Another win for the West Coast

I received an e-mail this morning preparing me for the upcoming arrival of two friends from Montreal: Lara and her boyfriend Charles are coming to Vancouver in November... and they are planning to stay!

Lara and Charles hated the winters in Montreal. They were planning an escape from the cold this year, but hadn't decided on where their new adventure would take them. They both visited Vancouver in the past twelve months (Lara twice) and loved the West Coast. Not just for the warmer weather, but for the ocean, the mountains, the emphasis on healthy living and the relaxed atmosphere.

This is fabulous news! Lara is one of my best friends and knowing that I will see her more often now makes me really happy. The boyfriends won't get too jealous of the time we spend together, they are both huge Xbox fans and get along quite well. I can't wait!!!

Thank you!

I went to the gym tonight and handed in a total donation of $450 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Thank you so much for your generous support, especially on such short notice.

I am looking forward to the race on Sunday. I am ready to tackle a 5 km run through the streets of Vancouver, rain or shine :-)

Shopping for major appliances, part 1

My condo has pretty old appliances (use lots of energy and are really noisy) and since my washer is threatening to quit on me, I thought I would do some appliance shopping for replacements. Well, day 1 has not been as successful as I thought it would be.

First, I want to replace my top-loading with a front-loading washer (and replace my dryer that is no longer working): it would use less electricity and spin the clothes almost dry, which would reduce the drying time. Well, the first store I visited did not have any 24" wide front-loading washer, 27" was the smallest they had. I can't have anything wider than 24", so I seemed out of options. The, the sales rep told me about washer-dryer combos (that is, the washer and the dryer are one appliance). LG has a model that is 24" wide, it would fit my laundry closet and even leave space on top of the machine for shelves. It's an expensive machine though, almost $1900, before taxes!

I then started heading to another part of town to see what other stores had to offer. Unfortunately, the second store I was to visit was closed and the last store, a bit too far to do in one day (it was already getting late). So, I went back home, did some research on washer-dryer combos and after reading the posts on this site, I'm not sure they are a good idea after all. A full cycle takes a long time (dryer can only dry half the washed load, so you have to dry in two cycles) and the machines seem to have quite a few problems. They are also very complicated to use and apparently, come with a useless manual...

So, I feel that I am back at square one. One of the brands I haven't checked yet is Bosch and they seem to have a front-loading washer that is 24" wide. I heard that they are really expensive though...

Sunny Saturday in Vancouver

A sunny weekend where your boyfriend is away is the best time to catch up on chores.

My day started with a few hours spent helping at the closing ceremony for the Cops for Cancer tour, an event organized by the Canadian Cancer Society. The riders (the cops) were finishing their 600 km journey and meeting with their buddies (children living with cancer) at Vancouver City Hall. It was a very emotional event. Trevor Linden (Canucks hockey player) rode a few hours with the cops and showed up at the event. Mayor Larry Campbell also paid us a visit, with a brand new look: he had his head shaved the night before to raise money for the tour. Bald is back, baby, bald is back!

After the ceremony, I walked to the pet shop to buy a mouse and a new infrared lightbulb for Cornelius (aka Snakie). Tucker did not have time to feed his pet before leaving for his trip. Feeding the snake a mouse is not so terrible after you've seen it a couple of times, but picking the mouse out of the box is less fun. Fortunately, the store owner picked a tame one.

Then, I did some outdoors cleaning (planters on my balcony) and repotted a few plants that were threatening to walk out of their previous containers. I also went to the gym and ran 5 km in preparation for next Sunday's Run for the Cure. Tonight, I'm spending a quiet night at home, with a movie. There are a few movies I want to see that Tucker would probably never want to watch. Now's the time! Or maybe I'll watch Star Wars V, now that I bought the new DVD boxset that just came out.

Stellar evening

Tucker's employer had donated a prize to be auctioned off at Gambado, a dinner-auction event organized by the Shooting Star Foundation to raise money for people living with HIV/AIDS. Tucker received the pair of courtesy tickets for the auction, held at Performance Works on Granville Island. So last night, we dressed up and headed out for an evening of fun!

Auctions are really cool, we had lots of fun bidding on items in the silent auction. We didn't win every prize we place a bid on (better this way, the bill would have been high), but we did end up with some pretty neat items. Tucker won the "Learn to row" course at a rowing club in Vancouver and he also was the highest bidder on a beautiful picture of the Inukshuk at English Bay.

I won the bid on an original artwork from an Alberta artist called Stephanie Kewisten. The West-Coast First-Nation style work of art depicts a single loon. I tried finding additional information about the artist on the Web, but there is none. I will try to call the gallery who donated the piece to ask them for a bio. I also placed the final bid on a gift certificate at a local restaurant, combined with a t-shirt with their logo.

This was not my first such auction, I had volunteered this year at the post-dinner auction for the Trevor Linden Golf Tournament. The event raises funds for Camp Goodtimes, a camp for children living with cancer (I volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society in Vancouver). But this was my first time as an attendee of an auction, and I plan to return next year! It was lots of fun!!

Lara and Gerri would be so proud

This Fall, I decided to take on a pretty big challenge: improve my flexibility. I'm really bad, can't touch my toes unless I bend my knees. At this point in my life, it's not a major handicap (I just look really silly when I'm trying to touch my toes). However, as you get older, you loose flexibility and this is reflected on your posture. So if I start at zero flexibility when I'm 30, I'll be the hunchback of Vancouver by the time I'm 60.

Since I pay for a gym membership, I thought I'd better take advantage of it and decided to show up for some of the fitness classes they offer their members. Mondays are for core and stretching (core in this case being only abs and lower back, but that's OK). Tuesdays and Sundays are for yoga. And after I work out, I consciously try to spend more time stretching. And yoga is not so bad afterall. On Tuesday evenings, it's a very relaxing class from 8:30-9:45 p.m., after which I return home, have a shower, sit on my bed and read myself to sleep. A nice change from work, that's for sure...

Lara and Gerri (both yoga enthusiasts, Gerri even used to teach classes in Vancouver) have tried to encourage my taking yoga in the past and I think that their encouragement is finally paying off.
What really helps getting someone into practicing yoga? An orange yoga mat from Lululemon!!!

Can't believe it...

but I had a really great time last night at the football game!

Yes, the BC Lions vs Edmonton Eskimos game last night was everything but boring. The Lions won in overtime with a victory that was a stroke of luck (the last field goal by the Eskimos hit the pole) and throughout the game, kept their fans on the edge of their seat with close calls. Thanks to Tucker's patience, I now understand the game, which makes it a lot easier to enjoy the skills being displayed. This was also the game where Mike Pringle (formerly playing for Montreal) broke the all-time CFL rushing record of 16,116 yards.

One thing is for sure, when the home team is working defense, a stadium full of 29,704-some screaming fans can be a really noisy place! The Lions now leads the West division (and Montreal, the East division!!).

Pictures, pictures, always more pictures

Thank you Anna for the wonderful picture :-)


Tucker and Mel at Cannon Beach

I am running for the cure

The cure for breast cancer that is. When I returned from San Francisco and went to the gym on Tuesday night, they had posters everywhere about getting a team of runners together for the race on October 3. Each runner is giving herself (this is a women's only gym) an objective both financially and physically. I chose to run 5 kilometers (because the race is less than one month away and I have not really done any running this Summer) and raise $400 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. I have mailed you letters asking for your support last Thursday. Most of you should receive them by mid next week. If you wish to make a contribution, please reply quickly, as I need to return all funds raised on September 24. You can find more information about the race here.

Last Friday, Tucker and I rented Dogville on the advice of Annie. I have to say, this is a film that resembles no other and is well worth renting. It was a little long, but the performances of the actors were wonderful. Thanks for the tip, sis!

Mission Dolores and Napa Valley

I guess these would be our last pictures from the San Fran trip. The small Mission house that you see in the first picture is the oldest building in San Francisco. It has survived many earthquakes, including the one in 1906 which leveled almost everything in the city. The Basilica was completed in 1918 and is actually much larger than the original building (there is a small museum in a backroom showing religious artifacts and pictures from throughout the history of the Mission). When we visited the Mission, we also spend some time walking around the small cemetery. While we were reading some of the inscriptions on the graves, two ladies tending the garden and trees offered us apples from one of the trees. They were delicious, sunripe and sweet.


Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores)

Basilica next to Mission Dolores 

The visit in Napa Valley was dedicated to tours, tastings, and just strolling around under the brutal sun that has made this region so perfect for wineries. We visited Domaine Chandon and tasted some of their fine sparkling wines, visited Niebaum-Coppola and the museum dedicated to the work of Francis Coppola (awards, costumes and decors). We also did the wine tour at Mumm and tasted more sparkling wines. We ended our day at Beringer, the longest continuously operating winery in Napa (they managed to stay open during prohibition by making wine for religious ceremonies and "medicinal" purposes). The wine tour at Beringer took us through their caves, hand dug over the course of eight years. All and all a wonderful day, but 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. is not enough time if you really want to visit many of the smaller wineries. I guess many guests also stay overnight to enjoy the many spas and B&Bs.


Sparkling wine tasting at Mumm, Nappa Valley

Walkway at the Niebaum-Coppola winery, Nappa Valley 

Ah! Yes, more pictures from San Francisco...

After the first few days we had in the city, we did take it easy on Thursday. We woke up late and spent most of the afternoon shopping around downtown and in Chinatown (largest in North America, second is Vancouver). From Chinatown, we walked to North Beach that is not really a beach, but still pretty cool. That's where you find Little Italy and Washington Square. From there, we started walking up, way up, to the top of Telegraph Hill where we fount the Coit Tower. The tower was baptized as such following Lillie Coit's generous donation to the city of San Francisco in the early 1900s. The tower also has impressive murals on its first floor, murals that were showing the influence of Diego Rivera at the time. For those of you who do not know the story of Rivera and Frida Khalo, I strongly recommend renting the movie Frida. You'll love it, I know I did.

We then ended our day by visiting the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where we found an eclectic collection. One of the exhibitions was called Pop! From San Francisco Collections. You can imagine that we saw lots of Andy Warhol, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg. I was also surprised to see a few paintings by Friday Khalo and Diego Rivera, including the one she painted from the two of them.


Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill

Murals in the Coit Tower 

Church of St-Pierre and Paul, at Washington Square (North Beach) 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 

More stories from San Francisco

Our second full day in San Francisco, last Wednesday, was a very touristy day. We took a trolley bus to Pier 41 to get our tickets for Alcatraz. At 10:45, we boarded the ferry to the island, it was only a short sail away. We then spent about 3 hours visiting Alcatraz, including a 40 minute audio tour of the prison itself. Check out the picture of Tucker in a prison cell: they did not make them very big! After Alcatraz, we went out for lunch and had clam chowder soup in a bread bowl. Yum! Then, we went to see the sea lions that have adopted Pier 39 as their home (they are very noisy and kinda smelly). We walked through Fisherman's Warf, took the cable car up Hyde street (very hilly), shopped downtown, and ended the day with a baseball game (the Giants lost, but it was still fun!).


Waiting for the ferry to Alactraz

Bad, bad Tucker!! 

Residents of Pier 39 

Hang on! 

Hyde Street view from thr cable car 

Two frozen Giants fans 

Back home now with lots of wonderful memories

Well, we're back! After a 16-hour drive back to Vancouver yesterday, two tired but happy travelers are using the Monday holiday to sort and put away stuff, do some laundry and prepare for the upcoming work week.

Some pictures of our trip below, more to come in the next few days. We left Saturday, August 28, early in the morning, for an initial breakfast stop in Blaine to visit Gail (Tucker's mom) and Garry. It was nice to see them again, it had been a while. Gail's garden is filled with ripe tomatoes and plums, lavender and many flowers. She gave me some dried lavender and beautiful cards with pictures she took of her garden. I thought they were from a professional photographer!

After breakfast, we headed South, driving down the coast on scenic highway 101 all the way to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Scenic is arguable, the road does open up to mesmorizing view points but most of it is just plain and winding. We made it to the campground around 6:30, after getting caught in traffic in Seattle and a small town just before Cannon Beach (some sort of relay-race blocked all the streets). Anna (my coworker from Inkra) and Kimber had not arrived yet, so we unpacked, pitched the tent and went for a walk around to find beer and see the beach.

Anna and Kimber were at the campsite when we returned. We started a campfire (first time this year, I believe) and chatted away until everyone was tired and went to bed.

On Sunday, we headed out to town for breakfast. When we returned, we went for a walk on the beach, feet in the frigid water, playing with the waves. We walked all the way to Haystack rock and back. Tucker and I then packed our camping gear and said our goodbyes. We had a long way to drive before hitting San Francisco.



Cannon Beach (Oregon)

Posing in front of Haystack rock, Cannon Beach (Oregon) 

We drove for the rest of the day Sunday, not hitting California until late that night. We were supposed to camp, but had not picked a campsite and since it was getting really dark (and cold), we decided to rent a motel room instead. Everything they say about motels in the States is true: they are expensive, furnished with old and discolored furniture and not very clean. The shower in our room was gross, we didn't even bother to use it. At least, we were able to sleep in a warm and dry room (it rained that night, camping would have been a bit unpleasant).

Monday morning, we continued our trip South, taking the time to drive through Redwood to admire the trees. We took the Avenue of Giants, an alternate road running next to the 101, in a forested area. The Pacifica barely made it through the drive-through tree!


Avenue of the Giants, Redwood National and States Parks

Driving through a Redwood tree 

We arrived in San Francisco mid-afternoon. The temperature range in California was interesting. From Crescent City (where we stayed in the motel) to North of San Francisco, we went from 13 to 36 degrees in a few hours. From Ukiah to just outside of San Fran, it is really dry and the only "crops" you'll see are wineries.

The hostel where we were staying for the week was on Mission, close to 21st Street. Mission Street is at the heart of the Mission district, named that way after Mission San Francisco de Asis (also called Mission Dolores), one of the 21 California Missions established in the late 18th century (I'll post pictures of the Mission later on). The Mission district, housing a mainly Irish population in the old days, is now Latino in majority. Everywhere, you hear people speaking Spanish and listening to Mexican music. Unfortunately, the district has been left to its own demise and is not a very clean or pleasant area of San Fran. We never felt threatened but we came across some of San Fran's poorest residents on a daily basis. It definitely gave us a more honest sense of what the city was about.

The Elements Mission hostel is in a new building that also houses a cafe and restaurant/bar. We enjoyed our stay there, the place was very clean and the staff was great. We would have liked to meet some other travelers, but there was no common room in the hostel, so we usually just crossed people in the corridors, on their way in or out of the hostel. Our first evening in San Fran, we had sushi at Yo Yo, on Valencia Street.

On Tuesday, or first full day in the city, we decided to head for the Golden Gate Bridge, to walk across this San Fran monument. We got an early lesson in using the transit system in a city where three distinct companies offer transit services but don't talk, so tickets for the BART would not get us anywhere on the MUNI bus system. Fortunately, we were helped by a friendly lady at the Tourist Info place downtown and were able to figure out how to get around town with our newly purchased three-day MUNI pass.

We made it to the Golden Gate Bridge around lunch and had a snack before attempting the crossing. The bridge is long, almost 2km on way, so we were going to need fuel :-) Walking across the bridge is quite the experience, very windy, a bit treacherous with the bikes zipping by at high speeds, but for the most part, very fun. After the bridge, we bussed to the Golden Gate Park (not in the same area of town), walked around the park, then down to Haight, all the way to Haight and Ashbury. By that time, we were both tired and it was getting really hot, so we didn't take in all the quirks of this archetype of hippie culture. We bussed back to the hostel, then changed for dinner to a fabulous restaurant we came across. Levende Lounge was in the tradition of the hip restaurants of Saint-Laurent Street in Montreal. We tried their marinated olives, a beet salad, mini lamb burgers with Indian spices, Tucker had steak strips and I had duck confit. Yum!


Walking the Golden Gate Bridge

On the Golden Gate Bridge, with San Francisco in the background