Saturday, September 19, 2009
Vancouver Bound
TOP: The beautiful North Vancouver skyline from downtown Vancouver 2nd: Totems come in many shapes and sizes. This one reads "large man look better, swim faster than wimpy birdlike creature
3rd: Laraine drunk, again...WHAT a lush!
4th: The early arrival crew; Lumpy, Kathy, Laraine, Tom
x
We arrived into Vancouver after a road trip to Phoenix thanks to USscare. Because, OBVIOUSLY that's the most direct route to fly from Rochester to Vancouver...via Arizona. So, there goes one more day of my life lost.
x
In all our north america travels, Kathy and I had never yet gotten to Vancouver, but it was high on our list. We had heard that it was a beautiful city, and we had gotten as close as Penticton for the Ironman years back. We rendezvous'd with Laraine and Tom at the airport, where we were informed that Laraine had purchased extra leg room on the plane. Now, this is massively comical, as she's about 5 foot tall with her heels on....wearing a big hat....and standing on a ladder. x
We awoke Tuesday morning and started our Vancouver walkabout. First stop was the Yeoman mall, named after the basketball player. It was the heart of "old chinatown" in Richmond (a major Vancouver suburb), and an interesting area. Finally, a place where Laraine felt sizewise at home. I felt like a giant, and I can only imagine what the real Yao-Man must feel like when he walks around with his countryman. They had an exhibit for the TerraCotta warriors from China, and they were really cool (some pix in next post), displayed surrounding a large, intricate sand sculpture. Laraine checked out a chinese dress, but struggled with the size -7. I swear that the waistline was about the size of my calf. Who has a waist like that????
x
We left Richmond Chinatown and went to grab the bus to downtown Vancouver. Well, THAT was a project! The city is undergoing major pre-Olympics construction, and everthing transit-wise is discombobulated. We walked to the overhead light rail, only to find out that it wasn't opening until the following monday. So we walked to the bus stop, only to find out that the bus was detoured because the light rail would take over that street's transit. So we walked to another bus stop, only to find out that this was the "asians only loading zone". Ok, I'm kidding on that one, just checking to see if you were still reading. We took the bus downtown, jumped off, and started walking about the CBD.
x
Vancouver was far larger than I had expected, but it was a very pretty city. Rimmed on the north by a sound and mountains, on the west by the ocean, and on the east by the pathway to the rockies, you had magnificent vistas from almost every vantage point. It has a beautiful suspension bridge connecting Vancouver City with North Vancouver, a massive oceanside park with totems, a zoo, bike trails, and more, and the downtown is very pedestrian. Basically, everything that repbulicans hate...animals, open spaces, and walkers :-)
x
We hung out at the Lennox Pub, and that's where Laraine's drinking problem first started to surface. By the end of lunch she was not one, but TWO sea-breezes to the wind, and I thought we were going to have to carry her around town. WHAT a lush! The food was excellent, as was the service, and we spent several hours there I think. We finally had to pull Laraine away from the vodka dispenser, as she was doing shots with the barkeep.
x
We were to pickup the rental car at the end of the day, and when we got to the location, it turns out that it was the wrong location, we were 10 miles away, and that location had no cars left. I have to mention here that the folks at Enterprise were awesome. They actually put us all in one of their own cars and drove us to the other location to make sure that we were all set, and then refused to even take a tip! What freakin'A canadian service. I LOVE these guys!
x
We loaded up the GPS for our evening travels, and that's when we realized that the GPS did not have alaska or canada maps on it, only the lower 48. OK, that could be a problem (but thankfully turned out not to be, as vancouver was very easy to navigate, and alaska only had 4 roads).
x
x
We were exhausted by the end of the day, but not too exhausted to grab a 50th BIRTHDAY DINNER for Kathy, complete with enough candles to torch the city.
x
Day one a success....on to Victoria tomorrow.
x
"Mounty" Lumpy out
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Alaska Bound
The next dozen or so posts will be my blog on our Vancouver & Alaska trip. To set the stage, there were 10 of us on various portions of the trip, Kathy and me, Tom and Laraine Gallagher, Scott and Jan Kozlowski, and the 4 Heidicks (laraine's brother and his family). The trip gets underway in Vancouver BC...enjoy...
It's All About The Pie....
My old buddy Bob was in town last weekend, and after he left he headed up to the Adirondacks for some hiking.
x
Imagine my surprise when a NOONMARK PIE showed up at my door a couple of days later!!!! Of course, that took me nearly a whole evening to polish off, but I sure did it justice.
x
Wonder why I have a weight problem???
x
"Sho-fly pie" Lumpy out
Monday, August 10, 2009
Birthday incoming!
TOP: Birthday Kathy getting served her "turkey platter of stuffed fish"
2nd: The fire marshall made the restaurant keep the candles down to a manageable level. They were scared that 50 would cause an inferno
3rd: She's Irish, so OF COURSE she's got a drinking problem
BOTTOM: Peter's lasagna. He was the only one to finish his entire meal...oh, and 2 pieces of cake to follow. Impressive achievement.
x
We celebrated kathy's 50th bday at fratelli's on saturday, one of our favorite local italian haunts. Fratelli's is famous for portions the size of sicily itself, and they didn't fail to disappoint. It took us hours to eat, and everyone (sans Peter) took home enough food for 1-2 more meals. Of course, that didn't stop anyone from digging into massive size pieces of laraine's world famous chocolate cake, which I swear she put extra sugar in this time. I was in a coma riding home!
x
All in all, a great evening out, Kathy is sooooo happy that this milestone is behind her and she's now AARP eligible!
"I'm now married to a senior citizen" Lumpy out
Buoy or Girl?
TOP: No, it's not an AARP town hall meeting, it's the swimmers
2nd: At least the kayakers were young! Swimmers had nobody with more than a 1 pack...albeit we had probably drank FAR more 6-packs than the youngsters
3rd: Robb has a problem with peeing in the water, so he used the buoy
BOTTOM: Swimmer approaching the turnaround. Judging by the glare off the head, it's probably Dave :-)
x
I competed in a 2.3 mile open water swim last weekend out in Lake Ontario. It was the first of what hopefully be an annual event, hosted by the Klafen family, his neighbors at Wautoma Beach, Braddock Bay Paddlesports (which dave owns), and apparently, the AARP. The swim was 2.3 miles, from shore out around a major buoy, and then back.
x
The water temp was perfect, virtually no waves of substance (a FAR cry from the Canandaigua tsunami-fest a couple of weeks back!), and they had little chocolate donuts for the competitors. Which, frankly is all that's needed to get me to do anything. We started out with a gunshot, as one of the swimmers was thankfully euthanized. George Burns would have been the kid in this crew. But, fierce competitors we all were, especially Dave looking for his revenge after getting beat by Gary, Carl, and I think even Queen Elizabeth at Canandaigua. But in his defense, he did get spooked by the little fishes there.
x
We were all pretty close at the turnaround buoy, when Robb (the youngest amongst us, who should still have a working bladder) decided that he needed to climb up on the buoy to take a pee...in his wetsuit. Why, we'll never know, but let's just say that it's impressive the way those suits channel fluids.
x
The race back was a humdinger, with yours truly taking the win; mainly because dave had to stop to take his meds, and carl's chest hair kept getting caught up in the seaweed. They actually had to cut him loose at one point. I can't say enough good about the kayakers either, as they were vigilant, powerful, and several had treats onboard.
x
All in all, kudos go out to the klafen's for orchestrating, here's to making it an annual event, and hey, if nothing else, just have us all out annually for those donuts!
x
now known as the "open water michael phelps" Lumpy out
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)