video poker and other assorted slot machines. We got to see 3 shows -- Blue Man Group, Phantom of the Opera, and the live version of The Price is Right.

Tuesday was Blue Man Group - overall very entertaining and surprisingly refreshingly new. The show has moved from the Luxor to the Venetian since the last time I saw them in Vegas. There were some elements from their original show (marshmallows, twinkies, gumballs, Captain Crunch) and some great new things primarily from their PBS special like plumbing, how to be a rock star, etc. It was almost 2 full hours of BMG and was worth it. After BMG we had a late dinner at San Marco. San Marco was great - a Mario Batali restaurant located in the shops area of the Venetian. Our waitress was fantastic and we followed some of her recommendations and they were wonderful - the wine with the cod special! Excellent eats. Prior to all of this we did the casual casino walk as I like to call it. We started off at MGM, then visited M&M World, Coca-Cola, Flamingo, Harrahs (all of those smaller casinos in between), Paris, Bally's, Forum Shops and Caesar's Palace, Mirage and over to the Ventian. We had the lunch buffet at Paris which was reasonably priced and had a great variety of food. We appreciated how they didn't try to make food that they knew they wouldn't be good at...for example, there was not an attempt at asian food, no sushi, no fried rice. There was no attempt at hamburgers or pizza or anything you would normally see at a generic buffet. Instead there was a ton of great French entrees and it was definitely very European with pate and cheeses.

Wednesday was Phantom of the Opera - was worth seeing live again. We agreed that probably because of the "time stigma" of Vegas that it was unfortunate that the conductor and orchestration felt really rushed. The show barely pushed 90 minutes but the entire time the whole musicality of the show was too rushed IMO. The person who played Christine Daae was sub-par at best. It is difficult because when you hear the music in your head you think of Sarah Brightman and it is hard to envision hearing anyone but her, but still -- the performer on stage was struggling with the super high arias and keeping her diaphragm down (i.e. her lungs were not filled). The person who played the Phantom though -- very impressive. It was definitely the most dramatic Phantom actor I have seen whether live or on film. After the show we ate dinner at the Venetian's Cafe -- which blows all of the other regular casino cafes away. This cafe had everything and more for good cafe prices. We ended up taking over half of our food to go since it was too much. It helps that our hotel room had a kitchen so we knew we could reheat and eat our leftovers with ease. Prior to coming back to the Venetian for the show we basically killed the day at NY NY -- had lunch there at their Americana cafe and played in a slot tournament where Chris won $50 of Free Play!

Thursday was The Price is Right -- totally fun and worth the $50/ticket in my opinion. This show was at Bally's so before we had a light meal of crepes from Paris. TPIR was great, we have name tags just like on the regular show and there was multiple chances for everyone in the audience to become a contestant. Everytime there was a new item up for bid, there were always 4 new contestants. Basically every part of the show you would see normally just had new people everytime (no one person could win it all). Neither of us were selected but it was still fun to see Plinko, Hole In One, The Big Wheel and of course the Showcase Showdown. The host was some guy named Roger Lodge and I only remember his name because it sounds so fake and made up. He was good and added just enough cheese and sarcasism to keep his credibility. After about 2 hours of TPIR we walked out feeling refreshed and entertained. We tried to make a reservation to eat outside to watch the fountains at the Bellagio but they wouldn't "guarantee" them, so we ended up at The Wynn and had their dinner buffet instead. So much food, ridiculous.

Friday we enjoyed our leftovers while watching the scary reminder of the SoCal fires on CNN. We left our hotel at 10am for a 1pm flight which at first I thought was way too early, but it ended up being a good thing. We had to wait through the worst security lines I can remember. The security at SeaTac is one thing -- at least there are clearly marked lines as to where to wait and where to move to. At Las Vegas there was NO indication of where to stand, so it was very chaotic for at least 15 minutes. There were random security guys yelling at us telling us in a "you are stupid" tone that there were 4 lines to form when the reality was there were like 7... anyway like I said it was a good thing that we ended up at the airport early because we didn't get to our gate until 1145 -- again for a 1pm flight, so you can see how long we spent through security. The plane ride I don't remember because I slept the entire time, but we land and get our luggage -- drive home through rush hour and get home sometime after 5pmish. I had every plan on curling, but I got super super tired right before 7pm so no curling for me.

And back to now, today -- Saturday October 27th. We need to go grocery shopping. I should be getting myself back into work-mode but honestly I have NO desire to do so. I figured why scare myself now, I'll just wait until Monday. I hope I remember my password. Hahaha. Our next vacation isn't until late January. I am looking forward to it, but honestly I'm super excited that Heather will be back in Seattle -- finally moving back from LA -- in only a week or so. Hip hip hooray for Heather!

We're in Pittsburgh!

Our vacation has begun. Yippy!! Our flight was broken up into two legs; Seattle to Las Vegas then Vegas to Pittsburgh. We learned today that the blue septic water in airplane toilets is fondly called juice (per US Airlines crew members). Our flight from Seattle was slightly delayed because apparently the toilets were in need of juice. I learn something new every day!

We land in Vegas, I proceed to quickly waste $5 on a nickel slot machine (Lucky Larry Lobster, how can you resist) and we walk to an area where we can sit for our 2 hour layover -- and what do we see but a personal electronics vending machine where the items are iPods, iPod accessories, and other assorted expensive items such as Bose headphones. Holy crap -- I don't know if this is a new airport thing or just a Vegas thing?

We board our flight to Pittsburgh and I am instantly delighted by the gentleman sitting in front of me who proceeds to lower his seat to the most extreme and thensome reclined position -- the chair back was almost touching my knees. Sad...sad...sad...

Pittsburgh is a lot nicer than I remember it, but of course the last time I was in Pittsburgh it was covered in layers of dirty snow. We are staying at the newly rebuilt Doubletree Suites on Bigelow Sq. Very nice, our room is spacious and definitely feels like an apartment due to size and layout. The restaurant -- Bigelow Grille -- we are very pleased with. We had a great dinner there with appetizers, drinks, entrees and dessert the total cost was $100 - what a deal especially since that is American Dollars, not Canadian. :)

I should probably go to bed soon since it is almost 140am EDT...more to come later!

My usual catch-up-post-before-vacation message...

A lot has happened since my birthday (last blog post). Workwise things are so-so, there were some major moves within the office so now I have a new officemate. I didn't think I would miss sitting with Gail simply because she and I aren't super close friends, but I do miss Gail's presence. I think she misses me too because every time I walk by her office door she always flags me down and we end up chatting about something random. Now my entire team is split up between two floors and we are all spread out. Some feel disjointed or no longer part of the team. I do feel isolated only because I share an office with a new contractor who isn't exactly warming up to being social with me.

I've still been working a lot, although admittedly I am consciously trying to work less -- like it is OK to not work a 10 or 11 hour day, it is OK to leave at 430pm. I thought that it would be good to remember what real work-life balance is and the beginning of Curling season has helped. This year I will be playing in Monday and Friday night leagues -- very fun. I found out that some of my co-workers (from a different department) are trying out Curling so I need to remember to ask them how they are enjoying it when I return from vacation.

But for the next 10 days or so I am not going to think about work (too much). We are heading out bright and early tomorrow for Pittsburgh...yes, Pittsburgh. Stop looking at my blog that way yes you read it right, Pittsburgh. My friend Johanna is getting married in a very small way; a total of 28 people includes everyone in the wedding party and all of their guests. She and Mark live in Pittsburgh and have for a while so Pittsburgh it is. After the wedding we are then going to spend the rest of our vacation in Las Vegas doing whatever and whenever and eating whatever and whenever we want. So haha, haha to all of you.

And now...I must try to sleep. More to come later I'm certain. Oh--Happy Belated 32nd Birthday to a Mr. Joel Arnold Bakken.

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 4...last day!

I blog to you from my Seattle home this evening. The last day of our 4-day weekend vacation is quickly wrapping up. I really do feel relaxed even after going through my work email and deleting all of the things I don't need to address. It was good that we got away and now without delaying any further, the rest of the story...

Last night we decided to dine in and went to the Pan Pacific's gourmet restaurant called The Five Sails. We didn't know what to expect as we have never dined there before -- there wasn't a lot of publicity about this place or its menu, but what the heck it sounded better than Italian Opera Buffet or room service options. We walked into The Five Sails promptly at 730pm and noticeably it was elegant. Again in the Vancouver nighttime-casual way though. We weren't super dressed up as some of the other guests but I looked around and saw some younger guys I'd say with their mom kind of thing dressed in athletic warm up suits (think adidas track suits not sweats). We started off with a complimentary plate of albacore tuna and a fresh tomato cream soup. Quite nice actually and after some custom rolls (one of which tasted like a pretzel) and some cocktails I had the smoked salmon appetizer and Chris had the foie gras. Again, delicious! The entrees we switched it up, I had duck and he had seafood. The dessert though -- fantastic. A rosemary mango sorbet dish and also a kiwi neopolitan. Overall a wonderful time and we agreed that we would eat there again albeit on the pricey side.

We slept in this morning, had some breakfast and packed up driving straight to North Delta to go to a Real Canadian Superstore. Why? Because I am at least fascinated with the different flavor (sorry, flavour) options that Canadians get to choose from such as in seasonings and chips. We bought some random items and of course I had to get another Double-Double before crossing back into the USA with our NEXUS cards (again go get a NEXUS card, trust me you will thank me later). Our drive home was pretty uneventful and to me it seemed to fly by until we got to Everett. Ok, WDOT you need to fix this problem. Every time I drive south on I5 and I hit Everett (the stretch right after the big lot of boats, y'all know what I mean right after you leave Marysville) and we slow down to a crawl for what seems like no good reason. I realize the reason is because people are merging to avoid exiting and people who are merging onto I5 want to avoid immediately exiting...but COME ON... it is sad. Fix it, please. Don't use the light rail excuse, don't use the there isn't enough money so let's slap on another gas tax excuse -- just fix it already. It got me thinking -- Portland OR has a great mass transit system, Vancouver BC seems to be implementing a great one...and Seattle WA...yeah, we'll just leave it at that.

We stopped in Mill Creek to shop at one of our favorite stores, Central Market. After loading up on groceries for the next week or so we finally came home, unpacked, ate dinner, I got to re-synch my iTouch and now I am blogging. Some time in between all that, laundry got done, emails got checked (read at least, not replied to), and we have succumb to turning on the heat in our house.

Again, although it was only 4 days and what seems ridiculous to blog about was a great 4 day mini vacation. I am SO glad that we took it. Tomorrow I hope that I won't have to stay too late to catch up. Here's to trips! Yay!

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 3

Aren't we all special today! I am blogging for the second time today. I left off as Chris and I were heading out the door for some Dim Sum. We strolled from our hotel up northeast to dine at Kirin. The name itself sounds more Japanese than Chinese, but according to Vancouver Magazine, Kirin was named Vancouver's Best Dim Sum and Chinese restaurant so we had to go and check it out. We walk in and the place is completely empty which at first startled me until Chris pointed out the time -- 1040am. We think that they must open at 1030am and we were the first customers in the door. Surely enough by 1100am it was hustling and bustling. We enjoyed quite a few little dishes including beef tendon, eggplant with fish, gai lan (chinese brocoli to y'all who don't know), congee (rice porridge) with chicken, dumplings, spicy salt and pepper squid, mandarin styled pork spareribs, chinese donut and mango pudding. It sounds like a lot and it felt like it too until we started walking around again.

From Kirin we walked up and down Robson and various side streets. We checked out Canada's equivalent to Barnes & Noble -- it is called Chapters. Very spacious store indeed! I am impressed with how many non-book items they carried (nice stationaries, toys, local products, et al.). We leave Chapters and ended up at The Bay where Chris quickly pointed out -- BUTTER TARTS.

BUTTER TARTS backstory if you will...I ran across this Canadian Public Radio piece on Butter Tarts -- and from what I gathered, Butter Tarts are a big deal for many Canadians. I have read quite a bit about what a Butter Tart should be, runny or not? Raisins or not? I am fascinated since I've grown up traveling and staying in BC and have not once heard of a Butter Tart. Back to us at The Bay...so I am staring at the pastry case that has the sought-after Butter Tart. "One butter tart, in a bag please" and $1.33 Canadian later I have it in my hands. You have no idea how excited I am at this point -- me and a Butter Tart just waiting to try it out. We make our way back towards Canada Place where we find a Tim Hortons. We treat ourselves to the "We just had a huge Chinese meal but we're hungry 3 hours later snack" of the Butter Tart, a Canadian Maple, a French Crueller and 2 large Double-Doubles. This particular Butter Tart was runny and contained raisins. Being that it is my first ever Butter Tart, I can't say I am swayed one way or the other -- it was good, like a pecan pie without pecans. It was very sweet, too sweet for my personal liking but I did appreciate the flaky crust with the runny middle. I am not going to run home and start baking these up by the dozen, but it was definitely something worth trying. If anyone can recommend some really good Butter Tarts (April and Steve, I know you read this sometimes...) let me know and I will make it a point to check it out. Our donuts were outstanding as always, makes me wonder how Americans can settle for the greasy donuts that come out of Krispy Kremes. Tim Hortons definitely has a lot more flavor -- and are a lot cheaper even with the horrible exchange rates right now. I could definitely go for another Double-Double right now though -- so good. Ok, I need to stop thinking about Tim Hortons for now...

After our snack we spent a good hour looking out onto the water. The Pan Pacific is located at Canada Place and Canada Place is basically where all of the cruise ships load up and leave. Lots of activity takes place around here, water buses, airplanes from HarborAir, all of the sight-seers at Stanley Park -- just a lot of fun!

And now...it is just past 400pm, the Husky Game isn't on until 715pm tonight and Chris is asleep. Good times. I have determined that the next time we come up we have to try traveling on the SkyTrain throughout the city. An all-day pass is only $8 and it allows you unlimited travel on all routes including the water bus and the regular street buses. How cool is that?!

I have no idea what we will do later tonight, I hope it isn't anything too fancy as I don't feel like getting all dressed up; however, speaking of dressing up I have noticed that Vancouver is just the birthplace of nightlife-casual though. Everyone walks around dressed psuedo-REI and psuedo-designer which IMO is great. It doesn't seem like you are frowned upon because you are wearing hiking boots with dress pants and a polar fleece atop your fancy blouse. I love it. I noticed that while we were walking around Robson as well -- a relaxed acceptance of "just be yourself". Another thing I noticed is how many Starbucks there are so much so, I am beginning to wonder if downtown Seattle has more or if downtown Vancouver has more. Vancouver also has a lot of other coffee and tea shops in general though -- crazy Canucks love their caffiene too I suppose (this coming from me who usually goes to SBUX 3 times a day, go figure). Like I said -- not sure what is up for the night but I know tomorrow will consist of going to the Real Canadian Superstore. Oh fun!

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 2

Ok so I am a little late technically speaking here, but it isn't like you were waiting on pins and needles, right? Right?

Yesterday started off with the Pan Pacific's Breakfast Buffet which wasn't so bad except that there were some flies, ok a LOT of flies on the standing cheese platter, so we slightly avoided the cheese. After getting a good breakfast we headed straight over to Stanley Park to check out the Vancouver Aquarium! It had been a long time since either of us had been to the park or the aquarium so it was fun to see the fish, the sea otters were especially cute and stinky. I'm sure that Chris will be putting his pictures up soon for you to see. We took a walk from the aquarium over to the Totem Poles, viewed a pair of dare-devil black squirrels and hopped a free summer-time shuttle that took us around the park. During the shuttle it started to rain quite heavily so it was a good thing we took the shuttle versus walking around the park. By the time we get back to our car it is almost 300pm. We relaxed for a while in our room then took a cab over to Joe Fortes.

Joe Fortes by all accounts is a fine restaurant. However it seems that every time we have been (I think last count is at 4 including last night) we have a reservation and we arrive early or on time and we still have to wait at least 30 or 45 minutes for our table. Why is this? Why do we keep going? We figured that we will not go again because of their reservation and seating process. I wrote on a comment card that they need to review something about this process -- either they take too many reservations or they have a seating problem, or their service is SO slow that it delays all of the diners and makes them stay longer, who knows. The food was good, surprisingly the miso crusted black cod I had wasn't overcooked (the last time we ordered cooked fish from Joe Fortes it was overcooked). Chris had the porterhouse which was delicious as well. The star of the night was definitely the mussel appetizer we had -- it was like thai-styled mussels, with coconut milk and lemon grass and it wasn't too sweet or salty.

After such a meal you can imagine that we came back and just kind of drifted off to sleep. We are just about ready now to head out for Day 3 -- we are going to walk around Robson St. today and who knows what else. More to come later.

Vancouver BC - September 2007 Trip - Day 1

Before I begin I must apologize yet again for my lack of blogs. For those who may be slightly more astute, you have probably noticed that I did in fact post some new pictures in the photo gallery -- go to the left of this post and click on My Photos. I hope to blog more at least this weekend as we are in Vancouver, BC for a short time.

I'm still working 12-14 hour days but we decided a long time ago that we were going to take a long weekend around my birthday and here finally is the long weekend. We woke up this morning roughly 8am, which felt SO good. Got washed up, packed up and cashed up (the Canadian Dollar is at an all time high right now, not zesty). Chris found out that my surprise birthday present was delivered rather early to my work so we swung by work to pick up my brand new iTouch. Very snazzy indeed. By now it is almost 1130am and we are starving. A quick stop at my normal Starbucks for some delicious Pumpkin Spice Lattes and off we were. Early on we decided to stop at the O'Brien Turkey House. The O'Brien Turkey House is great -- it is this little Mom and Pop place off of exit 208 (Arlington exit) from I5. My Dad started taking Jody and I there when we were little kids and for me at least, it is still a favorite place to go it's just how often do I find myself that far north on I5? Anywho, I had my usual turkey pot pie, Chris enjoyed his hot turkey sandwich and we topped it off with a shared piece of homemade custard pie. Yum...my stomach hurts thinking about it now, but it was delicious.

We pack up again and by now it is 130 give or take. I drive another 40 minutes or so and decided I need to fuel up the car, so I see a sign indicating gas station. I take the exit and the gas station is like 5 miles off in the middle of nowhere next to this huge brand new casino, hotel and spa. Go figure. We end up driving all over Ferndale trying to get back onto I5. Back on I5 we now are and 20 minutes later we use our beloved NEXUS cards for the first time. NEXUS is this program that basically prescreens people so that you don't have to wait for an hour or two at the US-Canadian International Border. OMG--we are now in love with NEXUS. I was afraid that I was going to hit a pedestrian while we were driving up to the special gate, I'm just not used to going so fast near the Peace Arch entrance. We flash our NEXUS cards, the guard waves us into Canada -- and it was then we realized outloud that the $58 dollars or whatever it was we spent to get the cards were worth it. GO GET A NEXUS CARD NOW, DO IT, YOU WILL THANK ME LATER.

After entering Canada like it was old news, we finally get to our hotel. We are staying in a lovely room at the Pan Pacific. I played with my new iTouch for a while and we went off to dinner. Dinner tonight was at C Restaurant -- to die for. We had the Wine Pairing dinner -- 6 courses of OMG I can't believe how good the food is type of goodness. It started with a smoked salmon, then we moved onto seared albacore tuna with chick peas, next was the most wonderful crab risotto ever. After using bread to wipe up the risotto we feasted on crispy halibut, some beef tenderloin, and finally dessert with a super chocolate sorbet and raspberries. I definitely will go back to C Restaurant. As me more about the dinner some other time because right now my head is kind of dizzy from all of the wine and I wanted to write this particular paragraph so that I could get all of this out of my brain for now.

So that was today, Thursday September 20th -- Day 1 of our long anticipated long weekend. Tomorrow I think we're going to Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium!

Side note-- I think I need a new laptop, my old one is too slow. I used Chris's new Thinkpad to type this bad boy up and it is quite nice. Quite nice indeed.

ABC - Adventures in Burbank California

And without further delay...the report.

Friday – The Tonight Show need I say more?
After waking up early, I found that the drive down to the Green Bug Lot a.k.a. SeaTacPark.com isn’t as bad as I thought it would be considering it is a Friday morning when a lot of business and entertainment travelers would be out and around SeaTac. I have an enjoyable conversation with Michael the tram operator, he mentions that he has a side business in lawn maintenance and that he was glad to hear that rain was in the forecast – because “without rain there are no lawns to maintain and without lawns, I (Michael) have no business!”. Noting the tall soy chai latte I had in my hand, he then openly complained that there were no Starbucks that had drive-thrus large enough to accommodate his work vehicle. Who knew that drive-thrus needed to accommodate trams?

Security through SeaTac was as expected, so I wasn’t taken by surprise until I somehow got in line behind a couple of which the woman thought she was Gwen Stefani. She looked as though she had just stepped out of a Hollywood costume shop. The Gwen-wannabe was wearing 4” black ankle sandals which took her 5 minutes to take off during the Security checkpoint. Good times.

I managed to upgrade my 15C seat to 3C – first class, very nice. Upon reflection I don’t know if I would do it again on such a short flight (SEA to BUR is a little over 2 hours of flight time). The service was nice and it was pleasant to have a continental style breakfast and consume beverages out of real glassware, but at the same time the other 11 first class passengers were uh…well… if this can be believed, bigger than the seats. As I type on my return flight from Burbank to Seattle I am again in first class and again, I am the smallest person in both girth and height sitting in first class.

Back to Friday -- I land and Heather picks me up rather quickly – she then drops the bombshell – she got us tickets to see a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno!!

We proceeded to spend the next couple hours discussing what we thought it would be like over a snack (Trader Joes – you have amazing frozen pre-cooked chicken and coconut egg rolls). We arrive at the NBC studios right before 3pm and the line had already been formed. We find out rather quickly that NBC purposely distributes more tickets than there are available seats as we were one of the last people to be let into the doors. We had to go through airport style security, so purses were checked and they made very certain that all cell phone were off and stowed away. After being screened we are told that we “will be sitting where the band sits”—to which we are like what??? What does that mean? We thought perhaps we will be sitting close to Kevin Eubanks and the Tonight Show Band. Turns out it meant that we got to sit stage right in the VERY FRONT – where apparently the guest band may chose to sit. The Goo Goo Dolls were the guest band and lucky for us decided to not sit in their audience seats.

When you actually sit in the studio it is SMALL. Unbelievably small; Jay Leno’s desk and the sofa set-up are only about 8 feet away from where the Tonight Show Band sits. There was the usual round of get the audience pumped up with swag (of which neither Heather nor I received any swag). There were some older women (i.e. 55 years and up) who were overly bronzed/tanned wearing short-shorts and sparkly tank-tops who earned swag by dancing in front of everyone as though they had just gone clubbing. I wish we could have taken pictures of that because they were skanky. And then as soon as the old leathery woman were off the stage with their new swag the taping began—which was pretty much real time so it flew by. You can see Heather and me at the beginning of the show – as we were told that we had to rush up to the stage and shake Jay Leno’s hand. Heather was successful (as you can see, she is the person in the light blue Scotland soccer jersey) whereas I am standing there looking dumbfounded and obviously star-struck. If I hadn’t been so scared or shy to actually stick my hand out and have Jay shake it, then you would have never seen this stupid picture of me. As you can see Heather's light blue shirt and the back of her head, and then me holding my arms up and a dumb look on my face.

The guests were Steve Carell, Kevin Smith, and The Goo Goo Dolls. I’m not sure what else to say other than it flew by; it was AWESOME and so fun. Heather and I want to go again the next time that I come down to visit. All of the guests were a lot smaller in stature in-person which I suppose proves somewhat that TV does add pounds, etc.

The taping concluded outside of the studio because during the summer months The Tonight Show has this “summer concert” series – so there was this huge outdoor stage set up and The Goo Goo Dolls performed out there. There was this couple standing in front of us during the performance and they thought it would be an ideal place to make-out. I was surprised that it wasn’t caught on camera, but then again who wants to see an ugly couple making out on TV? We finally walked back to Heather’s car and we both felt like nothing could top that. So we drove back towards her end of town and ended up having dinner at Stevie’s Creole. We walk into Stevie’s and Heather picked up on this immediately (Of course I am oblivious to all of this until 15 minutes later) – that we were the only non-black people in the place. I don’t know if that contributed to the lack of service for our table, but who cares as the food was delicious. Heather ordered the seafood gumbo and I had some special dish with “special sweet/spicy sauce” – which was good! We saw James Pickens, Jr. – who happens to play Dr. Richard Webber on Grey’s Anatomy walk in and sit down at the bar.

Ruben (Heather’s friend) called after we got back to her apartment and invited us to go see a movie, but we declined in order to call more people to tell them to watch The Tonight Show – and of course we had to see The Tonight Show for ourselves! We were both falling asleep though and then at last 1135pm rolls around and we see ourselves. How fantastically freaking awesome! Again from the pictures how could you NOT see me? Derek calls and is like “I didn’t see Jonell at all…” uh hello? How drunk were you Derek? Thanks to Chris and Joe for getting the photos.

Saturday – Did you want pickles with that?
Originally we were going to go The Grove (in the Hollywood area) to have breakfast and drive-by Paris Hilton’s house to see the paparazzi. However, as Paris went back to jail so quickly we figured there were no paparazzi (plus we didn’t know exactly where her house was, we were going to drive around aimlessly) left to see, so we instead went to Jerry’s Famous Deli for some early lunch. Jerry’s was great; it is this diner-style restaurant that has everything on the menu. We are seated and our waiter brings us our iced teas and asks us “Would you like some pickles?” – To which we both were thinking “What the hell would I do with a pickle in my iced tea, am I supposed to dip the pickle in my iced tea?” Heather immediately asks “Uh, why would we need pickles” and he responded with “well sometimes people like to eat them”…OK???!! What kind of explanation is that? How about “It is complimentary, but we always ask” or “Jerry’s always provides pickles to our patrons”, but no it was “people like to eat them”. We noticed he kept looking at Heather we concluded that he must have thought that she was Jewish. Then I looked around the restaurant more closely and sure enough every table had these huge silver dishes of halved pickles and people were noshing on them. ANYWHO…Heather ordered the mile-high pastrami sandwich. Holy crap it arrived on a plate that was too small for it and it was at least 3 or 4 inches tall. She ended up taking some of the pastrami out and I said “You know, some people would be in utter horror to see you doing that”. I ordered an avocado chicken sandwich – delicious. Jody would love this place and they had everything on the menu. I almost ordered an Egg Crème, but figured it would be too much so early in the day.

As we are eating we see Larry Birkhead and some older woman (I would hope it is his mom?) walk in and then no less than 30 seconds later, a tall man walks in with half a dozen camera lenses and a huge camera…paparazzi! Heather tried to find out where the photographer was hiding, but could not find him. As we left Jerry’s we spotted Robert Guillaume and he even smiled at me.

Our next adventure was to Warner Brothers Studio to take the tour, but we found out that they are closed on Saturdays. We head over to the Sherman Oaks Galleria (big outdoor mall if you can call it that), we each treated ourselves to some new shoes, some ice cream and saw Ocean’s 13. I recommend seeing Ocean’s 13, very funny and I loved the parts with Oprah. After all of this we took a small break at Heather’s apartment and decide to head over to Universal Studios. Unfortunately the operating hours for Universal Studio is 9am-7pm and we didn’t know this until we walked through the Universal City Walk. Yeah….so we browsed through the City Walk and discovered a LARGE group of Raider’s Fans waiting in line to get an autograph from #24 Michael Huff. Heather and I didn’t know him off the top of our heads, admittedly I had to google him.

Although slightly disappointed, we didn’t let it stop us from having fun so we went to this place called SushiDan and had some sushi. The restaurant had this bright orange wall with a mess of signatures of various celebrities. We were hoping to see more celebrities but it was not to be. After sushi we relaxed at her place and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which was not a bad movie but I am glad that it was on TV and I didn’t pay money to see it.

Sunday – There is a serious lack of Starbucks in SoCal.
Waking up at 6am we thought we would grab a quick bite at the 1950’s Diner, but they were closed. We ended up at the Laurel Canyon Starbucks (which is a 15 minute - that's crazy talk even for LA standards) to which one of the baristas saw Heather’s UW shirt and came over to talk to us. BJ the barista recently moved from Seattle to Burbank (she is a dancer), but she worked at the Starbucks on 75th and 35th (the closest one to my house); what a small world! I think we made her day being able to talk about Seattle stuff even if only for 5 minutes.

And that brings me up to now. I am writing this to get all of my thoughts in order, but mainly so I don’t forget anything! We have started our descent into Seattle so I had better get this laptop put away.

(cut to "now" which is approximately 821pm Sunday, June 10th)
And that was my Adventures in Burbank California. Thanks again Heather for the laughs and a place to stay! I can’t wait to go again! And what is with the pickles? I will find out the next time I visit.

Cave B Inn -- overall good times

I'm exhausted, but here I am at work. Monday through Wednesday of this week was spent at Cave B Inn -- I had a lovely 2 bedroom cliffhouse and it was awesome. I organized this all-team offsite meeting event at Cave B Inn which is why I was there in the first place. I'd say for the most part the resort itself was lovely. The rooms were great, the wine was ok (I only had merlot) and the food was ok. I say the wine was ok because I only had one glass and it was quite oakey. I figure that I can't make a real assessment, but it was still a good glass nonetheless.

The food...left me wondering why people think this place is a fantastic place to eat. The plating of the food was great, but it was so-so in my opinion in terms of taste. Perhaps I'd been influenced too much by what I had heard and read, but I was expecting the food to blow me away, but it was pretty standard restaurant fair.

I would definitely return to the resort just to relax. The views of the gorge and the Columbia River were awesome -- we also were in the perfect position to see the large electricity-gathering wind mills (for those of you who aren't familiar with this stretch of I-90 in central Washington, right after you cross the Columbia River there are these huge wind mills on the west side of the river). The wind mills blink simultaneously at night so that planes don't fly into them. The room was comfortable in all possible ways except that the wireless internet was intermittent, but if I were to return I would not want to be checking my email that's for sure!

Ok...so like I said the resort was good times. The meetings we had overall were productive and I think that people walked away feeling good, but there were some rather tense moments included in all of this of which I am not going to blog about. :)

Today and tomorrow--and all-day project course training sessions. I'd better make a SBUX run now before I start shaking. :)

Home - Yakima - Home - Airport - Quincy - Work - Home - Airport - Home

I am all over the place these days. My dad is doing really well, thanks for all of the emails, notes, office drive-bys, et al. We saw them last week -- went over to do some yard work and visit for a while and my dad was up and about, walking around the yard and tinkering with things -- almost as good as new it seems! If you were to look at him now you would have no idea that he had a life-changing emergency surgical procedure. Has he smoked? To my knowledge no. Chris and I removed all of the cigarettes, ash trays, and lighters from the house only 2 days after his surgery, so there is nothing left in their house. Has his diet changed? Somewhat, but I know this will be the toughest thing for sure (assuming he doesn't start smoking those cancer sticks again).

But back to the title of this blog entry -- yes I am all over the state of Washington. We left home last night, drove to Yakima in almost 2 hours flat; we are now in the Howard Johnson hotel of Yakima because we mainly came over here to attend the Yakima Enological Society's Platinum Wine Event (you can read more about it at www.yakimawine.org). Chris' parents are on the board and they helped to throw this shin-dig together. Chris is currently passed out/sleeping and I am wired as ever since I got to change into elastic pants. (haha, hey you try tasting 20 wines, eating a 6 course dinner in panty hose, heels and a dress and tell me how YOU would feel, yeah, wine bloat, need I say more?) Tomorrow we have breakfast together and then drive back home to rapidly do laundry, repack and then Monday (following me here, Monday is April 30th) morning I drive Chris to the airport as he is going to Washington D.C. for a week (convention on pain) and I get to drive my butt over to Quincy, WA to go to a work offsite retreat. I drive back to Seattle on Wednesday (now we're on May 2nd) and then go to a 2-day class...finally on Saturday I will go pick Chris up from the airport--and we're done.

Whew! In the mean time I've been invited to all of these parties that my friends are having (Cinco de Mayo, et al.) and I feel horrible that I may not get to attend because well quite frankly, I'm already exhausted how am I going to feel by this this next week?

As I'm still totally ramped up for some odd reason, I am going to attempt to catch up on some personal email. Key word in that phrase is -- attempt.

Home Sweet Home

After a 90 minute delay at Kahului's Airport we got on our Boeing 767 and headed home. We pulled up to our house right after 2am and fell promptly asleep. I slept so soundly I had no idea where I was when I woke up. I soon realized that I was indeed home and sleeping in my own comfy bed. I love that feeling, it is like ahhhhhhhhhhh. We cleaned up the guest room for Andrew, I did some work and now we are enjoying some lunch. I need to go to the grocery store later to get things since our fridge has nothing but condiments and a half bag of baby carrots.

All in all Maui was way fun. The best part was definitely snorkeling and just getting to see the island itself. Lahaina was definitely more happening than Kihei, but Kihei was so much more relaxing. I know that the next time that we fly that long of a distance we are hoping to get First Class tickets. :)

Seattle is wet. And cold. It makes me sad since I can't wear my Hawaii stuff anymore. Well, I COULD wear them but then people would look at me like I'm crazy. Or I could wear the stockings, turtleneck and scarf along with my dress. Hahaha. I am excited for Andrew's visit, speaking of that I need to finish my shopping list so that I don't forget anything for the French Toast Casserole. Ok, time for more relaxing until work tomorrow. :)

Snorkeling!

We are working on making our pictures a little better from our adventures (underwater cameras are not exactly the best at taking pictures), but today we snorkeled again. Actually we snorkeled yesterday as well--where I got completely thrashed by the surf and beach at Big Beach (along Makena Drive). After yesterday I got ill (think seasickness) and basically slept, drank a lot of water and didn't want to move, etc. Turns out yesterday was not such a great day to snorkel, but hey what are you going to do. Back to today--we went out to Ahihi Bay (also along Makena Drive, south side of Maui) and although we had to deal with a gravelly beach, the snorkeling was SO much better.

First, the weather was much more cooperative. The surf was calmer and the sun was out making it a lot less murky and easier to see the fish. Second, after being thrashed I figured I had nothing to lose today even though my stomach was still queasy from yesterday's thrashing. We saw all sorts of fish including a bunch of yellow tangs and striped fish (think Finding Nemo). A black tang came up and actually brushed my leg--I got so startled that I had to get out of the water (asthma kicked in). Using my inhaler and getting sunburnt was the price I had to pay, but it was a lot of fun.

Not a lot else has happened. This morning we went out to Stella Blue's for breakfast; very good, Chris and I had the Loco Moco which honestly has been the largest Loco Moco ever. Normally it is two small ice cream scoop sized rice balls with a normal sized hamburger patty, one egg and brown gravy. Today's was an entire salad bowl full of rice, a huge patty, two eggs and 2 cups of gravy. Ugh. I ate half of mine before deciding to quit. We went to Da Kitchen for lunch--since my stomach was queasy (I think my stomach does not like snorkeling) so I had a bowl of saimen (noodles).

Work is creeping up already. I have finished purging all of the random junk from my work email, but alas...soon I will return to cold wintery Seattle and work. Yay! I am looking forward to less humidity though, and my friend Andrew will be arriving next weekend for a brief visit.

Oh...and no upgrade options for First Class to fly back to Seattle. I know, how pathetic am I? :)

Fishies

Fishes we saw while snorkeling. We think they are Yellow-striped Goatfish.

Snorkeling - Take One

This morning we woke up, drove to Snorkel Bob's (apparently this is a big chain of snorkel shops in Hawaii), rented some gear, and FINALLY went to the beach to do some snorkeling. Luckily at Snorkel Bob's there are snorkel masks that account for individuals (such as myself and Chris) who need to wear prescription glasses normally. I mean how much fun would it be to snorkel and not see anything? Today was just a practice day I suppose--but I thought it was really easy. You put on the mask, your fins, waddle into the ocean and stick the breathing tube in your mouth and well...you snorkel. Admittedly I am a pretty strong swimmer so this wasn't a far stretch for me, but Jennifer (Chris' little sister) was having a really hard time getting used to the idea that you don't have to stick your entire head under the water, so she spent most of her time finless trying to clear her breathing tube. I felt badly for her and I was about ready to go over and help her out, but my asthma started to act up so I waddled to the beach side and rested.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go towards the south side of Maui to Makena. I was told by a nice woman I met today (who is also staying in the same condo complex that we are) that the sea turtles come up to you in Makena so hopefully we get to see some!

Below are some pictures of us snorkeling--we were trying out this underwater camera. The camera is good, we are the ones that suck at taking pictures (hey you try looking through a hole the size of a dime with a big clunky mask on). I wish that I was able to take a picture of the sea turtle I saw, but by the time I bobbed up and back down it had gone.



This is me trying to take a picture of Chris.




This is Chris taking a picture of me...

Aloha and Happy Halloween

I'm here in Kihei, Maui...yes, Hawaii. We arrived on Saturday and have done nothing but eat it seems. We have discovered this place called Sansei--very good food. There is an early bird special and a late night special, overall the prices are pretty good considering we're in Hawaii and that Sansei primarily serves sushi. Weather has been in the upper 80s, low 90s kind of thing. Makes me glad that we're here and not back in Seattle right now. I read that there are wind storms and a major cold front in Seattle. Boo. Speaking of boo we were in Lahaina today for the big Halloween parade. We stayed long enough to eat more and watch the Kids Parade. There is an Adult Parade that apparently in the past is a lot like Mardi Gras, but we didn't stay long enough for it. Yesterday we went to the famous Lahaina Luau which was very cool. You would forget that you were at a luau until you heard the crash of the ocean waves.

Right now I'm doing some laundry in the condo's tiny washing machine. It is one of those stacking units where the washing basin is about as big as my carry-on luggage. Good times. :) We treated ourselves to First Class air fare on Hawaiian Airlines--VERY nice. It was so worth the upgrade. I highly recommend it as the food was outstanding (can you believe that we got full with airline food that tasted good?) the service of course was unbeatable. It made the 5 hour and 40 minute flight go by a LOT faster.

Tomorrow we are planning on scoping out some good places for snorkeling. After that who knows. I have already visited Hilo Hattie and got myself a new pineapple dress. Maybe we will eat more because that is apparently all you do in Hawaii. I am really looking forward to going to the beach (finally!).

We broke down and bought some of these Crocs shoes. I wish they didn't look so butt ugly or else I'd wear them to work. Speaking of work you know I had over 500 emails in my box (I was only checking it for junk mail, that is all)??!! And it is only Wednesday! You are probably wondering what I have been doing besides Hawaii, eating, checking junk mail...last weekend I traveled to Los Angeles to visit Heather (hi Heather) and we saw.....RANDY JACKSON. Yes, we were eating at this burger joint called The Habit and in walks Randy Jackson -- judge from American Idol -- and his family and they were looking all Hollywood like that.

Ok, back to some laundry I suppose. And eating in Hawaii.

Yellowstone and Montana are BIG

You know, Montana is huge. It takes roughly 8.5 hours to drive from Seattle to Butte. Amazing. I have also found out someone I was in Husky Band with is now a big time Producer and Daytime news anchor/reporter for the show Montana Today, so Hasalyn Harris (now Richards as I understand she just got married, go Hassie!) if you ever read this I wish I had known that you were on tv before my trip so I could have at least tuned into channel 13 while I was in Missoula.

Just the same, Yellowstone was great. Lots of geysers. Chris took all of the pictures. I'm sure some time they will be somewhere and hopefully I will get around to putting them up...yeah yeah yeah, stop shaking your head at me. Some day doesn't necessarily mean "soon". (You laugh now, ok, laugh, dammit!) We saw a lot of bison and some mountain chipmunks -- too cute. One red squirrel was spotted but too quick to take any pictures. We stayed at this place called 320 Ranch which happened to be about a 35 minute drive away from the West Entrance of Yellowstone. The place was great--log cabins with little kitchenettes. Fun! We did a lot of hiking around and random driving as well.

On our way to and from Yellowstone we stopped at this place in Phillipsburg, MT called Gem Mountain where you can buy dirt and look for your own sapphires. If you find one you get to keep it. We ended up with quite a few sapphires and a few of them are even being sent off to be heat-treated. I highly recommend the place as it is a lot of fun.

In Butte, there is this restaurant called The Derby. OMG--food to die for. People are way nice and don't let the Keno Cage fool you, this place serves the best steak I have ever had in a restaurant. We also visited the Berkeley Pit in Butte...it is a large...pit. Uh ok. (Laugh!) Stopped in Yakima to visit The Lee family and stayed in the new Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Yakima. VERY nice as well.

My vacation must have been good even though this blog entry is quite lame and undescriptive. After we unpacked and ate dinner Sunday night I thought I would log into my work email to chuck the junk--and I couldn't remember my password. I locked myself out and had to call my helpdesk. Nice, huh? This weekend we are going to my aunt's house in Fall City to enjoy her company and play Mah Jong.

And Happy Belated Birthday to my brother!! Wheeeeeeeeee.

Yellowstone, here we come!

Yellowstone Park--that is where we are going for vacation. Pretty exciting if you ask me. Honestly I am not sure what I'm more excited about right now; is it the fact that I'm not going to be at work or that I am going to be on a vacation? A combination of both? Perhaps.... right now I'm pretty excited that I found my school backpack and that we had chicken tomato curry stir fry for dinner. Excellent!

I don't believe that I have ever been to Yellowstone before, although I have these vague childhood memories of animals in a big park. Of course, that could have been any other national park I've been to, but nonetheless....I'm hoping that we get to see a lot of animals and all kinds of geysers.

Work has been---work. Yay?

Some people at work have been wondering what my brother, Jody looks like. Below is a picture of him and Anthony Bourdain... yeah. See you in a week!

Wireless in Tucson International Airport

So, I'm sitting here with free wireless internet in the Tucson International Airport. Pretty neat. It got me thinking--how come Seattle-Tacoma International Airport doesn't have free wireless? I'm sure it is an infrastructural issue, who knows, maybe the fine folks at SeaTac are installing wireless in the near future (or even right now?), but man, if an airport the size of Tucson has free wireless, it makes me wonder how come not all airports have free wireless yet.

Of course, Tucson has ONE concourse, all of the gates simply have numbers. No trams, no big time fast food restaurants, no Starbucks. But grow your own cactus kits--very many of those. The resort we stayed at is called Ventana Canyon--VERY nice. The tub was about as big as the bathroom I have at home, so....yeah. It is hot and dry here (Tucson). I am looking forward to some moisture in good ol' Seattle.

We gave Tomas (an R2 from UW as well) a ride to the airport, so he is quietly sitting and reading the paper. He looks bored out of his mind and reminds me a lot of the other eastern-european folks I have ever encountered. Tall, european sense of humor and I can't tell if he is having a good time or not. Oh well, he seems nice.

Just the same, we have seen a lot of cacti, small rodents, lizards, birds, skunks etc. Also, in the pool of the resort--there was a random mallard duck swimming in the pool. It didn't seem to mind that there were also people in the pool, nor did the people mind that there was a duck. The last couple of nights there has been stargazing available, so that was pretty neat to see the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter.

Well, the plane is expected soon, so I shall end this post. Tooda-loo!

A little bit of work, a little more vacation

Although I'm going back to work for 3 days until our trip to Arizona, it sure doesn't feel like work (right now that is, I'm sure I'll feel differently tomorrow when I actually return physically to the office) that is coming up. Vacation at Marrowstone was a lot of fun--very relaxing and nice to get away. Above is the chair that I spent a majority of my week in. I re-read a bunch of Harry Potter books, read some HR magazines, and a few other miscellaneous things including newspapers, pamphlets, etc. Basically I was grateful for the lack of internet and computers. The house did have a telephone which rang a couple of times (asking for the owners) and after the second call, we unplugged the phone.

I think the weather gods knew it was our vacation because we got there on Saturday and it stopped raining. The weather all week was sunny and clear and almost hot if you can believe it (at some points, not like Las Vegas hot). The morning that we left--it started to rain again. Coincidence? During the week we read and took a lot of naps. Ventured to Port Townsend one day, another we went to Port Ludlow (ok, drove through Port Ludlow since it is about as large as 2 Seattle city blocks), did some minor grocery shopping for items, magazines, etc. I ended up making some cookies. The house had a Weber kettle charcoal grill so we cooked on that every night. All in all--a very nice time.

On our way home we decided to take the Bainbridge Island Ferry back to Seattle--we stopped at the Central Market in Poulsbo and let me tell you--that store has everything. If we ever lived on "the other side" of the Sound, I would so shop there all the time. We got these ginormous sandwiches called Primateri's or something like that--basically, big slices of grilled bread, about 1 lb of grilled thinly sliced corned beef, cheese, french fries, and coleslaw--all put together. I think I ate about half of it before wanting to curl up and take a nap. We were only on the ferry though--so I had to stay awake to drive home. We happened to be on the ferry that was docking during the height of the Maritime Festival--so there were about 1000 people down by the docks and having a good time.

We got home yesterday (Saturday) and did usual stuff, cleaning, etc. And today--yeah so far, I am still in my pajamas and it is 1015pm. :) Good times! I was kind of worried though earlier since I rarely get headaches and I got this horrible one--I had to lay down for a couple hours. I hope that I don't get any more headaches from work! :) More vacation coming soon--Arizona!

Oh yeah, vacation!!

I know, can you believe--two posts in one night! We are going to be on vacation during the first week of May (right now it is the one of the few motivating things I have that keeps me going sometimes....). We will be staying at The Bluff House -- and we are really excited. Only 12 work days left.

Vacation....is over...let the wine festival begin?

Vacation is over, for now. I realize that Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, so 4-day weekend for me--cha-ching! And let's face it--the entire month of December is shot from a "stay focused" perspective. Give me a break--people are leaving work early or taking extended time-off, etc. Why work at all between Thanksgiving and New Year's? Ok, I digress... I shouldn't sound so drastic or over-arching of my presumption of people's work activities during the holiday season. :)

Just the same, you are probably wondering how my vacation was. The house itself was very nice--although at times you wish it was larger than it really was. We were not even 20 yards away from the edge of the cliff--which went straight down to the Pacific Ocean. Often you could feel the house shaking because of the waves. I was on vacation with Chris and a greater majority of his immediate family (his parents, his sister, his grandmother, and his aunt and uncle, 8 of us total). We lucked out and had relatively good weather for a majority of our stay. We were able to go out crabbing and salmon fishing--caught more seafood than you probably ever want to eat. We have about 45 lbs of Chinook salmon in our freezer right now. Salmon recipes, anyone? I am not as rested as I would like to be post-vacation, but still very greatful that I had an opportunity to stay in such a nice house and have a week away from the office.

You also probably want to know what this wine festival thing is... I am a member of the Husky Band Foundation--which raises monies to support the on-going operational costs of the University of Washington Husky Marching Band (http://www.huskymarchingband.com). A new fund-raising event is called Toast of the Northwest and I need to start talking to all of my friends about this event, hence this blog and the URLs. Good times. I suggest that if you are interested in wine at all that you look into this event. Here's the URL again http://www.toastnw.com.

So this weekend..it is the Apple Cup (Huskies vs. Cougars) and also the Civil War (Beavers vs. Ducks)...but the new Harry Potter movie is coming out too! Egads... too many choices!

Ah, vacation...

I have been working my ass off pretty much since Jeff left the company. And now it is time for a vacation. I haven't had any real time off since May, so this is something that I have really been looking forward to...although it is with some of Chris' extended family. We're going to the Oregon Coast, more specifically Depoe Bay. A 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath house is being rented, check it out at Rose Cliff House.

I probably ought to start packing, but heck--I'm on vacation! We probably have to make a stop at the Target/BestBuy/GIJoe complex for raingear and whatevers and then knowing Chris, he'll be like "let's get some lunch to go"--which it isn't that I'm not for eating, but it is hard for me to eat and drive at the same time. So it is normally something that isn't really nutritious, but only because I can hold it and eat it at the same time, like McDonald's Chicken Nuggets, or small pieces of sushi. I digress, again..I'm on VACATION.

The Huskies are playing today. I stress the word playing the Oregon State Beavers. In fact, today is UW Homecoming. Will the Huskies earn their first Pac-10 win in 2 years? Oy!

Las Vegas: The Wynn Writes Back

Yes, believe it or not--The Wynn actually responded to the letter that Chris wrote about the poor and erratic service we received whilst staying at The Wynn this past September. The letter itself was short and to the point. While not coming right out and saying "we're very sorry for the horrendous service you received", the letter was polite and hand-signed. As a token of their gratitude, they have offered us 2 complimentary nights to stay based on availability and not valid during black-out dates within 1 year of the letter. It was drafted and signed by the Vice President of Operations and Customer Service--he even gave us his personal assistant's direct phone line so that when we decided to take this offer up that we dial and speak with her directly.

Fancy that, eh?

Just the same, I have worked yet another late night--and I am exhausted. But like I was saying...pie and Mah Jong tomorrow, just holding out long enough for pie. My mom has told me that she is making strawberry cream and banana cream pie (two pies, not a weird combo pie). I am going to bring a pumpkin pie and a can of whipping cream. I mean, c'mon--pumpkin pie is all about the whipped cream on top!

Las Vegas: Day 5 -- and le weekend

Where did I leave off...oh so I was ranting about the lovely service at The Wynn. The morning of Day 5 included two almost-barge-ins by the housekeeping crew who apparently had forgotten that we had requested late check-out. Good times. We check out at 1pm, have a leisurely lunch (where I won $10 on Keno, woot) at their cafe and then spend the next 4 hours playing video poker and various other slot machines. I ended up winning over $300 on Day 5, a majority of which came from this very nice $1 machine I found.

We take an uneventful taxi ride to McCarren, check in and proceed to wait for a very long time. The Alaska flight back to SEA was late (Alaska Airlines btw has like the worst on-time record of all airlines for the past quarter or so) by about 45 minutes. We didn't land at SEA until 1145pm! Needless to say I am very glad to be home. I am unsure of when Chris will be sending his "letter of complaint" off to The Wynn. Which reminds me I have a comment card I need to send in as well.

Le Weekend... what did we do. Oh well the Comcast Cable man showed up at 830am on Saturday, so I was pretty tired from the get-go. We didn't go to sleep until 230am. I am sure the cableman did not care that I was in a bathrobe and slippers when I answered the door. He replaced the 300'+ drop with RG11 cable, so now our high-speed internet is WAY better. After a nap and some lunch, Chris and I went to the local Apple Store where I got an iPod nano!!. It is very cool and small; however I am noticing that Apple Dev Workers need to get on the ball with having applications that don't:
1) Require complete uninstallation in order to "fix" an installation problem
2) Take freaking forever to install
3) Are compatible with all types of Internet Security and AntiVirus applications

Also another rant--there are a lot of minor bugs with things that are completely fixable, but alas... I still like my nano.

The Husky Football Team... woot? WTF. That is all I can say.

On Sunday we dragged our feet until we went out to dinner with some friends at our local Outback Steakhouse. Very good. Very full. I will post the pictures of our "swanky" Wynn room when I get home tonight (hopefully)....there is an Almost Live! special on TV tonight so that may occupy my time. :) Like you're in a hurry to see the room anyway...

Las Vegas: Day 3 & 4

We have determined that The Wynn Las Vegas is not exactly a well-oiled operating unit if you know what I mean. How do I say this? Let me list them. Note, please remember that The Wynn Las Vegas considers itself to be the place in Las Vegas to stay right now.
1. When we checked in, the man was rude and barely looked at us.
2. After checking in, we entered a room in which someone was currently occupying.
3. The room's air conditioning is bizarre, you don't touch the thermostat and during the day it is 62 degrees, at night it is 73 degrees.
4. Little air conditioning is provided in the "common" areas of the hotel especially where the rooms are.
5. There was broken glass in our bathroom. Chris' foot was bleeding. I told Housekeeping about it but we are still not really sure if the glass was cleaned up.
6. We were mistaken for another party with the same last name when the Golf Resort attendant called and asked if Chris was going to join his 1030am tee-time party.
7. We had an incorrect charge on our room and Chris had to go down and fill out some dumb paper form in-person.

OK, so The Wynn opened in late April 2005, but still...if you are paying like $355/night to stay here (I think that is the average weekend cost), I know I would expect better.

Just the same. Yesterday we went to The Venetian and had some great hand-made pasta. Walked around The Strip to MGM and took a cab back. Gambled some. I wanted to play some Pai Gow Poker but the tables (they only had 2 of them last night that were open) were packed all night. Go figure. Today I worked a lot and determined that the cell phone signal sucks ass. Good times! I am going to have lunch with my friend Yumi next week, she too works at SBUX corporate, so I am looking forward to that.

Ok, we're going to head out soon. I think it's Bally's Steak House...hhmm...steak. Maybe some crepes from Paris and watching the fountains at the Bellagio. Ah, Ocean's 11. One of the best movies ever. EVER.

Las Vegas: Day 2

Technically this is the beginning of Day 3, but since I didn't post last night, here you go. Jeepers, Casino Boy on www.cheapovegas.com was right, this place is just too much at times. I worked from the splendidness of my hotel room for about 8 hours yesterday, a majority of it post-lunch/conference until dinner time. Let me tell you, after being stuck in this room albeit with a great view for 8+ straight hours, the brown-ness of the walls get to you. I feel like I am in my grandparents house from the early 1900's. Chris says that the designers were probably going for a 1950's look. Just the same, I was going stir-crazy. And I pretty sure it isn't because I was itching to go out and gamble, it was just because this room is SOOOOOOO brown.

Around 730pm we headed down for dinner, we had Teppenyaki from Okada--very nice but surprisingly not too expensive "fine dining" choice here at The Wynn. After that I continued my blazing luck. Ok, not blazing. At one point so far I've been up $50 that is about it--but I've only been playing various slots and video poker to this point. I am still technically up $5. Chris on the other hand...I think he is down $80? $100? Not too bad. Perhaps tonight after some dinner thing with his conference I will play some table games. Pai Gow Poker, here I come! But at night the limits go up to $50. OUCH. And I thought $25 limits at The Venetian were bad?

I took some pictures last night (sorry, the ho-bags at the TI are just a wee bit far away even with zoom) so hopefully I can get them posted soon--the camera is charging or whatever. I will say this though--I don't know if it is trulythe "special cross-section" of Americans I am seeing, or if people really like to dress like WT-ho-bags whilst in LV, because dang, there are a LOT of scantily-clad people here at all times of the day and night. EW. ew ew ew ew ew.

Las Vegas: Day 1

So, we got into Las Vegas, had a fairly nice cab ride and finally get to the hotel. We check in with what I considered a fairly rude hotel person, but nonetheless we were excited to see the room. 3222 we are told ... "go through the casino and follow the signs to the resort elevators." We do this, dodging everyone in the casino and trying not to run into anyone not paying attention to the fact that there are people walking through the casino walkways with luggage. Wait for an elevator, get in, get off--Floor 32. Find room 3222, swipe the card and guess what....

The room was magnificant, huge, looked a lot like the pictures from the Wynn website, and... already filled with someone else's crap. In fact, I was afraid that there was someone on the bed or in the bathroom. There are luggage bags and shopping knick-knacks all over the place and it is quite obvious that someone had not checked out. A call to the Frontdesk goes something like this:

Chris: Hi, this is Chris Lee in room 3222, and I think there has been a mistake.
Frontdesk Clerk: What is the problem, sir?
Chris: We just checked in and entered the room and there is someone else's stuff in here.
Frontdesk Clerk: How much stuff?
Chris: Well, it appears there is luggage and shopping bags all over, it is very well-lived in room.
Frontdesk Clerk: We are sorry about this sir, would you like a golf-course or a strip view?
Chris: We'll take the strip.

So we got upgraded from 3222 to 5543. You can imagine as most hotels in Las Vegas go that the larger your room number is, the better the room. Well, this room is VERY nice, much larger than the other one we were temporarily "sharing" with the Ferrerias (name on the luggage in 3222). Right now, Treasure Island..er sorry, "ti" is having their nightly show of the ho-bags in the water. Quite touching since you can't see anything over the camera flashes. Back to the issue of free upgrades to swankier rooms. We must have this thing because when we were in Vancouver one time, we got upgraded to the second-best suite in the Pan Pacific (because of some noisy neighbors). I hope that we get more mix-ups when we check into places, I can get used to this free upgrade business.

Looking forward to working from this hotel room for the next several days. We need to get something to eat now. Pictures to come later...?