Checking Out Vancouver {Day 6}

It will take me about four hours to drive up to Meems and Maires’ place in Vancouver.  So I left my hotel room at 6 am.  This is going to be a long drive and then I have to go through border patrol?  First thing is first, getting coffee!

Luckily there is a Starbucks in nearly every corner around my hotel. haha!  I bought a bagel and cream cheese with a pikes place brew.  Ahh breakfast!

I printed directions to meems’ and maires’ place, for just in case.  And off I went up to Canada!

Three hours and a half later, I made it to the border patrol.  I was asked these questions-

“Where are you going?”

“I am going to see my friends up in Vancouver.”

“How do you know them.”

“Through the internet.  I known them for 3 -4 years now.”

“What are you going to do do there?”

“Have fun.”

That was it and off I went.  Only my GPS stopped functioning properly.  My arrow was no longer on the road and the distances were totally whacked.  Errmmm… I thought my GPS was good for the North American Hemisphere.  Good thing I got a printed map as well.

“Maires, uhm… what road do I take to get there?  My GPS is not synced anymore!”

“Quick, Maires, get onto the internet!!”

After many turns I got into their part of Vancouver.  Next up was getting through their neighborhood to their house!  One would think that it would be an easy straight and then right onto Venebles, but wrong!  It was a maze just trying to find how to get to their house, let alone get to their house!!

What their neighborhood did was create dividers and diversions to cut the traffic.  So at my first diversion I made a right and then a left and then a left and then a right and then a right and then a left.  I saw their street, but I just could not get there because of all those diversions so I had to do a right, right and then another right onto their street and finally made it!

Sheeeeh!

I was finally at the Kwoks.  First thing I needed to do was go to the bathroom!!  I knocked on the door and Meems’ and maire’s mom answered the door with Meems at the doorstep.  I guess their mom got their first.

I said my greetings to the parents and went up to their rooms.  Whoa.  All I am gonna say.  They have a lot of birds!  And a mean cat!  Maires room was full of anime plush toys, unopened games, and other assorted entertainment goods.  Meems room also had this kind of decor.

Meemz put one of their birds on my shoulder, Baby I think.  And it hop crawled over me until it hung its butt out so it could poop.  I guess Meems and Maires know the signs, they pulled out the trash can and the bird pooped.

Getting enough rest, Meems, Maires, and I went out to explore Vancouver.  If only I came in the summer time, Vancouver would have been loads better looking!  The first place was this vegetarian place.  I know Meems and Maires love their meat, but took me to this vegetarian place to accommodate me.  I had a veggie egg with mango platter (which was pretty much tofu and mangos…) and maires and meems had the veggie bacon sandwich which was so much better!

I guess I manually focused in the wrong zone.. ha!

Well that was that and we headed towards center city to explore.  We parked in a garage and walked out to a huge mall building.  It had some cool architecture with crazy lines!  But the cool part was inside the bathroom there was this sign warning against sponge bathing inside! ha!  how can you sponge bath inside there?

Do people really sponge bath inside?

yeah... definitely not my thing.

Back out we went.  We walked around and saw a protest against Scientology going on with people with V for Vendetta masks on.  Who would believe in Scientology?

In any case, we walked to this steaming clock and then to this pier before heading to Vancouver’s tallest building.  And then went to a feminist movement art exhibit.  I had to keep some distance from the twins, their feminist anger was growing and I was the only guy there…

Afterwards, we headed back to Maires and Meems so I could check into my hotel that meems rented for me!  :)  Meems is awesome.  I also met her boyfriend, Greg!  What an interesting fellow!  Well I got checked into my hotel and stashed my stuff there before we went out to dinner.  The first place we went to, looked extremely nice, but there was no real vegetarian options for me there.  So we went to another place, which was  a Chinese Vegetarian restaurant.  I am very thankful that they are such nice wonderful people.

We had a small table full of food!  It was just a lot of food to eat!  Mmmm!  We each had a dish and there being four of us that meant lots of eating!

After being filled to the brim with food we went to a boba tea place.  Where afterwards, the point of contention brewed.  Was the server a seriously young girl dressed sleazily or someone our age.  My vote was that she was a seriously young girl with a push up bra.

Well we ended the day with me being back at the hotel to rest up!

Snowed In {Day 5}

Today. Today was the day I was going to Mt. Ranier! I checked the weather forecast and even called them. I was told it would be a good day. So I got prepped to go to Mt. Ranier. This was going to be a shorter drive than Olympia National Park. Whew! I don’t want to do another long drive.

I ate the rest of my cereal … mmmm… and then got dressed. On me I had my jeans and sweatshirt and in my day pack I had some trail mix, water, poncho, and journal. My camera gear was always ready, ha ha!

Off I went to Mt. Ranier, a good 2 hour drive. It was actually a nice drive. Mainly because there was no rush to catch the ferry! ha! I drove through some nice towns with antique looking appearances and nice wooded areas. I think this would be a cool place!

I passed through the ticket office, buying my ticket, and drove up the path. Around the bends and twists, I drove my way up to the top. Or at least as far as I could. Midway of my drive, there was thick snow lining the sides of the road. Snow?

Curious, I stepped out of the car to take some photos of the snow. Hmmmm …. the folks who I spoke to yesterday said it would be a fine day to come out here. Right.

I drove all the way to the information center, I think, and it was entirely snowed in!!  The only path that was open was the one I drove up here!  AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!  Oh well, it was cool to photograph the site.  But pity I couldn’t go around much further.

After shooting for a little bit, I decided to go back to Seattle.  Ahhh… man!  I guess poor planning got me.  It was really cool while I was here, so that was worth it.  Time to take the long twisty and icy road back to Seattle.  maan!

The drive back, I stopped by an explorer store to look around mainly to see if I could pick up an item for Vincent.  But it looked like everything was pricey and too big for the little dude.

Having driven back to Seattle, I went to a water works site which was kinda cool.  Saw how they managed to have waterway lane changes as well as areas where they are taking care of the local fisheries.  It was an interesting area, but I was getting kind of bored.  So I left for Seattle’s public library.  Which was really huge!

I didn't have my macro at the time.

She was pretty cute. And with a pretty huge dog too!

I went up and down the library.  All the way at the top, I looked down … holy.  It was pretty high up!

Saw a guy trying to change the lightbulbs up there. That's gotta be tough!

Taking the elevator down, it did take some time to touch the ground floor. I looked around a bit and then headed to my car to head to this Thai restaurant by the university of Washington.  And it was really awesome!

The interior was really well done made it look modern with a flair of thai. design.  The waitress gave me a spice rating for the food.  Zero to five, five being the spiciest.  As I am not the biggest fan of spicy food, I opted for a 1 rating.  Which was still pretty spicy.  Oh the burnnn!  I called Bob while I was at the restaurant, drinking down water to try to cool down the tongue.

That didn’t work and well, drinking water after eating spicy food doesn’t generally work anyway.  But it was soooooo good, yet spicy!  It was Thai red Curry and a sweet and sour dish.  Mmmm!

I am definitely going to come back here again. I hope.  Tomorrow I am heading up to Vancouver to meet Maires and Meemz Kwok for the first time in person!  Online buddies from the AIC anime board.  They are really awesome!

I finished my meal and went to the grocery store next door.  A Vietnam vet was sitting out there asking for money.  I dropped a $5 bill in his hat and moved on.

After my food purchases I went back to my hotel to relax and read Dr. West’s book before my trek across the northern border.

Alki Beach and University of Washington {Day 4}

The body wanted to sleep, so I slept in.

Only for a little while, I woke up 9 am. ha! I wanted to sit in this graduate level class so I had to go to University of Washington later. That would be at 4 pm. So before that, I am going to go to Alki Beach and do some shopping at Bellevue Square. Tonight it is going to be this other Vietnamese/Chinese vegetarian food!

I entered the address for Alki Beach and amazingly that was pretty close to everywhere I want to go to. So that was that! I had already purchased cereal and since my hotel had a fridge.

Mmm… honey bunches of oats and soy milk! I tried to go vegan for the trip, really! Well then again I been drinking coffee which I use dairy so maybe that doesn’t work out. hmmm…

Fed and ready, I drove off to Alki beach. It was small and not what I expected, but it had a great vantage point if I were to shoot Seattle at night. Too bad the longest I could get was 70mm. What could I do? I don’t have the bling to get all the lenses that I want. I hiked around after parking and saw a Tully’s coffee. It was lighter than Starbucks and Seattle’s Best, but it really wasn’t that great. In my honest opinion!

Damn straight!

Tasting my peppermint mocha ( I tried Seattle’s Best, Starbucks, and Tully’s and I love Seattle’s Best, well.. the best.) I was ready to go back to Bellevue to do some book shopping. Cornel West released a new book called Hope on a Tightrope and I wanted to buy it. If I had to say, my favorite song from Snow Patrol’s Album has to be either, “Planets Bend Between Us” or “Lightning Strike” hmmm.. I mean I love the other songs on it too, but those two stand out.

haw haw!

I stopped back in Seattle really fast to check out the art museum.

Back in Bellevue, I went to the huge mall to look for a bookstore. I didn’t think about searching for a Barnes and Nobles, though I really should. I went to the information desk and asked where was the book store. They directed me to go leave the mall and go across the street towards a barnes and nobles. Doh!

And what made it worse, the rain was coming down harder and I did not bring my umbrella with me. Double Doh!

Well I got into the Barnes and Nobles as fast as I could to get out of the rain to look for Dr. West’s latest book. It was a little tough to find, so asking a clerk he showed me where it was. All the way in the back corner. Uhmm… It was just released why was it stashed in the back corner instead of the new releases?

Oh well. I went back to the mall, thanked the clerks, and went to Seattle’s Best to grab a cup of Peppermint Mocha. I love how the coffee and the syrup work together to give it the caffienated peppermint taste and on top of the whip cream it has large chunks of dark chocolate and peppermint! Mmmmm! This was what made it so much better over Starbucks and Tully’s!

My class was about to start at University of Washington, so I had to get back to my hotel grab my laptop and head over to the university. Every time I travel in the states, I try to visit the universities in the area. When I was in San Diego, I checked out UC of San Diego, University of miami when I was in Miami, etc. I guess at that time it was because of my interest in pursuing graduate school. These days, I think I am enjoying photography so much more.

It was a graduate level course in Photography and Society course.  When I got to the campus, I got lost looking for the parking lot!  I had to drive through a mass of students, don’t worry I didn’t run them over, to find it.  Sheesh!

Having parked, I went around to the campus center, information center, to the library to get a free internet pass, and then to the fine arts building.  The campus was nice!  I liked the large center they have in between the major buildings!  The library was pretty spacious and full of texts, the campus center had a real nice eating area, and I didn’t explore the other building.

The head shadow is me!

Ahhh.. fed and now ready for the seminar!  I previously emailed the professor back in September through October about the course and said it was perfectly fine.  So when 4:30 came around, I went to the Fine Arts building and asked the secretary (who was really hot!) where that course would be at.

In the basement.

Hooray.

I went to where the classroom was supposed to be and waited till way past 7.  Hmmmm… I guess either I got the wrong classroom, which it shouldn’t be the issue, or the professor had to leave immediately.  So I decided it was nice to visit the campus, but dinner was needed!

I was disappointed and left the campus to find the more important thing- food.  I had the address for this Vietnamese Chinese vegetarian restaurant out in the boondocks, the ratings said it was good.  So off I went.

Lo and behold it was an initiate’s restaurant.   Just what I needed.  Argh!  I should have went to that Thai restaurant that I looked at earlier!  Well food was food.  My family knows I am highly, irked, with these people and really picky with my food.  But I didn’t want to let my anger take over the fact that I am eating food.

The food was dry.    Ugh.  Oh well.  Then one of the waiters asked if the seat in front of me was taken.  Helloooooo I am traveling by myself and the entire restaurant is freaking empty!  What a douche.  I was not in the mood to play nice.  I really tried to mind my own business, but the waiter kept on trying to strike up conversation.  Now I love to chat with people, or listen, but I wasn’t in that kind of mood for that.

I finished my food and left.  I was courteous and said thank you before I left.

Ugh.

The night was still young so I punched in Space Needle into my GPS to check that out as my last site for today.  Tomorrow I wanted to see Mt. Ranier.

Vincent would love the Space Needle!  Whoa!  It was cool!  Well I was also pretty much the only one up there too.  Which gave it more bonus cool points!  There is this nice long windy hall way where I could see Vincent run around and then the elevator up!  It was pretty fast going up!

I wish I had a longer lens.

I took in some sights from above and then went back down into the souvenir shop.  Great way to exit.

Back to the hotel for me to sleep and rest up.

Taking a Ferry and an Eight Hour Drive {Day 3}

Where is my coffee?  This morning was a rough one!

I woke up early to go to Olympia National Park today.  It would be one heck of a drive even using a ferry.  It is on the shore line of Washington and Seattle is like in the middle.  So for me to get there without having to make a funny U shape course, I had to take the ferry which leaves early.  I seen all those awesome photos of the place from other photographers on dgrin.com and had to go see it for myself!  I packed all the snacks that I had, as well as some groceries that I have purchased and headed off to the ferry.  Ahh, GPS, I love and hate you sometimes.  Today I love you.

By 8 am, I arrived just in time for the ferry to leave!  Whew!!

Ferry rides are pretty fun!  This was my first time on a ferry.  I pulled up to my designated stop and got out of my car to take a look.  Today was an important day, not only was I gonna check out some awesome nature but it is also election day!  So far before I left I checked the details on cnn.com, come on Obama!  But I got preoccupied with chomping on some of my granola bars to think more about it.  Obama is going to win.

When the ferry arrived, everyone got back to their cars and off we went!  It was going to be a long trek!  The first stop I went to was about 2 hours from the ferry stop.  I have a lot of driving to do!

That is one huge booger..

The first stop I went to had a really damp hike to the water falls.  Well it is not like it was unexpected, I am in Washington after all.  Good thing that I had warm clothes on, haha, cause it was seriously cold!  I hiked and saw some spiffy things along the way to the falls.  When I got to the falls, there were several other photographers taking photos.  Must be pretty slippery being on the rocks in the middle of the water, because that was where they all congregated.

I am not that gung ho especially knowing that my balance isn’t, well, balanced! ha!  So I took some shots of the area and then headed back.  I have strict times to follow.  My leaving ferry leaves at about 6ish.  And it was now noon.

I drove to the shore which was a 3 hour drive.  :(  But it was worth it!  Seriously gorgeous!

My underused tripod.

I stayed there for a little while until I saw my watch.  I had to be back to the Ferry!  And that is gonna be like a 4 to 5 hour drive!  Oh crap!  By the time I got by the midway point it was already really dark out.  Oh boy.  Gotta put the petal to the metal with this Cobalt!  Too bad that translates to 90 mph tops.

A couple hours later, I made it to the twists and turns to get to the dock!  Turn here turn there, finally made it!!  And my luck and early departure got me there just in time!

On the ferry ride back, I called Eric for the status updates.  He was joking around like usual, but eventually told me Obama was in the lead.  Damn right.

Instead of driving all the way to the hotel, I drove straight to the restaurant from yesterday and had a big bowl of pho.  Hmmmm… I love pho, but their pho tasted.. odd.  It had this unique sour taste to the soup.

After dinner I just went back to the hotel to chill.  I was pretty beat, sweaty, and lazy.

Going to the Starbucks Motherland {Day 2}

The thing with going to bed early usually means waking up early. I woke up at 5:30 am this morning to write in my journal, until 6 came about for breakfast. Hooray for peanut butter and jelly with an apple. I am probably going to go out to buy some food to eat.

At the desk, the clerk was wearing a really low cut shirt. ..bloody temptation..

I had my gear packed and ready to check out. But I didn’t check out till after I did some internet surfing and email sending. Hooray for work emails. Emails sent and I grabbed my gear and checked out of the hostel to carry my gear to my rental car in the parking lot and then coming back out to check out the Pikes Place Marketplace and the original Starbucks coffee shop.

When I walked into the marketplace, I saw all the seafood stands with all the seafood laying out there for the customers. As well as other foods, like awesome chocolates, trail mixes, and other goods. The thing I liked about the marketplace was all the people and the visual stimulation from it! It was pretty cool!

But it wasn’t that long of a place so once I got to the other end of the market, I saw the original Starbucks! Sweet! It was a small and welcoming shop, rustic brown in colors and baristas throwing cups. But there wasn’t anywhere to sit inside, so I went back out to do some more exploring.

I saw a Tully’s coffee shop just a few blocks away and thought to myself that I would need to try one from them.  I felt my stomach growl and figured it was about time I went for some breakfast, something better than PB&J.

Oh no! An Other!

Back in the marketplace, I went to Lowells for a bagel and cream cheese.  They spread the cream cheese on thick!  The best!  I didn’t buy any coffee since I just had some. ha!

When I left Lowells, I passed by this chocolate stand with a cute girl selling the chocolates.

After purchasing some trail mix and chocolates and chatting with her, I went to look for Pioneer Square.  Being coffee free for about 10 minutes, I stopped at a Seattle’s Best Coffee.  It was mighty good!  Too bad the east coast doesn’t have a Seattle’s Best!

Mmmm… I love Seattle’s Best Peppermint Mocha!  It is much better than Starbucks!  Really!

I walked my way to Pioneer Square and was a little disappointed.  It was really a bunch of shops, snapped some shots and headed back to my car.  I had a bit of a drive to get to Bellevue, where my hotel for the week will be, and my check in time was approaching.

On my way back to my car, I passed by the Art museum in Seattle which I thought I would want to check out later.   Made some mental notes to what I want to see in Seattle when I come back into the city.

I drove to Bellevue and saw Bellevue square which diverted my attention from checking in.  It was a huge mall!  Ridiculously huge!  While walking around, I bought a t shirt for Vincent and had an interesting curry wrap for lunch.  mmmm!

Outside of the mall was a little park, which was pretty neat!  It was also near ArenaNet’s office.

those are huge leaves..

Heading back to the car, I went to Bellevue’s Botanical Garden to check out some of the gardens and see them set up the christmas decorations for the pending holiday season.  It was nice!

Yeah. Huge!

After I finished checking the gardens out, I went to the Best Buy to buy Snow Patrol’s album on CD so I could listen to it in the car.  I like the album.  Just as much as I like Eye’s Open, their previous album.  I thought the new album had a more positive and fun theme to it compared to eyes open.

It was time to get to the hotel.  I checked into the hotel and dropped off my gear.  Ahhhhh!  A hotel room all to myself!  And free internet!  Sweet!

I had to check out what vegetarian restaurants around my hotel for dinner and further research in places to see.  Tomorrow I am definitely going to drive to Olympia State Park, drive and going by ferry of course, and then the next day will be checking out alki beach and University of Washington, and then Mt. Ranier, then check out Seattle’s public library and other areas in Seattle, then up to Vancouver to visit Meems and Maires.

By the time I finished plotting this out and chatting with meems, dan, maires, and bob on IRC it was getting time for dinner.  There was this Vietnamese restaurant that caught my eye, it had good ratings on happy cow, so I guess I will start off with that place.

The portions were huge!  I had my usual vegetarian sweet and sour dish.  And it was pretty good!  I really should have taken some photos of it, but I ate it before I could think about it.

After eating, I realized that it was getting late so I went back to my hotel room to go to bed. I have a long drive tomorrow to get to Olympia National Park.