San Francisco.

Because I'm falling so behind on my blog entries, I'm forced to cut corners, trim the edges, and take shortcuts. Like a 48 hour time lapse video compressed into just 4 minutes, here's the gist of how it all unfolded. Enjoy the pictures taken along the way!


February 20th: San Francisco

Early 630 flight to San Francisco. The BART. Bright and beautiful day. Hotel Whitcomb. The Cable Car. Ghirardelli's. Lori's Diner. Anchor Steel local beer. Fisherman's Wharf. Pier. Golden Gate Bridge. "No peds allowed on bike lane!" Strange Fish. Black elementary school kids rapping in the back of the bus. Irish folks singing modern Celtic "Spirit of the West" kinda music on the bus.


February 21st: San Francisco

Alarm failed to wake us up. Late start. City Hall. Asian Art History Museum. Jump shots. Tim and Merylin. Muir woods. People comment on my Gorillapod. Colourful mushrooms. Sonoma Valley. Wine Tours. 6 different varieties at Nicholson Ranch including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syriah. $10. Homewood Estates next. Sonoma Cheese Factory. Reservation made at 2045 but not seated until 30 minutes later at Bistro Don Giovanni. Delicious Italian food. Twin Peaks. Fantastic views. Extremely windy.


February 22nd: San Francisco

SFMOMA. MUNI Tram to Haight & Ashbury. 5 T-Shirts. Hippieville! Rain, rain, rain. Walk, walk, walk. Back at hotel at 7. Dinner with a few of Mel's friends to the Cheesecake Factory. Huge portions. Pasta Carbonera. Forced-fed cheesecake. Stuffed.


February 23rd: San Francisco

Berkeley. Tower. $1 admission on Alumni status. Financial District. Took 25 cent transfer from bum. Haight Street for food. Charged battery there. California Academy of Science. Aquarium, Sustainability, Planetarium. Kosher restaurant in Chinatown. Rushed back to the hotel to gather our belongings. BART to SF Airport. Dash to check in and made it in the nick of time.

Squeezed out every little minute of our time in SF and ready for a repeat!

Seattle (again).

Sameer and Imelda drove to my place to pick me up in the late afternoon. From then on, we headed south towards the border crossing for Seattle. My friend Andrea invited me out to a cold reading of her play at the Alibi Room on Pike Street and we were doing our best to get there on time, cruising down the I-5 and listening to my collection of the best of the Pet Shop Boys.

Andrea was her charming self when we met her inside the dimly list restaurant/bar which was the Alibi Room. We were catching up on some new revealing details about what's been going on in our lives since our last meet and were having a jovial conversation over some delicious pizza until Jona and his troupe of friends made an appearance. His avoidance in making eye contact and acknowledging my presence confirmed what I had suspected since our trip to Seattle several months back. I haven't a clue why he chose to take on this childish behaviour, but at this point, I don't care to know.

Andrea's cold reading of her script went quite well. Several actors on the floor assumed different characters as they read her script with vigor and vitality. As I was listening along to the story, I started to realise that this was more or less an autobiographical tale of her experience moving to a new city. She had painted a pretty picture of Seattle, characterising even the homeless people as a friendly social bunch. Strangely enough, that certainly wasn't my experience immediately after surfacing from the cellar and out the doors of the Alibi Room.

As we were admiring the "gum wall" directly across from the exit doors, a hygienically unkempt African American woman approached several people including myself with open hands asking for money and talking loudly about her dire situation. She also nearly gave me a hug but I stepped back in time.

At the motel, we had Sideways playing on my PowerBook, but as we were watching it from the comfort of our beds, comfort and fatigue got the better part of us and we fell asleep before reaching the end of the movie.

Ice Skating at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Here I was yet again with Mel and Sameer, this time at the new Olympic Oval in Richmond. It would appear that wherever there's fun, we're all there. The building is amazingly beautiful with extensive use of wooden pillars and frames that's become distinctively west coast in architecture design. With a free entrance coupon in hand, we put on our brand new Bauer skates from the community centre rental and took to the ice. Because the ice skates were so new, it wasn't fully broken into yet, and this made it a little painful to skate well in. Yes, I'm actually blaming it on the skates and NOT in my ability to skate.

The speed skating oval was huge and accommodated a basketball court and a tennis court in the middle. The building also boasted a weight room/fitness centre on the floor above. I believe I even saw a track around the perimeter! This LEED certified building is a spectacular one inside and out and deserves to be at the centre of attention during the 2010 Games.

Snowboarding at Cypress

In keeping with my newly acquired "YES MAN" philosophy, I agreed to go snowboarding at Cypress with Mel and Sameer. No, I didn't feel that I was coerced into going, I actually wanted to! The last time I was at the slopes was when I was working at a ski resort in Nagano several years back, so it was time to relive that masochistic painful-joy feeling of falling on my ass and taking a tumble to the bottom all over again.

The sun was out in full and kissed the mountain ridges at day break. The snow covered mountain-scape was a beauty to behold and I was brimming with excitement as I drove up Cypress Bowl Rd. After meeting up with the rest of the gang at the lodge, getting my rentals in order and parting with a $100 bill, I took to the bunny hills first for a practice run as I wasn't feeling all too confident in my ability. Surprisingly, I faired quite well with my balance and turning skills that I, along with Sameer and Mel, felt confident enough to advance to the real slopes. Advancing quickly down the green, blue and black diamond, taking nearly every path the mountain had to offer, I even said yes to the moguls, but never again. At least for a while.

True to our west coast flare, Cypress had a spectacular view of downtown Vancouver and it's surroundings from the chair-lifts. I'd say "YES!" anytime for another go. No pain, no gain, eh?

Valentines Day Party

"No one should spend Valentines Day alone!" was the reason given for Mel's V-Day dinner invitation at her place this evening. Prior to arriving, I'd spent hours in the kitchen preparing all the ingredients for Canadian butter tarts and making it all from scratch. From kneading the dough to mixing the mixture of butter, shortening, walnuts and vanilla extract, and placing exactly 10 pieces of dried raisins in each shell to pouring the mixture in each to form a tart, It was a labour of love. The kitchen gave off that wonderful smell of a bakery when the tarts were doing its thing in the oven.

Sadly, despite my greatest effort, it didn't turn out the way I had hoped it would as the shell was very flaky. I blame this on the fact that I used whole wheat flour instead of the all purpose flour the recipe called for. Furthermore, it came out too sweet for my liking.

Photogenic Vancouver.

Getting my lunch appointment with a friend mixed up for today instead of tomorrow, I found myself walking around downtown Vancouver again just taking in the sheer beauty of the city I call home. Armed with my Canon 40D in my Slingshot 200, I took advantage of the situation and exposed many parts of Vancouver in natural sunlight. She's quite a beauty, and camera-shy was she not!

I called out Jen to join me for a photographic adventure and we met up in the afternoon by the new convention centre still under construction. Yes, even a city can have facelifts, nips, and tucks!

We drove across the Lions Gate bridge and crossed over to West Vancouver heading towards Lighthouse Park. Along the way, we stopped by for some food and drinks. While Jen was off getting coffee at Second Cup, I spotted a small independent Italian deli shoppe across the street. I popped in to check it out and a few minutes later, I bought some prosciutto and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies to take with me to consume at the park. It never made it as my hunger was too strong.

The lighthouse jutting out from the rocks never fail to disappoint, but what was even more special was the long exposure pictures of the Burrard Inlet and the Lions Gate bridge in the far distance I managed to capture just after sundown. It was simply spectacular.

Vancouver, I <3 U! You sure know how to strike a pose in any light.

Obama Day!

I took time off from work today to chauffeur our guests from Japan. Queen Elizabeth Park was where we hit first and the recent snowfall that caught the city by surprise was still very evident on the slightly higher grounds of the park. The pristine bright whiteness of the sun's reflection on the icy snow gave the dome of the botanical gardens and it's surrounding environment sparkle like crystal.

We had lunch at the Seasons Restaurant in the park, distinguished by a plaque at the entrance marking this restaurant as the place where Gorbachov and Bill Clinton had dined at way back in 1993 during a summit. We were situated at a table by the large bay windows which looked out to the downtown core in the distance with the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop. Good fortune had us choosing from the special Dine-Out Vancouver menu, as we were in the midst of this annual gobble-festival for a chance to stuff our faces with food in establishments we wouldn't normally give patronage to. Perhaps it was the time of day where most people would be working, but as I looked around the restaurant, I saw only a sea of old ladies with pouffy white hair sitting around, gossiping about something trivial I'm sure. I felt so youthful in their midst.

Fog crept in, and by the time we were at the University of British Columbia, we couldn't see much of anything at all. The Museum of Anthropology was closed for renovations as well, so we were out of there pretty quick and moved on to explore the downtown core instead. I drove over to the Moshie Safdie designed Vancouver Public Library's central branch and spent some time admiring the colosseum-like architecture with floors and floors of books of all kinds. Mom wanted to take some Japanese books out but couldn't as she didn't have her library card with her.

Our last stop for the day was to Sushi House in Richmond where we picked up a large party-tray of assorted sushi to have at home for dinner. All along the day, I had the car radio tuned to CBC Radio One (now on 88.1 FM!) listing to news about Barrack Obama's inauguration, his speech, and the celebration that took place all around the world simultaneously. Even songs about Obama written by songwriters and musicians the world over were heard, my favourite one was of the song titled "There's no one as Irish as Barrack O'Bama".