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!

SFO to Bay Area

SFO to Bay Area 2

On the BART

Trolley Terminus

Smart Pigeon

MUNI Transit

The Quick Escape

SFO

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.