[8.2] O Canada

Time to update our loyal readers on the Pacific Northwest travel log. As you may recall, in January we tripped up to Vancouver, BC, so it's probably time to document that here. We'd heard good things and neither of us had been there before. Since this is the closest venue to see a professional hockey game, Lisa was a champ and got tickets for us to see Dave's favorite team, the NY Rangers, take on the Vancouver Canucks. So we made a weekend out of it. We left at about 1:00 PM on Thursday, which was also game night. Yahoo Maps told us it should take us about 2.5 hours so we drove leisurely, stopped for a late lunch and hit the Canadian border at about 4:15 PM. We passed into Canada at 5:45 PM--please note that there is no time difference, we just got held up at the border for 1.5 friggin' hours. Apparently, the post-holiday sales at the Washington outlets, combined with the strong Canadian dollar brings shoppers down from BC in droves and causes mayhem at the border heading back.

So, by the time we found our hotel (after a minor directional misstep), checked in, and got to the game, it was roughly midway through the first period. Apparently, the Rangers' shots suffer from the same deflation as the US dollar since they produced no goals and our heroes embarrassed us with a 3-0 loss. Didn't they know that we drove for 6 hours and 15 minutes to see this game? The couple sitting next to us were also Ranger fans that had flown up from Portland in an even greater waste of time and expense. Well, we still had a whole weekend to enjoy Vancouver...(?)

I'm going to cut to the chase here: The weather was absolutely miserable all weekend and put a major kink in our plans to explore the area around Vancouver. In the few spots where the sun peeked out, it was clear that Vancouver is a great city, nestled between the ocean and the mountains. Unfortunately, many of the nearby attractions are outdoors and the weather was not great for sightseeing.

On Friday, we spent a bit of time walking around and getting the layout of the city, ducking into a bar here and there for a drink, and then bagged it an went to a movie. We also booked tickets for an improv comedy show that evening. In the evening, we walked down to the waterfront and took a mini-water taxi across the river to Granville Island where theater was. After dinner at a nearby restaurant, we caught the show, which was somewhat disappointing, and then had a few drinks at a bar, before cabbing it back to the hotel.

Saturday, much to Lisa's pleasure, was shopping day. As a conservative estimate, she looked at two million pairs of leather boots. She was in her glory because there were many more options that fit her much better than the boots she was able to find in Seattle. She has a theory on this that you'll have to ask her to explain. After a long, cold, rainy day of shopping and a few cocktails here and there, we headed back to the room and relaxed for a while before going to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner.

Before heading back on Sunday, we drove a loop around Stanley Park, a big park on the Northwest side of city center that offers some great views of the city skyline and the surrounding areas. On our ride back, we breezed through the border crossing in about 23 seconds and cruised for most of the way, until....have you been paying attention? Yes, until we then hit outlet country and guess what? More shopping. This was not as bad though since I was able to pick up a few things for myself. I was also able to entertain myself more easily than the day before, when my main form of entertainment was thinking up as many adjectives as I could to describe the boots that Lisa tried on (Beautiful!! Elegant!! Saucy!! Hooker-ish!!).

And so, we wait for better weather, when we can go to Vancouver and tell you all what we really think of it.

[7.1] Family Encounters (Part 2)

It's almost March, so I guess that means it's time get you all up to date on several trips and visits that surrounded the holidays before spring comes and more people start visiting. Time has been pretty scarce for blogging as we've been doing quite a bit of traveling on the weekends. But I will have some more time for the next couple of weeks as ankle surgery this week has sidelined me once again. This is my second time under the knife to try to fix this ankle and now that I'm up to four sizable scars, I'm hoping that I'll be relatively pain free.

Anyway, time for some catch-up so this will likely be a long post. Let's start in November. A good portion of Lisa's side of the family converged on Oregon for Thanksgiving. Lisa's sister's family secured a condo in central Oregon, her mom flew in, and after we picked up Margaret and her granddaughter, Riley, in Portland, we had the whole female part of the Hayes family. We had a fun trip down Wednesday night, driving through the Cascades in the dark of night.

Lisa and I were in one car and Margaret and mom were in the other with Riley. We brought our walkie-talkies in case we lost cell phone coverage which lead to a funny story. We used the walkies and somehow Margaret's unit became stuck so that Lisa and I could hear their whole conversation. Luckily, they stayed away from any criticism about Lisa or myself. When Lisa tried to wave to get their attention, mom responded, "She's so silly. Why doesn't she call us on the walkie talkie if she needs to tell us something?" We finally got to a decent cell and were able to call Margaret to tell her to fix the walkie. While the trip down was in the dark, our ride back offered some great views of Mt. Hood. Slowly we're conquering all of the mountain passes in the great Northwest.

Rebecca, with a bit of help from everyone else, put together a great feast despite the handicap of a foreign kitchen with limited utensils. A most excellent bird and other fixings were served, all of which were documented in photos by Marissa, our niece. Marissa and Brianna also hit the non-alcoholic sparkling cider hard. Fozzie hit the leftover turkey hard. The next day, we were able to secure a racketball court to play some wallyball in a futile effort to lose the several pounds we each gained the previous day.

We all headed back to Portland on Friday as Albert/Rebecca and family were heading back to NM and mom, Lisa and I were headed back to Seattle. But before we went our separate ways, why not one more meal? So Margaret's son and his family joined us for some sushi before we got back on the road to Seattle. The trip back was was marred by our first encounter with the Washington State Troopers. Apparently there is about a 15-mile stretch on I-5 that is considered to be under construction and Lisa was going a bit over the speed limit.

Once back in Seattle, Lisa, mom, and I had a full day planned on Saturday since I had to hop on a flight to China for work on Sunday. So we first headed down to Uwajimaya, a big Japanese grocery in the international district. Lisa and Mom stocked up for the next day when they hung out at home for some cooking and bonding. After the store, we decided to do something ultra-touristy and take a Duck tour. For those of you not familiar, Duck tours are given by bus drivers that drive old, converted amphibious vehicles from the armed services. So the tour is half on land, half on water. Complete with canned jokes and music from the drivers, you really can't get more cheesy. But they're very fun nonetheless and rather informative. We managed to capture mom on film having quite the time.

Of those of you that have already visited, many have asked us where the "Sleepless in Seattle" house is. You know, the one down on the water. Well, our Duck tour was very informational and worth the $25 if only for the fact that we now know where the house is. It's on the west side of Lake Union, only about a mile or so from where we live. So there you have it.

You would think that was enough of Lisa's family, but not quite. Margaret seems to find herself up in Seattle once every few weeks, so she made it to our party in December, and then in January, we got a call from her to meet at the Cheesecake Factory in Tukwila as she was in town for business. She, Lisa, and I also headed to LA to visit their grandmother and a bunch of other family toward the end of January (mentioned in the last post about our snowboarding adventures) and had a great time, albeit a busy one trying to fit everyone in for at least one meal. Many thanks to Mike and Jen (and Maverick and Flo) for putting us up for the weekend as we breezed in and out.

The three of us had fun-filled meals on Friday (Aunt Trisha, Uncle Doug, Mike, Jen), Saturday (Mike and Jen), Sunday afternoon (Paul's b-day at Ed and Nancy's) and Sunday night (traditional Japanese meal prepared by mom). Sunday night, we also found out that it was requested that we drink a rather large bottle of sake. To no one's big surprise, Margaret, Lisa, and I were up to the task.

And that brings us to the end of family time with Lisa's side of the family, for the time being.

[8.1] On the Slopes

Since the winter began, we've been trying to take advantage of the proximity of quality skiing and snowboarding. There are three resorts within two hours of our house and a few more within another hour or two, so it's quite easy to get out for a full daytrip and enjoy some quality snow. And when I say quality snow, I mean 160 inches of base to date. That's more than Colorado has gotten. For a little taste, check out the pics.

It has however, been a bit difficult to get out to the mountains, primarily because we've been away most weekends. But we've managed to get to Crystal Mountain and this past weekend, we got up to Stevens Pass on Superbowl Sunday. We're also heading to Bend, Oregon this weekend for some more riding during Winterfest down there (so look for that update next week). This could be my last time out this year since I've scheduled another surgery on my ankle, which still gives me problems. My skills on the snowboard continue to improve pretty quickly. In fact, the only photos Lisa was able to catch of me are those on the chairlift or at the bottom of the hill. I'm just that fast.

An interesting thing about all of this is that we've gotten only about an inch or two of snow in Seattle total. However, there have been several avalanches that have closed the passes heading up to the mounains. In fact, one of Lisa's co-workers got stuck at Snoqualmie this past weekend and missed half of a Superbowl party.

In between our trips to the local mountains, we also managed to get away for a day of snowboarding with Lisa's brother, Mike, on our recent trip to Los Angeles --you can see him carving it up in the first video. Unfortunately, we gave my parents a fright because on the day we were there, an effort was underway to rescue three snowboarders trapped in an avalanche, which got broadcast on the news back east.