San Francisco

Whoo... lots of travelling so far, so haven't had a chance to update the blog yet. Back up a couple weeks ago...

For pics:

SF part 1 - BBQ, GG Bridge, Coit Tower
SF part 2 - Fisherman's Wharf, Castro, and other randomness

Landed in San Francisco around noon time, weather was a brilliant change from Seattle, which was rainy and overcast. Sunny and +15 or so, could finally shed that sweater. :)

Tooling around Oakland with Dallas, Linda and Trish, flying around the freeways and getting lost in sketchy neighbourhoods ("I wonder if we can bust through that fence to the highway, it doesn't look very sturdy"), making it into the city with all the crazy traffic and finally ended up at their apartment, which hasn't really changed (Sphinx and Tex were still the same happy fat cats... oops I mean big-boned/poofy).

Went over to the house they're going to move into, around the Irving neighbourhood (the "locals" Chinatown). It's got decent space, and a large garage space that is going to be converted into a 1 bedroom suite by Dallas. They gotta do something about the connecting stairs though, either make them wider or install a traffic light to indicate when someone is coming down... Next was 8 hours of BBQ, Beatty family craziness (7 members present), some puzzling over the pictograms in the caps of the Mickey's beers (could drive one to drink, it could :P), and some tasty handmade burgers/veg skewers/Middle Eastern dainties. Eventually as night fell, people got to huddling around the dying coals of the BBQ, in true bum-huddle fashion.

Spent a week in SF, seeing some sights and hanging out with friends. Did most of the tourist trap stuff on the first Monday while people were at work, heading out to Coit Tower for the 360 panorama, then travelling by the streetcar of death to Fisherman's Wharf (when the driver tells you "I don't feel safe on this car, this is my last run", it doesn't exactly inspire confidence...). Wandered along the boardwalk until I hit Ghirardelli Square, where I caught the cablecar back to Market St. (hanging off the car on the side is fun, tiring, and occasionally earsplitting when the firetrucks roar by).

Highlights of the day:

an old "performance artist" who would hide behind a couple of tree branches he was holding until an unwary passerby got close, then sprang out "from behind the bushes" with a shout. Nearly scared the pants off me, and then I joined the crowd of onlookers/former victims to see the next one...

Busker who played for the crowd lined up for the cablecar, he did a pretty mean Beatles... and the dancing man who just started jiving to the music without any prompting or a hat out (coincidentally, the guy had played "Mr. Bojangles" about 5 minutes before)

Sea lions are fat and sleepy at FW, the young ones play around at "king of the dock" while the older ones are happy to bathe in the sun... kind of reminds me of the beach :)

Feeling like not only you but the cablecar is going to fall off the rails on the downhill segments



Went out to Pleasanton the next day with Dall and Linda for an errand, which is a nice little slice of suburbia with large malls and flowering trees everywhere (plum I think they were). Afterwards, had a soup bread bowl at Quizno's (pure genius! environmental and tasty), and some ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery (the original "marble slab ice cream parlor). Basically lots of driving, lots of hanging out in flowering parking lots, and eating. Headed down to Mission district for burrito mojados with Trish, which are super-sized burritos drenched in sauce and guacamole (the things are the size of my forearm!). So good, but could only barely finish half of one. Horchata, a Mexican rice milk cinnamon kind of drink was also really good. Got slightly lost on the way back, wandering through a bit of Castro before finding out that we were way closer than we expected to the apartment. :)

The rest of the week was spent wandering around San Fran, through the Castro and Irving neighbourhoods, a bit of the parks and other randomness. Since Lisa sent down a 1L bottle of maple syrup with me, we made pancakes pretty much everyday for breakfast. I went out in my pajamas (knee-length black pants, grey West Beach hoodie, and long black & gray horizontally striped socks with my brown shoes, Trish said I looked like a Dutchman) to grab some eggs from the corner store once, but SF has some pretty interesting fashion statements so wasn't too out of place...

Met up with my oldest cousin Peter and his wife Rain, who are living in the Bay area, and are doing great. :) He recommended some oyster farming up in the GGNRA, which I will have to do next time I am back there (it's apparently an "exciting manly task" to shuck oysters, sounds like fun! :P). Also met up with an old family friend Agnes Wong and her three-year-old daughter Maya out in Berkeley, where we had some great Indian food (no frills atmosphere, but the best saag paneer I've tasted so far). Berkeley is apparently the birthplace of "Californian cuisine", will have to go back for food adventures at some point.

Then Friday night rolled around... let's just say that it was a good night. ;) Yujie came out for a few hours, she's working down in Sunnyvale and taking latin dancing, looks great! Hopped around a couple of bars with a pizza break in between. The pics should say what kind of state I was in afterwards. :P I woke up the next morning to discover a pot with a plastic bag in it beside my head (pristine though)... Saturday was pretty much spent recovering, stayed in and ordered Nepalese food which is pretty close to Indian, just with more goat. Tasty stuff from the Kathmandu Cafe.

Didn't feel like doing a big hike on Sunday, so walked around Castro and Haight-Ashbury with Trish in the afternoon. Remarked on how the trinkets in those Tibetan shops were marked up about 1000% from those we saw in China. Chilling at Cafe Flore talking about random stuff, life, etc., pretty much what we used to do at the Black Dog. Sat in the Panhandle watching the slice of weird life go by (some people had dragged couches onto the grass, and after a while a cop car came zooming up to them, eager to enforce the law in this little corner of SF).

Monday was spent packing mostly, then went to Golden Gate Park to feed the squirrels peanuts with Dallas. After a while, they'll come right up to you and take it right out of your fingers (although one mistook my finger for a peanut once). Saw a model sitting up by the waterfall in an evening gown for a photo shoot, tourists were also snapping pics as they walked by (I wonder which ones turned out better...). Dogs being walked would chase the squirrels around, who darted up the trees but soon came back down for more peanuts. Funny enough, most of the dogs were little ones, not much bigger than the squirrels...

OK, ending this massive post now. More on New Zealand/Aussieland later.

G'day, Ange

Seattle

Seattle... lots of dogs, bikers (the self-propelled kind) and North Face gear.

Really only had one day in town so tried to see stuff that I didn't get to the last time I was here. Woke up fairly early and headed down to Fremont, the "quirky" neighbourhood just north of downtown. They pride themselves on being weird, so have a whole bunch of suburban art installations (the Fremont Troll, the Interurban collection of bus stop denizens, a statue of Lenin salvaged from the collective Russian statue toppling, etc etc). There's also a park that is actually a reclaimed gas refinery, named (appropriately) Gas Works Park. The playground there consists of some rusty mock gas refinery equipment.... didn't see any kids there though. :P

walked along the sound to the University of Washington, there was an interesting monument just across the street from the Applied Physics building. Were they trying to tell us something...

The campus is pretty nice, lots of neat architecture, and a skateboarder's dream of a central space.

From there, walked across the bridge to Capitol Hill, a hipster neighbourhood known for indie music and coffee shops. By that time my toast and orange breakfast was hours back and I was getting pretty footsore, so resolved to stop for some pho noodles that I heard were in the neighbourhood. If only I could find it...

Realized after about 2 hours of walking that Capitol Hill isn't right across the bridge, it's a couple neighbourhoods south of it. >_< By the time I reached it, I was so hungry I ducked into the first food purveyor I saw, which turned out to be a tasty Japanese place that served specialty sake. Figured that if I wanted to make it back to the hostel in one piece I'd better lay off the sauce, so just gorged on unagidon instead. Best BBQ eel on rice I ever ate!

Walked around the neighbourhood a bit, stopped into Wall of Sound to see if they had the CD I was looking for (they didn't, but did have a copy of Kid Koala, a Montreal scratch artist who releases comics with his discs; were also playing some experimental music with lots of distortion, clicks and squeals...). Went to Bauhaus for a latte and some people watching (also some dog watching, lots of dog walkers). There was a weird sundog (only one) that appeared around 4 pm....


Checked out the local concert clubs to see if there was anything I wanted to check out that night, but by the time I got back to the hostel my feet hurt so bad I could barely put them down on the ground (yes, I walked back). Decided to call it a day and chilled for the night. Seeing as I had to wake up at 6 the next morning it was probably a good idea anyways.

For more pictures, see the following album:

Vancouver & Seattle

Tried to lug my stuff to the Sheraton airport shuttle, then spent 20 minutes trying to find the elusive hotel. Gave up at the Westin and hopped in a cab, which cost me about $30... darn phantom hotels... Caught Southwest down to San Fran; they have this weird queueing system where they give you a letter and a number to designate when you're allowed to go find a seat (general boarding), and you had to line up according to your combination between marked poles. Everyone was confused though because the poles rotated to show different letters/numbers. Self-defeating efficiency...

Made it to San Francisco around noon, where it was warm, sunny and all around the best weather I've seen since starting the trip! Got picked up by Trish, Dall and Linda in their car, and drove around Oakland trying to find lawn chairs and BBQ food for the gathering later that day (un/successful respectively). After dropping off the luggage, headed over to the house that they are in the process of buying/moving into, and spent the afternoon/evening making food, eating and drinking with the Beatty clan :).

cheers, Ange

Vancouver-Seattle

Currently typing this from the Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle, by the Pike Place Public Market. Seattle and Vancouver are both similar in that there's a lot of waterfront to walk on, and parks everywhere.

Stayed in Vancouver for the past 3 days, basically pounded the pavement around downtown in the mornings and visited friends for eating in the afternoons/evenings. Was situated in Davie neighbourhood, lots of rainbows... :) It's in the "south end" of the downtown peninsula, so English Bay is a block away. Even on warm sunny days, the cold wind off the sea makes for a chilly but brisk walk. Lots of dog walkers, joggers, bikers, etc... From there, walked up Denman to Stanley Park, made it halfway around to within eyeshot of Lion's Gate Bridge before getting really hungry.

Was going to meet a friend Farnaz in Burnaby for lunch, so walked over to the Burrard Skytrain terminal. It was a bit of a gong show after that.... missed the transfer for the Millenium line so had to hop back a couple stations. After getting to the station, waited for my friend for about half an hour before looking at my phone and realizing I had been booted off the network somehow, so wasn't receiving calls. Figured she would be sick of waiting by now so hopped back on the train to downtown, when I got a call from her and we figured out that we had been waiting at opposite ends of the station. :P OH MAN... so turned around again, and finally saw her after an hour of these shenanigans... Good to see her though, and she's working for some surveillance/security company programming in C++, so doing good. We were both in consensus that grad school, while a good experience, isn't something that we ever want to go back to....

Headed back downtown to meet up with another family friend who was a lawyer at Harper Gray LLP, and got to see the seriously impressive view from their offices (32nd floor). Even better that it was late afternoon, so everything was a warm golden color... Could also see English Bay from there...

Walked from there down to a Chinese restaurant on Cambie, 6 blocks away from my family friend's place (a nice find for her). Met up with an auntie and uncle who had moved out here for retirement (a common trend amongst the Chinese community in Winnipeg), and had a nice evening reminiscing about old friends while eating Peking duck and crab. This was actually the first time I enjoyed crab, because there was actually meat inside the legs! I guess it's because it was really fresh... The uncle is known in his neighbourhood for running around the park ("it's you! I know you!" from the local kids), and the auntie regularly sings Cantonese opera on Tuesdays with a bunch of other ladies in Vancouver (apparently there's a big difference between Cantonese and Beijing opera... will have to listen to it one of these days).

The next day walked up the other side of downtown to Gastown and Chinatown. Basically just wandering around until something caught my fancy (which wasn't often). Gastown has that famous triangle skinny building, and Chinatown had this Kwai Chang Kane-Chinese lookalike (you know, from Kung Fu the Legend) in a gift shop who taught Wing Chun kungfu in the back... how awesome is that? :)

For some reason, Canadian geese everywhere... in the parks, on the streets, in the air... I guess like other Vancouverites, they see no need to leave for the winter....Had an hour to kill before meeting up with other friends for artistic lattes so went down to English Bay to finish my book (Ghost Sea by Ferenc Mate, an excellent sea adventure/ethnological study on the Kwakiutl people of northern BC). It was sunny out so I figured I could find a warm spot along the beach to read, but the cold sea wind drove me from bench to bench until I figured out the best strategy to find a reading spot: just follow the sunning geese. :) Parked myself beside a flock enjoying the sun in the shelter of a few tall leafless trees.

Met up with Jacques and Jess for lattes decorated with cream and powdered cinnamon at Artigiano's, in Kerrisdale, a neighbourhood with funky little shops/cafes/restaurants/lingerie stores (??). Talked about movies, new and old, and how the upcoming "Forbidden Kingdom" would probably be very light on plot, but would be worth seeing for just one thing: seeing Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the same movie! :P

Got dropped off at Kitsilano Beach, with an awesome view of downtown, so took a short walk among all the dog walkers. Then headed back up the hill (I forgot how hilly Vancouver was, my butt is hurting from all the unaccustomed exertion :P) to BC Sushi, a pretty good all you can eat sushi place. Slabs of sashimi, really fresh and even sweet sea urchin! Apparently there's no decent sushi for a decent price in Australia, so ate my fill that night. The first sushi place I've seen where the waitresses put in the orders with PDAs. :P

Caught the bus back downtown (total noob with their faresaver tickets, but whatever), and spent the remainder of the night looking up details of Seattle for the next day. Unfortunately the greyhound bus was running slow so didn't get into Seattle until 4:30, too late to do much of what I planned, but there was a "First Thursday" free art walk in all the galleries including the Seattle Art Museum, so it's not all bad. Will try to hit up Fremont (with the bridge troll) and Capitol Hill tomorrow, basically just pounding pavement some more and maybe seeking out random landmarks. I have a small project while I'm travelling, there's an obscure album by Takagi Masakatsu (classical/electronic/visual arts) that I've been unable to find anywhere in stores, so perhaps I'll be able to find it here, where indie music is almost a way of life.

cheers, Ange

Picture Albums

Three days of reunion/partying = one tired Ange :)

Edmonton pictures

Gantarmania: birthday bash

(and these are the relatively tame pictures...)

Great to see everybody, go stomping along the Ave and experience +8 weather for a couple days at least.

This was more about seeing people than places, but here are some highlights:

Friday: Took a morning walk across the High Level Bridge, which gives a great view of downtown, the Legislative Building, and the N. Saskatchewan River. On the way back, walked through Kinsmen Park and forgot how hard it is to walk uphill on ice. :P

Visited Neuroscience lab to eat some Spanish delicacies Esther had brought with her, including prosciutto (tasty) and anchovies in oil (interesting...). A small discussion on the perils of eating small oily fish when you have braces. Most of the crew will be gone within one or two years, off to the next stage (working or otherwise)...

Dinner at Lisa's, making it was interesting (sauce on baked salmon dripped down and caused 2 feet of eye-tearing smoke, forcing us to open all the windows & doors), ultimately very tasty and craziness abounding with making videos for Trish's compilation (it's all Jon's fault!). Headed out to Gantarmania afterwards, and partied till 3 am! Tom is eternally youthful as always at 30, how does he do it?? Falling asleep at 5 and waking up at 9:30 to find some keys made the next day kind of a blur...

Saturday: as sleep-deprived as I was, made it out for Pho with B-dette and Jess, discussed the trends of moving to Australia (B-dette's going too later this year) and how people all seem to be getting married at the same time lately. Craziness!

BBQ that night at a friend's place, semi-comatose until the poker set came out (don't know how, I actually won it all...). Headed over to the Empress afterwards to check out the newest pub on the Ave, opened by former Black Dog employees and doing pretty much the same business. I even put a hole in the wall in the same spot while playing darts...

Sunday: took the opportunity to sleep in, and just chilled with Lisa and Aleks on the Ave. Antique Cellar always has some interesting stuff, and visited the recently departed BD (it shall return, as assured by Sue Kiernan). Craving some eggplant hotpot at Buddy's, then helped make my own scrapbook present at Remedy cafe (they made one for me and Trish, so will wait until I get down to SF before looking at it).

Monday: woke up at 6:30 am to help Lisa clean up her house (kind of a disaster after 3 days of partying), then headed for the airport. 2 x 50 lb suitcases = arms of steel...

more later on Vancouver, which is the suck right now (rainy and cold), but should warm up tomorrow.

cheers, Ange