Coastal Road Trip

 I accomplished a goal of seeing more of the West Coast in October.  Starting by driving across Whidbey Island to catch the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula... Where this gorgeous bridge is.

Tidal pools a little farther south... 

Sun on the waves in Southern WA...








As gorgeous as these shots are, my trip was not all pretty scenery... Splitting my trip by stopping in Astoria, OR.  I went out for dinner.  I should have known something wasn't right when I felt a little off after the soup.  Oh my goodness!  Who knew food could come back up so fast, even with a little pepto to try to keep it down!  Sorry for the weak stomachs who are reading this now...  I was so glad to have family close by, I spent the rest of the weekend couch surfing, recouping after that bout.  I guess there is always next time to get farther down the coast.

Jesse and Andrea Visit

  In September Andrea and Jesse, friends from Long Beach made the trip up to visit also...

Picking locations I hadn't visited yet we went out to hike around Stanley Park... 

They were so patient with my slow pace, who knew a chest cold could mess with a person's lung capacity...
But even the slow pace didn't stop us from getting amazing views.

 We also checked out the wild life in Queen Elizabeth park....


I'd have to say the best part was walking through Gas Town in Vancouver.  The buildings are always beautiful and the food is always fantastic.  We went for Japa-Dogs. Yum, then hiked out to Chinatown for Steamed Pork Buns.  And yes, crossing quickly across Hastings, we even witnessed a little more downtown flavor :)  As a guy walking in the opposite direction took a hit of coke.... Skytrain, please...

Despite the downtown fun, it was great to have the visitors and the company to explore a little more while I'm here.

Sister's B'day Visit

In September my sister was able to visit :)  Since I've been building up hotel points since I got here I decided a little road trip was in order.  We drove up to Grouse Mountain.  We did some hiking, although the famed "grind" was a little too packed so we took the tram.  Even with out the major train, we found some spectacular views.

  and checked out the Grizzly Bear Exhibit.  Cute little bears and just a wire fence between you and them...

Becca braved the fence and got close enough for a picture before we hit the road to head up another mountain to Whistler...

Our room in Whistler was FANTASTIC.... but I forgot to take pictures.  We checked in, grabbed some dinner then crashed out.  A bike race delayed our departure but we made the most of it by hiking to a lake, where we found a nice spot to read out books...



Then made a stop with the Olympic rings before we headed back down the mountain...







Before we headed back to the States to get Becca on her flight home we took a drive through Lynden, WA. I learned what a Blue Town was... I never would have thought a whole town could be closed for Sunday, but yup.  The only thing open was the sidewalks in this place!  It definitely made for a quiet end of trip for us.  

Las Vegas Trip ...from May

So this post is going a little back in time... I've had it written for a while but didn't get the pictures together until recently.  So here is a little bit about my trip in May...

Been a while since I've posted, so ladies and gentleman hold on to your seats… This is how we play catch up.  Work has been mostly, well, just work nothing really exciting going on there so 

  We’re gonna go back on this with a little bit of my awesome trip to Las Vegas last May… I know, I moved to Canada and where do I take my first trip big trip?  Las Vegas?  Well first off when a friend calls and says “I’m gonna be in Vegas for a conference, would you like to keep me company and have a hotel stay for free?”  Free room, just have to cover my plane ticket and incidentals?  Heck yeah!  I’m going to definitely plan some awesome incidentals!  I ended up hitting trip adviser and giving rave reviews for everything we ended up doing. 

Who knew the abridged version of Phantom of the Opera could be so cool?  It was like pushing play on my Highlights CD.  I’d never been to a cocktail bar at a theatre and we thought it would be fun to see if there was a “Phantom” drink.   The bar had just stopped making the signature  drink but the bartender went ahead and set us up.  Before we hit the show we did justice to a Buffet.  As is the Vegas tradition.  Oh my goodness Danielle!  Thank you so much for selecting the buffet based on their dessert menu!  The Wynn has an entire room just for dessert.  The food was amazing too, but I had to pace my dinner on the desserts I planned on hitting.  And, man did we enjoy them!  Of course we dressed to the nines and had a fantastic night on the town.  If only sexy shoes were more comfortable for walking those HUGE Vegas blocks.  A taxi has never seemed like a better idea than when your feet are ready to be bare foot. 

Bestest Chocolate Ending

Champagne Martini

Back to the show, we got coupons with our tickets and planned out our next night around them.  How fancy, Champagne Cocktail bar, Dinner at a fancy French place then reservations for dessert at a place with a 5 page chocolate dessert menu.  Is it becoming apparent this vacation was all about the food?  Dinner at Bouchon, in the Venetian was amazing.  I wanted to try something new and fancy.  I got brave and tried seared Fois Gras for my culinary adventure!  What an experience!  I can honestly say… It was amazing!  I can’t believe California has banned the dish.  Another reason I probably won’t end up back there.  Cheesecake filled crepe with an orange mint salad and a cup of sipping chocolate for dessert rounded out the evening and my middle.  

Needless to say it was a trip all about visiting and food...Ahhh, best way to plan a vacation :)

June Weekend

These are gonna be a little out of order but I'm getting my summer pics up here this weekend without exception... Skipping a little in here are some shots from my weekend in June :)

A friend of mine visited for my weekend off in June and was a good sport with a road trip for wine tasting in the Okanagan Valley among other Vancouver tourist spot...  

We stayed at a very interesting B&B- Gorgeous, but not quite complete.  1900's Farm House Decorated with funky Buddhist style a little at odds with itself.

Visited a Lavender Farm...

Next we went to a honey farm... 

Tantalus Vineyards went above and beyond...
All our stops were their tips
And we got a private tour of the vineyard, cellar and 
had a private tasting!

Summerhill Vineyard's view from their restaurant was incomparable!  And the Sparkling wine... Yum!

Tasting at Cedar Creek Winery....

View from St. Hubertus Estate... 

When we got back to the coast we stopped at 
Steveston, a cute old town fishing village.

Sampling Cider and Beer in the Buck and Ear Tap Room... 

...and crossing the border to head back to the States.








Awesome weekend all the way around :)  Thanks for giving me the excuse to get out and explore Bri :)

The Begining of my Summer Tale

So... I know I have been lapsing in diligence in getting stuff posted.  Mainly due to this having been a crazy summer.  Seems as soon as I got settled the crazy hours took off :)  Not to worry folks... I have been taking notes and pictures and this week I should be able to begin the tale.  Hopefully this week life will slow down enough that I can breathe and write... September begins the hotel phase for my nice little house.  Stay turned for the goings on of my summer :)

This was supposed to be posted May 29th :) 

WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I?!?!?!?!  I went to a pub for dinner.  Didn't really feel like cooking tonight and I wanted to try this pub that opened down the street last month.  Felt like I was in a great place as soon as I walked in, fight playing on one screen, basketball game playing on the other screen, I ordered my fish and chips and a pint of cider and settled in at the bar for a nice meal and some people watching. 

I brought my journal with me, an attempt to force me to write a little more.  I'm focused in my own little world and ready to enjoy my evening.  Sigh... my evening is about to get better.  In walks a spectacular example of every thing sexy in a man, and yes ladies and gentlemen he is sitting a discrete stool away from me.  Rocking body, hey I have eyes, and gorgeous eyes of his own.  He orders an ale from the bar tender and I'm thinking it's gonna be a little harder to focus on my journal while he checks out the menu. 

My fired masterpiece arrives with a bottle of malt vinegar; yes I'm feeling good about my dinner.  Then the hot guy orders a salad.  Now there is really nothing wrong with ordering a salad, nothing at all.  However, salad is not the first meal choice I think of when sitting at the bar in an Irish Pub, with a pint of ale!  Then I overhear the following conversation...

HG (hot guy)- Do you follow this American Basketball "thing". 
BT (bartender)- Not really, but it's the playoffs, so we've had a lot of requests to watch the game. 
HG- It doesn't make any sense.  How many games to they have to play before this is over?
BT- Not sure let's look at the info on the menu.

Bartender then pushes buttons on the remote, we find out this is game 5 of 7 and Hot Guy decides there is a more appropriate game playing for the bar TV.  Channels are changed and now we are watching the French Open. 

Sorry, this guy is no longer so hot in my mind.  Is it wrong?  I feel I could never respect a man who knows less about a sport than me.  I'm not a huge fan of basketball but even I know who's getting spanked in the playoffs! 

And don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the athleticism required to play tennis and play it well.  But when in a pub, I have to question the appropriateness of choosing tennis over the playoffs and dare I say masculinity as well!  Goodness!