aloha!

Aloha! A special post today after just getting back from some nice fun in the sun. We had a great family vacation in Waikiki last week, and my body is already having vitamin D withdrawal (yes, it is currently raining here in Vancouver….boo hiss). It was our first time in Hawaii, so needless to say, there was a lot of beach time to be had as well as the usual tourist must-dos (luau, scenic drives, and lots and lots of eating out). Now it is recovery mode… traveling with two tikes is way tiring. I think I should have booked a vacation for after my vacation. ;)

what a zoo

“What did you see on your trip to the zoo, Jasper?” asked grandma. Jasper's response: “Giraffes... and a monkey with a purple bum.”

On our latest trip to Portland, we ventured to the Oregon Zoo. So fun! Highlights for us included the lions, tigers, giraffes, orangutan (it was huuuuge!!!), sun bear and baby elephant... oh yes and of course the monkey with the purple bum (sorry for the lack of picture, you will just need to imagine). It was really cold that day, but I think we all enjoyed the animal adventures. :)

PDX breakfast and coffee

It's already been a week since our trip to Oregon, and I am missing it already. Some more pics to share with you today. The top one is one of my faves... Jasper patiently waiting for breakfast at the Doug Fir Lounge.   And of course you can't travel to Portland without having some amazing coffee stops... the bottom two are from Coava Coffee. As you can tell by the empty cup, it was really yummy.

i see the sign

I am such a sucker for old signage... maybe because old signs are harder to find here in Vancouver (hmmm... or maybe I am watching too much American Pickers on TV). I find myself snapping way too many pics of old signs (and street art) when we travel. We were in lovely Portland (one of my favourite cities!) this past long weekend, and that has ended up being the majority of our travel photos. Now if I can just find a cool old sign that would fit in our condo...

island time

This past weekend we ventured to Salt Spring Island for some summer rest and relaxation... well as much relaxation one can have with a 2 year old, anyways. We rented a little cabin in the woods and explored the tidal pools and shores... yes, that is a little purple starfish you see there in the second photo. Oh, I am wishing I was still on island time now... so hard to get back into the work week!

beachcombing

Last week we took a family trip up to Tofino, BC's surf town. No surfing for us (alas, we will have to wait until Jasper is a little older)... but we still had some good times with nice long beach walks, puddle splashing, wave watching, and lots of eating. (*note to go to the local taco truck, Tacofino, if you visit there... so good!). Here are some pics from our trip. :)

whistler weekend

Some trip photos to share today! Roger surprised me with a fun trip to Whistler for the weekend to celebrate our 4th year wedding anniversary! We packed up the wee one (yes, we took him along too... his first Whistler trip!). Instead of posting pics of the village and us wining, dining and shopping, here are some pics of the Olympic sites (minus the snow, of course) that we thought was kind of neat to see. The ski jumps in the last photo seriously made me want to pee my pants!

sleeping wolves and broken trams

Yesterday, Roger and I decided to head to Grouse Mountain to enjoy the skyride and take in the views of the city. The plan was well intended, except when we got there, we were told that the main tram had broken down and there was at least a two hour line-up to get on once it was fixed... the second tram was only shuttling visitors down the mountain and not up.....Argh! Ok... Plan B. There is a wolf sanctuary area there that houses three wolves... so we naturally thought, let's go there. Alas, when we got there, the furry guys had just been fed, so now were all taking their naps.... we had some wonderful view of lumps of white fur off in the distance.... sigh. We'll have to reschedule this trip when everything will be more eventful.

to toronto and back

Last Thursday, we flew half way across the country to Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario... my sister was getting her masters degree in physiotherapy, so we made the trek to watch her take her walk during the ceremonies. Anyhoo, some pics to share... although not many, since sadly our little camera experienced a bit of a tumble off of the tripod on our first night there. Managed to get a similar camera, once in Toronto, so there are a few pics...

Here is the shot of the CN Tower... we didn't get a chance to make it up this time, so that will have to wait until another trip.
We stayed in the Queen Street West neighborhood, which is the art and design area of the city... lots of cool little shops, restaurants and bars. While I was in the hotel room one night, Roger went to the corner store down the street to grab a snack. He came back to tell me saw George Stroumboulopoulos (from CBC's The Hour... one of my fave shows) standing in line in front of a bar.. and by the time he passed by on the way back, George was gone. Argh! I missed him! (I will meet you one day, George!)
This is a shot of downtown near the corner of Yonge and Dundas... lots of people, hustle and bustle, and bright lights. Oooooh... Ahhhhh....
Again, same corner, but thought I would throw this in to add some holiday spirit.
We stayed at the Gladstone Hotel, which was super cute... each room has a different artist-designed room. Ours was called E-Le-Men-Tal... these pics are from their website, since they are better than the ones we took. Wish out trip wasn't so short, and I wish I had some more pics to share... but perhaps all the good reason to visit again!

tofino time

As promised, some pics of Tofino today from our trip this past weekend... see, Canada isn't just the great white north after all... we do have sun, sand and surf here on the west coast... heehee.

We went for some lovely walks on the sandy beaches (wow, that sounds like a personals' ad cliché).
There was a mystery structure/sculpture someone had built on the beach... no entry way into it though. Hmmm... maybe it's a giant game of Jenga?
There were quite a lot of people surfing that day... unfortunately, not including us (so, yes, that is a stranger in the photo). We are still trying to get stronger at swimming before attempting to surf... but I have put it on my list as one of the things I want to learn.
Here is the view of the Pacific Ocean with crashing waves and all... apparently the waves get larger as winter gets near, which makes for some good storm watching... but that will have to be a future trip. Will post another batch of photos soon!

ps. stay tuned for my September giveaway this coming Monday!

island bound

This past weekend, we ventured on a family trip to Vancouver Island (Tofino to be exact)... took a lot of pics, so I will post them in batches over the next few days. Sit back, relax, and enjoy...
This is the view from the ferry deck.... there were a lot of Poseidon Adventure and Titanic jokes from all the family, while we were enjoying the ride... I'm positive we got the stink eye from some people around us.
From the ferry, it is about a 4 hour drive to Tofino, so we stopped on the way in Coombs, a small little town with cute, and some odd, shops. So if you are in the market for giant cement lawn sculptures, you might want to stop here.
This one was my favorite... I don't think dragging it onto the ferry and then having this on our apartment balcony (the entire balcony) was an option though. So, alas,the psychotic owl family statue had to stay.

Here is a shot of the Coombs Old Country Market, one of the coolest markets ever... you will see why in the next picture.
Ok, so the market is known for their grassy roof that houses goats. Yes, you read right... there are cute little goats that walk around and graze on the grassy roof. There is even a little house for them up there as well.
And here is a close-up shot of one of the little fellas... I think he was looking at the apple tree that was in the distance, either that or he has got the modeling for tourists thing down. Ok, so I haven't posted any pics of Tofino yet... to be continued!

kum ba yah

It's been quite a busy week and I finally had a chance to organize our pics from our weekend camping trip for show and tell. Our camping adventure took us up to Kamloops for two nights at Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park... here are some pics!

This is our little tent... actually it's not too little, since we had a doubles sized air mattress in there with quite a bit of room leftover. And since I am on the short side (five foot one inches to be exact), I can stand up in the tent without hunching over... yay! 
Here is our artery clogging breakfast. We usually eat really healthy when we are at home, but all rules seem to go out the window when we are camping or on road trips. If it is any consolation, we washed this down with fruit juice and home made blueberry muffins.
Here is Lac Le Jeune. (Insert your "oooohs" and "ahhhhhhs" here).
This is a pic of us on the dock by the lake making gansta signs... I think the ducks and geese quite enjoyed it. (And just to clarify, for those who's sarcasm detectors are on low today, we aren't actually in a gang).
Some pretty wildflowers we saw along one of the trails - a pretty pic Roger took. (Yah, my man likes to take pics of pretty flowers sometimes... got a problem with that?)
The sun setting. (Insert more "oooohs" and "ahhhhhhs" here).
And the last pic is at Logan Lake, which was on our drive home. I believe this machine is used for mining... but I just wanted to take a pic with it, since it made me feel like a teeny tiny sprite.

pleasant portland

Here are the short and sweet moments as well as a few fave things we visited over the long weekend in Portland, Oregon. It's one of my fave cities to visit... can't wait to head back!

We stayed at the Ace Hotel, a small boutique hotel smack in the middle of downtown. And yes, that is the shower there that you see in the middle of the room... how steamy! (sorry, couldn't resist that comment). This photo doesn't do it justice, it was a really cute stylish room. 
There I am in front of Albina Press Coffee Shop, where we got our morning fix of Stumptown coffee (the local fave)... I'm on the right waving... the person on the left is just some hipster guy getting his bike, who probably thought I was some crazy lady randomly waving.
Roger is an avid video gamer, so when we heard that there was a big classic arcade called Ground Kontrol, stock full of games and pinball machines from the 80s, we had to make a visit. Even cooler, is that after 5pm, the place turns into a bar, so you can enjoy the games with a nice bottle of beer. I got my ass kicked in every game we played... in my defense though... I was a bit too young to actually play some of these arcade games back in the day. (Roger just gave me a glare, when I made that point... heehee).
One of our fave places to stop when in Portland is Powell's Books... it's like a Chapters and Barnes & Nobles combined and on steroids... but waaaaaaaayyy better and waaaaaay bigger. It's huge and has every book (new and used), you can imagine. Swept up for hours there, we forgot to take pics, so instead I took pics of some of our loot. We scored some nice Edward Gorey books and I bought a copy of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and am loving it so far!
Next stop was Voodoo Doughnut where we indulged in some sweet treats.... Roger got the one with Froot Loops on it (I think we almost went into diabetic shock over this one - it was that sweet) and I got the chocolate and peanut butter glazed doughnut with Rice Crispies... yummy.
And lastly, here is the photo booth pics we took while staying at the Ace. There is a machine in the lobby, so every time we visit Portland we make it a point to get an updated photo.... we forgot to adjust the stool before we put in our money this time, so were trying to guess the right height the photo would be.

oregon bound

This past holiday long weekend we headed down to Portland, Oregon for a road trip... here are some of our pics from our first day, which actually was the drive and stopping in cities along the way. OK, so I guess, technically the Portland pics will be up tomorrow... but nevertheless... some of our interesting pics below.

This is a pic from the car bypassing Seattle on the express way (sorry, Seattle). We've been there quite a few times, so decided to keep on driving in order to have time in some of the other places along the way... Olympia, being one of the short stops. I think were were really focussed on eating in Olympia, so I have no pics of this city... oops.

These fat blubbery guys were one of the highlights of the day. We stopped in Astoria to get some fresh air on the docks and were rewarded with this group of sea lions basking in the sun. We have never seen them in the wild before, so were really excited to see so many just lazying about.
This chubby guy (or girl, not sure) was one of the loudest ones... perhaps it was yelling at us "Wwaaarrrghch!" - translation "Welcome to Oregon!"
Stopped in Seaside to walk on the beach and take in the views of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the area was a bit in its own weather system and it was a bit chilly and cloudy... so we did not get to use our bathing suits. Sorry that you do not get to see slow motion Baywatch-like photos of us running on the beach... maybe next time, haha.

We were trying to decide on where to eat dinner, and side by side (no joke) were three restaurants called "Pig'n Pancake" "Pudgy's" and "Girdle's"... hmmm, with the tubby sea lions still in my head, we decided to wait until our next stop to grab a lighter bite to eat. (Perhaps I am thinking way to much about it, but is it not weird that the mascoton that sign is inviting people to eat him?... he must be a very naive pig indeed, if he thinks he gets to eat the pancakes).

Along the boardwalk of Seaside, there were carnival rides, arcades, as well as tons of candy and souvenir shops. I tried to get into the spirit and eat a piece of saltwater taffy... only to realize, I'm not a fan of taffy... blech. Anyways, after some good times in the arcade and boardwalk, we headed off to find dinner.
Which leads to our last stop before getting to Portland that night... Cannon Beach. Again, it was a bit cloudy and cold, but still super pretty. Ok... can't let this side show scroll on forever, so I will post some of our Portland photos tomorrow!