Oregon - Day 1

We set out early Saturday morning about 2:30am. No waits at the border. Hardly any cars on the highway. And luckily, the rain hasn't quite started. It was pretty much smooth sailing. I didn't sleep at all till 2:30am. I was pretty wired.

Now, I felt like I was travelling first class. Bottled water was already set in my cup holder. Comfy leather seats. Snacks all prepared for me. And even a screen to watch DVDs. Allie popped in Enchanted, which I've watched a million times but still love watching it. The sound system was like the theatres. But even with all that stimulation, I was soon drifting into sleep. It was soon 4am. The rest of the ride was a blur.

We ended up at a fake Denny's in Portland for breakfast. Fake because there was a sign at the cash register stating that they are an independently running business. Which explains the non-American (not even Canadian Denny size) portions. They were pretty tiny. But, a little is enough for us anyway.

Then, off to the Oregon Coast we went.

We started off at Seaside. It was W-I-N-D-Y. People were looking up wind speed on their iphones. It turned out to be one of the windiest days of the month. Maxing at 93 km/hour. Store owners came out to put away their signs. Our hair was being whipped around once we stepped out of the car. Talk about getting some fresh air after a long car ride! We checked out some antique shops, bought some of their famous salt water taffy's, and walked down to the beach.

Of course, it was my brilliant idea to walk on the beach. We're here... we must go on the beach! Standing at the platform above the beach, you could already see the sand being thrown all over the place by the windstorm. But, down we went. I have to say.... it was quite the experience! The beach sand was wet from the previous rain, but the wind was bringing in all this dry sand from elsewhere... which created a light coloured sand cloud whooshing over the darker, wet beach. I'd have to post a video. Because the sight was amazing. Beautiful. I could have stood there all day watching the sand clouds whoosh by... but standing in the middle of it meant getting sand in my hair, my clothes, my ears, my nose, my eyes...

Allie and I were busting out laughing because the wind was so strong that it literally blew us off our feet and you could see the seagulls having troubles in flight and landing. All that laughing left our mouths filled with that sandy crunchiness. Once we got off the beach, we brushed ourselves off and poured out a fair amount of sand from our shoes.

Second stop, a talked-about view point for a fantastic view of the beach and the Haystack Rock. We parked our car at a parking lot and hiked down to the view point. The wind was worse. But we figured, at least there wasn't any sand. It was higher up. You could see everyone else leaving their cars at the parking lot and having trouble walking down. The wind was pushing them a few steps back each time. We stayed in the car for a while just watching other people walk. It was hilarious. What was more funny was the two men parked right next to us. They had opened their trunk to get something and was having the hardest time trying to close it. Two medium built men. Pushing down on their trunk door at the same time. To no avail. We could have gotten out to help... but we were too consumed in our laughter.

We did eventually venture out and tried to make our way down to the view point. Unfortunately, Gurm and I couldn't make it down. Because instead of sand... there were rocks. We were getting pelted and it hurt. Allie braved it all and made her way down... shouting from below, "It's really pretty! The view is beautiful!". Well, I could only imagine. I don't want a rock in my eye. The wind picked me off my feet on the walk back to the car. I nearly rammed myself into a pole. But all the while, Allie and I laughed hysterically. Like children. Because it was so. much. fun. Who needs Hawaiian sunshine? Oregon windstorms are just as memorable. Haha.

We made our way to Cannon Beach. We ate at a cozy tavern (there are a lot of taverns there!). Much needed food. (Not knowing that the weekend would turn into a string of food comas). I had the seafood stew. I was craving something warm. It was packed with the goodies - shrimp, fish... all in a yummy tomato broth. Mmm Mmm. So good. Allie had a black bean burrito. And Gurm a burger. Shared beers. We were totally satisfied. It was one of the best meals of the trip.

By the time we were done. It began to rain. No, correction. It poured. It really really poured. It was a bit miserable, but I was quite content just being outside. Being smarter this time, we only looked at the beach and the Haystack Rock from afar. Soon after, we decided to head back to town... downtown Portland... and check into our hotel.

We stayed at The Modera. It is an old Holiday Inn revamped into a chic and modern small luxury hotel. The staff and the service was excellent. We checked in around 4-5pm, and took quick showers to wash out all that sand. Once we were all clean and comfortable, we ventured out (back in the pouring rain) to find a good restaurant to eat at. The strange thing about downtown Portland in the winter is that it looks like ghost town. That is, there are a lot of cars parked on the street... but not a single person walking around. Once you enter a restaurant however, it's bustling. Maybe also because it's Valentine's weekend.

By this time, we were starving. And finding a restaurant with available seating was near impossible. We decided to wait an hour at one of the largest restaurants I've seen... quite popular. (Sorry, don't remember the name). After filling up on clams and bbq chicken, we went to visit the world's largest independent bookstore - Powell Book Store. Frankly, the outside looked dumpy. But upon stepping in, and seeing all the brand new and old books stacked up to the ceiling in endless rows of bookshelves... I was in heaven.

I could have spent a LOT of time in there but we went near closing time. Probably a good thing for me because I still managed to pick up three books. Allie wanted to check out the travel section (which was as big as probably a size of a starbucks coffee shop), and we spotted some really ancient travel books. That's what I love about this place. It as the old and the new, the common and the queer.. it has everything. These ancient travel books dated back to the 1870's! $90 a pop. Pretty cool.

We were done after that. Exhausted. We went back to the hotel. Planned our next day. Gurm droned himself to sleep with the TV. Allie researched things to do on the ipad. And I started to read one of the books I bought.

Then... lights out.

Oregon Bound

May we all enjoy the same grey and rainy west coast over the weekend. Celebrate the anniversary of the Olympics for me.

Leaving for Oregon in a couple of hours. Adios!

G-Men Ramen

Ming took me to a ramen joint in Richmond tonight. I already liked it when we drove up to it because ... there's so many parking spots! Free is good too. (The only ramen places I know are in downtown where parking spots are limited). G-Men is its name. And it's located in the Continental Plaza. (Yes, you can run next door for some Pearl Castle bubbletea afterwards).

I loved the decor. Because there simply wasn't much. Much like any other ramen joints, there was a curtain at the door and special items posted on the wall. We sat on tall stools ( I guess for Ming, not-so-tall stools) at the bar table. (There isn't a bar but that's the best I could describe it). It brought me back to the ramen place I visited in Tokyo. It was just like that. We sat at a long bench. All the chopsticks and spoons were in a bucket on the table and we poured our own water.

strange decorations.

I ordered the Tonkatsu Miso Ramen. I added one of their options of butter and corn. Because well, I love corn. It didn't take too long before our food arrived.  It had a lot of toppings - the bbq pork, green onions, wood ear mushrooms, and seaweed. Oh, and the butter and corn. I had to fish out the block of butter. Shum would probably scream if she read this as she loves to order double butter.

Ming's Tonkatsu Shoyu Ramen. Didn't take a picture of mine but it looks the same.

I loved the soup. Y'see, I don't know if I'd go back to Kintaro a second time even though my friends continue to rave about its flavour and authenticity because I find Kintaro's soup too oily. I could also see the pieces of fat from the meat floating in it. I instantly lost my appetite a little. So, no matter how I noticed that the Japanese people hung out there at Kintaro and I could see the authenticity with the big pots of broth stewing (as well as smelling it in my clothes afterwards), I couldn't see the appeal that everyone else saw. Needless to say, I haven't been back a second time.

But, at G-Men, the soup was just perfect. This also comes with a comparison with Menya. I preferred Menya over Kintaro simply because the soup was not as fatty. However, I could also see why people have said that Menya's soup doesn't quite measure up. The flavours aren't quite there. Well, G-Men has it all. No floating fat in my soup and it was perfectly rich and creamy.

I also really enjoyed the pork. And that actually says a lot. I'm not a big fan of pork. Good pork to me is hard to come by. I'm quite picky even with Chinese bbq pork. I almost never order pork chops (except for the chinese style baked ones) because they're generally too dry. And like Kintaro, there was a lot of fat hanging off of their pieces of pork. Or, sometimes I find pork to be under or over seasoned. Anyway, I'm not picky in that I'd complain about pork to death... I simply just rarely eat it. But, surprisingly the pork was really good at G-Men.

It looked so good (and I was hungry after work) ... I could wait to dig in when the steaming bowl of goodness was set infront of me. I was so into eating it, I barely took any photos. In fact, I forgot totally until Ming reminded me while I already had chopsticks and spoon in hand, "Don't you want to take a picture?". Oh. Right.

And even at that... I don't have good ones. I wanted to eat!

Another thing... I didn't understand it at first, but I was given a porous spoon. I was thinking, what am I suppose to do with this ... I plan on enjoying the soup. But later, I realized it was to help fish out my corn and other goodness without taking in only spoonfuls of soup. Clever!

It was mmm mmm good. I was stuffed. Ming wanted bbt but of course we couldn't go next door to Pearl Castle. He was craving Dragonballz. I'm not sure I know anyone else would who drive across town just to get their bbt when it could have been so readily accessible. But I guess, hey, when you gotta satisfy a craving, you gotta satisfy a craving. (Okay, I only wrote that last bit 'cause I know he reads this. Ha ha. )

Active

I'll be honest. I haven't been going to yoga class. With my favorite workout classes on Monday and Wednesday nights, I've been missing them all the past couple of weeks. I've been scheduled to work night shifts those days. I cancelled my requests to get Mondays off early because I find working early shifts at the beginning of the week meant I was mostly doing closing shifts at the end of the week. Night shifts most Fridays and Saturdays? Ehh... no thanks. But I figured I'd get some early shifts that land on kundalini yoga days. Oh well.

What I have been doing is playing this EA game called Active. (Hey, bro got it for free at work and is doing it everyday... so why not). At first, I thought it was pretty easy peasy. Half an hour workouts that include the warm-up and the cool down?? Compared to kundalini classes that are and and a half hour long, it really seemed like nothing. But surprisingly, a lot of stuff they do in Active is very similiar to things we do in yoga. As the game goes on from day to day though, it's getting more tough. The heartbeat's up and the sweat comes trickling down my forehead. I was a bit skeptical with this whole exercising video game thing, but it's actually pretty good. It helps chart your weight, heart rate as you go, and your movements. It records how long you've been working out and shows which part of the body you've been working on (allowing you to cycle through every different muslces in your body). Nothing about it is super accurate, but who cares? As long as you're moving and going and off the couch, then it's all good. It also allows you to make up your own workout if you don't feel like following their program. It plays beaty music during the workout and relaxing music during your cool down, and your instructor is teaching from some tropical place. Anyway,  my dad also went out and bought some fitness game for the Kinect too. Who needs to leave the house now? Hah...

There is one thing that is the same between my yoga class and Active. While everyone is sticky and wet, my instructors don't seem to break a sweat.

Sunset

I love the longer days. I got to see a peak of sun on my drive home from work. Cannot wait for the days to get even longer.

All Gone

That was some really good raspberry jam that I picked up from the One Of A Kind Show at the Convention Centre last December. It better be good jam... it was more expensive than Bonne Maman!  Good jam on toast makes for a good morning. This jar is done. All gone. The sad part is... it's only available from Ontario. From Henderson Farms.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra - Concert #1

For Christmas, my cousin got me a Symphony Sampler from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra that consists of four concerts that we can choose from a list of concerts. Tonight, we went to our first pick.

One thing that I'm super grateful for with my parents putting me through all those classes that I went through as a kid is piano. I loved it (even though I never practiced it). I took lessons every week for a good 17 years before I had to call it quits (moved away from my piano teacher of 17 years and couldn't fathom finding a replacement).  I didn't know it then, but the theory classes that went along with piano lessons have taught me to really appreciate music so much more. It's not just about the skill of playing or the ability of reading music, but to really understand the life and style of composers and learn about the different music eras has really made me love music that much more. So, of course, I was over the moon with these tickets to the VSO!

I'm also lucky to have someone who enjoys it just as much as I do (if not more). My cousin and I have the same taste in music and I think enjoy it equally as much... which makes her a great partner to attend all these concerts and shows.

The beautiful Orpheum



Nareh Arghamanyan, the pianist, was AMAZING. She left my cousin and I both awestruck. We kept exchanging looks with each other... is she for real?! . Her fingers flew across the piano keys so effortlessly. And if you've also done music theory, you'd know that Liszt wrote difficult pieces. If only I could play like that! The orchestra was phenomenal. Our seats gave us a good view of each component. The volinist, the celloist, the drummer, the conductor... oh the conductor! He was so energetic and animated. Just watching him was entertaining enough. Ahh,  the classicals... I love it.  Brought me back to my childhood.

I looked around and commented to my cousin that more than half the audience has white hair. I didnt' feel out of place at all.  Music always makes me feel right at home. If this is what I get to look forward to when my hair turns all white, I think I'd be pretty content.



Dressed up in nylons and a winter twead skirt