Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

As the writer of this blog I often also assume that I'm the only reader: an act that feels a little like whistling into a strong wind (except I can't whistle. Arguably I can't write either, but I digress.) So it's a lovely surprise to get nudged by someone when I fall silent for too long. It's nice to know that readers include many friends and family that Scott and I don't see as often as we'd like, but are still never far from our thoughts.

It looks like I have some catching up to do, and I promise to carve out some time in the next few weeks to share with you some of the highlights from the past few months. In the meantime, we hope you've been enjoying the transition from fall to winter, -  although it's perhaps the most irrititating of seasonal changes what with shorter days and colder nights, it also brings anticipation of warm fireside evenings, hearty delicious meals and ski season excitement. Enjoy!

Two new things

Next month, I have a special trip planned with my sister and mom, so it was time to take stock of my travel gear. And it was in a sorry state.

My blue "superluggage" (as Scott would call it) was at least a decade old, and battered and broken from far too much rough-housing. The zipper pulls were gone, the wheels were often stuck and the handles were getting wonky. In fact, on one recent outbound trip I collected my case from the carousel to find the pull-out handle stuck permanently in the 'down' position... super uncomfortable to wheel, and far to heavy to carry. For the return journey, I managed to jimmy the handle into the 'up' position - where it was stuck and had to be checked in 'as-is'. When I picked it up at the Vancouver Airport at the other end of the flight, the handle had been thoughfully unstuck .. and had a couple of new metal springs sticking out the side of the handle. Customized baggage-handler-modifications, perhaps?

But the worst of all was it was heavy. With weight limits for checked baggage being increasingly tight, it seemed like a waste to start out with an empty case that already felt like 10 pounds. A timely sale at the Bay (where luggage is almost always on sale anyway) led me to my new suitcase -  a little smaller, but the lightest model out there! It's also a chic grey with crisp and cheerful yellow highlights - easy to spot on the carousel.

The second item was for something that was only five years old but still due for a replacement... that's right, I needed a new passport. While I'm looking forward to the day that Canada adopts 10-year passports like most reasonable countries, I'm happy to report that the renewal process is significantly easier than the last time I did so, and I can now travel outside of our borders up to August 2016.

  

I'm ready to hit the road again!

Summer living

Getaways to Galiano are a highlight of our summer, not the least for the neighbours. Bill and Karen are nice, but I'm really talking about the otters who live under the logs at the edge of the high tide line. These little guys can most often be spotted at dawn or dusk, headed out for a fishing session. They usually travel in packs and are pretty hilarious to watch. They're shy, but don't let their reticent style fool you... they love to party. In fact, they've been known to throw a bender on the speedboats moored nearby when no one is looking... and leave one stinky mess to clean up. But when they're behaving, they're fun to have around.

looking for lunch

A lot is being said lately about food trucks - a trend across North America which has now reached our fair city. Introduced in Vancouver just a year ago with a change to civic licensing, there's now a food truck or cart on many corners of downtown. Food trucks have become the new source for lunch for many Vancouverites, and many trucks have line-ups 10 deep at peak times.

While I love the concept of food trucks (quick, cheap, delicious? I'm in!) my love of food trucks has been tempered by reality. The drawbacks?

First: messy. Really, really messy. This whole street food concept is new to Vancouver so we don't have much experience with portable food, which means many offers are cumbersome and oversized. Plus, some truck operators are a bit precious with their presentation and ingredients, which doesn't translate well to tightly packaged and easily consumed.

Second: not always so cheap. There's a wide range of prices, I admit, but if I'm paying ten bucks for a sandwich, I'd like a roof and seat, please and thank you. Especially if my meal is going to be messy (see point one).

For an incomplete, unobjective and uneven review of Vancouver's carts, see below. My unscientific choices have been solely based on proximity to my office and my mood, rather than reputation or diversity, so consider the below with a grain of salt... or plenty of other seasoning!!

La Brasserie
A chicken sandwich with gravy and fried onion bits. On the delicious scale, this was near the top, but on the messy scale, pretty close to the bottom. All it took was one little breeze and gravy droplets and onion bits (solids AND liquids!!) were in serious danger of meeting my skirt hem.  I probably used 6 napkins in 5 minutes. But the cart is quick to serve (from it's well-chosen, single-item menu) which keeps the crowd moving, and my order was up almost immediately: an important factor on a short lunchbreak. 



Kaboom Box
A smoked (wild, organic, happy-life) salmon sandwich - nice, solid, all-round eat. My order came up quickly, the sandwich was pretty low on the messy scale (the salmon was more like a pre-barbequed fillet), there was a nice sauce on the bun that wasn't too saucy (read: messy), and the bun was fresh and chewy. Still, I don't wake up dreaming about this sandwich, so I can't say its worth a trip of it's own to seek out.



Tacofino
On the other had, of all food-truck-foods, this is the one that I would most likely wake up dreaming about. A nice, reasonably-priced, soft fish taco with good sauces. Pretty high on the messy scale - very high, some might say (tortilla was overstuffed and drippy) but worth the effort for the deliciousness. A little slow on the service, which might explain the disorganized crowd...



Feastro
Fish taco number two. On the Janice-o-meter, this one didn't fare well. Very messy, pricy, and slow to be delivered. I could overlook all that if the fish taco was amazing, but here's the kicker: refried beans in the fish taco. WHAT? That's right, I said refried beans in the fish taco. I don't like refried beans at the best of times, but I have never, ever, seen (or wanted) any in my fish tacos. Case closed.



Fresh, Local, Wild
Tuna Melt. This one gets points for both portability and low messiness. Also, the friendliest bunch of guys that ever ran a food cart. All good things, cause my sandwich took a while and adding few greens to the sandwich couldn't hurt. Some might say that fresh greens don't belong in a tuna melt, but if you're already using (wild, happy-life) premium albacore, cooked rare, why stop there? In fairness, they did offer a caesar salad as a side, but that would have significantly changed the portability, messiness and price factors.


So, that's my roundup... so far, at least: when I find the ultimate dream-about-and-worth-the-trip-food-truck-food, I'll let you know!

Treats from the Street

One of my favourite summer treats in our neighbourhood is a mango lassi from East is East, an Indian restaurant nearby. They have a take-out window where you can order up all kinds of treats - but I admit, I've rarely strayed from my usual. A post-dinner walk through the neighbourhood on a late, light evening, is made perfect when it's topped off by a cool, tangy cup filled with exotic flavours of mango, yogurt, rosewater and cardamom.

Los Angeles

A week or so ago, I had another work trip, this one to Los Angeles. My colleagues and I rented a car to get to and from our meeting appointments, and over four days we logged 220 miles. That might not sound like much by comparable roadtrip vacation standards, but all of these 220 miles were travelled within the metro Los Angeles area. In my book, that's a lot of city driving. LA's reputation for really bad traffic is honestly earned.

The day of our departure coincidentally coincided with the start of 'Carmageddon,' when 20 miles of the 405 freeway - a major north-south artery - was due to close for 48 hours. The resulting domino effect was expected to bring the city to a possible standstill. The event has come and gone and from what I understand, the city is still standing, but one thing I learned is no one does hype like the Angelenos do.



One evening we headed to the Hollywood Hills for a light hike through Runyon Canyon. From the summit we could see all of Los Angeles spread out below us: from downtown, through Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and out to Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean. Far from our traffic woes, with soft evening light filtering through the hazy air, the sun warming our backs and fit and flawless actor-slash-waiters passing by us, the city seemed picture-perfect.

We found many picture-perfect moments during our visit - at our hotel's rooftop pool, at a charming outdoor cafe near Silver Lake, at the beach with crashing surf at Santa Monica, or winding along Mulholland Dr. (like I said, 220 miles). For as much as LA is maligned for bad transportation, poser people and overpriced everything (all true) it's still an endlessly fascinating city with diverse and engaged communities, a beautiful environment, and great people watching (and I mean really great). And the weather ain't bad, either. I'll be back.

The Emerald Isle

Last week I was at a conference in Dublin, a special treat.

While I agree with the common belief that Dublin is nice and the people are friendly, I admit --- I struggled to understand language. For example, when the bellhop asked me, "Are you finished with that," I understood through his brogue that he was asking, "Are you friends with that." We were talking about a rental car at the time: the resulting conversation was pretty entertaining.

This conversation happened at the end of the trip after a free day I spent with colleagues. After a few days of work in Dublin we were ready to break away from the urban scene, so we pooled together on a car rental and headed for the hills.

With a manual drive and right-side steering, no one was really rushing to be behind the wheel, so for better or worse I elected to drive. That made the day a little more mentally stimulating than I had in mind, but my colleagues were very understanding when I stalled the engine, ran a little too close to the hedges, or swore a blue streak. More than once.

We had lovely weather - a mix of sun and cloud. An "Irish heat wave" as one local called it, with temperatures in the mid-twenties... enough to give me a light and unexpected sunburn.

We stopped at the beautiful Powerscourt Gardens for a wander:

The rose gardens were in full bloom - a garden so beautiful that it made even me want to drop everything and become a gardener:

Then it was up and over the Wicklow Mountains for rugged and expansive views:

Of course, enjoyment of Ireland wasn't only visual. A stop earlier in the week at the Jameson Distillery in Dublin warranted a sampling of whiskey:

We had to find some way to recover from all the Jameson and Guinness: a few brave souls, plus me, joined Sightjogging Dublin for early morning runs around town. On two mornings during the conference, we ran through many of the areas around central Dublin on Sightjogging's City Highlights and Waterside tours. Thank God for jet lag - it's way easier to get up at the crack of dawn if you're body is already confused and angry with you to start with.

I left Ireland with still plenty to explore. And if I take a few language lessons, I'm sure my next visit will be better still.